Social entrepreneurship and the mission driven business model

Doctors are confused. One the one hand, they are concerned about the influence of BIG MEDICINE and BIG PROFITS?on the practice of medicine. On the other hand, they are beginning to understand that running a medical practice is a professional service business with all the requirements for generating a reasonable profit to be able to help patients. No longer do pundits refer to "practice environments" Now, concierge medicine, franchising and ACOs are "business models".

Perhaps doctors should?embrace the concept of compassionate capitalism, mission driven organizations and social enterprise.

Compassionate capitalism might help you resolve some of the conflicts between the ethics of medicine and the ethics of business.

A mission-driven business is an organization for which the pursuit of growth and revenue naturally produces mission-related benefits.?

Social entrepreneurs try to make the world a better place and improve the human condition. The UK, the USA and Canada are the best places to do it, but, thanks to networks like the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network, social entrepreneurs, including physician social entrepreneurs. is spreading around the world.

Public health entrepreneurship builds on the momentum generated by social entrepreneurship, which has gained significant traction during the past decade.?The notion that, as an entrepreneur, one can succeed economically and do right by society is compelling. Achieving this double bottom line satisfies many entrepreneurs' desire for self-sufficiency and social impact. Dees' heavily cited definition of social entrepreneurship posits:

Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector by ( 1) adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value); ( 2) recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission; ( 3) engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning; ( 4) acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand; and ( 5) exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.

Mission-driven businesses are a subset of social enterprises, an idea that has been around for about 20 years in academic and non-profit circles, and is now capturing the interest of a more mainstream audience. Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank earned a Nobel Peace Prize last year. The bank, which has distributed almost 7 million micro-loans to poor women in the developing world, has been profitable for 27 of the past 30 years. In other words, profits are a means towards a social improvement end, like closing global health disparities, rather than an end in itself.?

All social enterprises generate funding from the delivery of a product or service in exchange for money. In contrast to traditional non-profit structures dependent on yearly grants, social enterprises attempt to sustain themselves by delivering goods and services and supporting themselves with the revenue.

Another way to practice social entrepreneurship is to serve on a non-profit board. If you do, you should ask these four questions:

Are we succumbing to mission creep?

How is our ‘theory of change’ informing our strategy?

How are we evaluating our impact?

Do we have the right ‘fuel’ to drive our organization?

In addition,modifying the traditional business model canvas for for-profit ventures to suit the needs of mission driven organizations reframes the challenge and helps to focus stakeholders on the primary?mission. Unfortunately, many non-profit hospital corporations have become financialized, designed to take advantage of tax benefits, and have lost their way.

The missions of academic medical centers are teaching, research/development/commercialization, patient care and service to the community. Entrepreneurship informs them and should be part of the organizational DNA.

Whether to create a business model canvas for a medical practice, non-profit venture or other enterprise is not an either/or decision. If you intend to last so you can realize your vision and mission, you need to have a viable model. Not having one is the #1 reason for business failure. Then, what have you accomplished?

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Twitter@SoPEOfficial and Co-editor of Digital Health Entrepreneurship

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