A couple of weeks ago, Dave, one of our resident venture managers, had the pleasure of running a workshop at Festival for the Future with Emma, Matt and Emilie from Empathy.
The topic was ‘Finding Ideas That Matter’. The goal for the session was to help the participants be ready to start something that leaves a dent in the universe…. So, they did this by exploring how to take ideas and interests to uncover related, meaningful problems, and then use all of that information to start designing a social enterprise or charity.
Dave kicked the workshop off with the importance of purpose and having well-stated problems.
Emma then took the group through a set of reflection and discussion exercises. The exercises explored how to develop deeper understanding of others and then use those insights to inform thinking.
Dave wrapped things up with how to use business modelling to turn good ideas into the design of a prospective social enterprise or charity.
While Dave desperately wanted to make the case for the usefulness of business models, he didn’t fancy taking the audience through the whole Social Lean Canvas model that Hikurangi uses with our ventures. There were only a few minutes to pitch why you should care about the design of your business model - so to that end Dave developed a cut down version of the Social Lean Canvas - the Social Really Lean Canvas.
The Social Really Lean Canvas? All the basics, and nothing more. Problem and customers? Bundled. Unique value proposition and channels and solution? Bundled. Unfair advantage? Dropped. For this workshop, social and environmental benefit were changed to impact and dropped into the heart of the model. While the Social Really Lean Canvas doesn’t focus on a lot of the important detail that should be considered in designing a social enterprise, it captures the basics for people who are new to the game.
So, what do you think? Get in touch with admin@hikurangi.org.nz if you’d like to discuss. For context, below we’ve loaded up an edited version of Dave’s slides from the presentation, covering purpose, problems and business models.
David Clearwater is a Venture Manager at Hikurangi Foundation. The Hikurangi Foundation incubates early-stage social enterprise to find scalable solutions to pressing sustainability challenges. It also plays a broader role in the sector, working with partners across government, philanthropy, the business community and potential investors to grow understanding and develop pathways to support social enterprise in New Zealand.
