An insider's perspective

Samuel Ching, at 17 already a long time supporter of Prof. Yunus and the social business concept, attended the first Social Business Forum Asia in Fukuoka from July 22-23 2011. He is student in Raffles Institution, Singapore and the President of the Raffles Entrepreneurs’ Network. He also recently founded a network of high school students advocating for social entrepreneurship.

"We are the pilot of this spaceship called `Earth`. We are not just passengers.” Professor Muhammad Yunus declared on the second day of the inaugural Social Business Forum Asia.
He propounded a message of change, challenging each and every participant there to take up the mantle of supporting the development of social businesses around the world.
More than 100 participants from countries such as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Korea descended on Fukuoka, Japan in this two day forum to generate social business ideas for the disaster-stricken areas in Tohoku region, as result from the devastating March 11th Earthquake. Drawing from the varied experiences of the participants, this forum was
conceptualized as an experiment of sorts –it was the first Social Business Forum in Asia held to tap on participants’ experiences, brainstorm and create social businesses for sustainable disaster relief. If this experiment succeeded, the model could be replicated and scaled up for future disaster scenarios. And looking back on the three memorable days I spent there, I do believe that it has.

Professor Wong Poh Kam, Director of NUS Enterprise, and I represented the Singapore delegation. Carlos Miranda Levy, Social Entrepreneur in Residence at NUS, was also in attendance. The three days spent in Fukuoka were nothing short of meaningful and fruitful.
We managed to meet up with the folks from the Grameen Creative Lab (GCL), our Malaysian counterparts from Yayasan Sejahtera, a foundation established to raise the standards of living of the hardcore poor in Malaysia, amongst people from other NGOs. New ideas were also conceptualized for new programs at GCL@NUS and the worldwide Social Business Day.
There, we also managed to learn from the experience of the keynote speakers, ranging from Mr Tadashi Yanai (CEO of Uniqlo) to Christian Jersale (President of Veolia Water Japan). The  keynote speeches were followed by workshop discussions for the participants. The workshop discussions were broken down into 6 main groups – international collaboration, social business fund, the Grameen Agricultural Corporation Group, Needs & Seeds Group (dealing with ICT technology) and open discussion group. Here, with the exception of the international collaboration group, the rest of the groups had to formulate a concrete business plan that was to be presented in the second day of the Forum.

Yet, the bulk of what I have learnt came from the workshop itself. Our workshop challenge was to create self-sustaining solutions for the survivors of Tohuku – it was real and critical. It was made all the more poignant as some of the participants recalled their experiences during the earthquake itself and the post-disaster relief efforts. For me, it was only after
watching a video compiled by Eden Quayle, one of the volunteers who went down after the disaster to aid in the clearing of the debris, that I really understood the nature of the destruction in Fukushima and the surrounding prefectures. It showed the devastating nature of the tsunami, where cars and houses were swept away by the incoming debris. Yet, it also revealed that the displaced citizens did not lack living necessities. Even though they didn’t lack basic provisions, their lives were still in a state of ruin. Rather, what they lacked was hope and the motivation to carry on with their pre-disaster lives. We had to take all this into consideration during our workshop discussions.

 After the various presentations, there was a Public Symposium with a keynote speech by Prof. Yunus, and a panel discussion with Mr. Sotoo (La Sagrada familia sculptor), Mr. Takimoto and Mr. Verdier (Director of PlaNet Finance Japan). It was from watching these presentations and the two panel discussions where I gained the following learning points with regard to social businesses. Firstly, know the ground. The different workshop groups were all helmed by Japanese participants / those who had been to (or came from) the disaster area. They understood the situation on the ground and could apply their newfound knowledge of social business to the area. They had the opportunity to talk those affected and knew what the conditions were like in the Tohuku region. As such, the solutions created clearly targeted the needs of the survivors.

Secondly, operate on a no loss, no dividend business model. The social businesses that were created all had to be financially sustainable in order to be self-sustainable, without requiring external grant money. They needed to create a value proposition that would allow their businesses to have a profit and something that the people needed, something that would get the buy-in from the market. In order to figure what this need was, one had to fulfil the above step – to know the ground. Only then would there be a sustainable business.
Furthermore, this business could not hand out dividends as all the profits had to be reinvested in the business to help it scale and grow. This was a point of contention during the panel discussion as several people had difficulty accepting the no dividend business model. Nevertheless, Prof. Yunus emphasized the importance of not having dividends so
that the business will remain socially-oriented and investing in itself.

Thirdly, do it with joy. This was stressed time and again by Prof. Yunus as he constantly reminded the participants to work on their business ideas with joy. Without happiness, no one would be able to see an idea through to fruition as the journey along the way may be riddled with obstacles. Only though doing it with joy would the motivation to carry out the social business idea be intrinsic and lasting. This was a commonality throughout the different group presentations as the presenters were all deeply passionate and dedicated to their cause.

Overall, the inaugural SBFA 2011 was an eye-opener and the time was well spent. I’m very grateful to NUS Enterprise for offering me this invaluable learning experience into the world of social business. Having attended the inaugural GCL@NUS Boot Camp in March earlier this year, I was fortunate to understand the basics of social businesses prior to attending this forum. This Forum has allowed me to learn so much more, and gain invaluable experience of which I hope to impart to fellow youths who are also interested in Social Businesses.