Opportunities for Social Enterprise in Finland

Antti Karjalainen, Tiederahoitus

Thought

”Reason is, and ought to be, slave of passions”

David Hume

To recognise, and be serious about, a problem in the society takes passion, to

build a business out of that takes reason

Opportunities for Social Enterprise

• Comes from problems facing the Society

• Health warning: Beware of differences (developing world vs. developed world)

• There are the BIG and KNOWN. Whatabout the wicked and less known (and local)?

Social problems in Finland• Here are the familiar ones: ageing

population, environmental (inc. Climate change), (youth) unemployment, substance abuse, renewal of public services, and financing all these.

• Wicked and less known or local problems: ex. Socio-economic diversity, participation from some ethnic and socio-economic groups, alienation in some geographic areas

How to research Social Problems?

• Look around you and ask yourself: what pisses me off?

• Talk to people• Read books about the Finnish Society• Study, and read newspapers

Few last thoughts

Don’t be too hard your principles: you can run a cafe and still be a social enterprise

All the same basics apply to social enterprise as to any other business

The difference between a charity leader and Social Entrepreneur is that the latter asks: what business model could be applied to solve this problem?

TIEDERAHOITUSEi yhtä ilman toista.