Social enterprise / benefit corporation

I attended on Thursday a “Summit Forum on Taiwan’s Social Entrerprise Outlook” (台灣社會企業願景高峰論壇).

There are many people interested in this issue or I assume many people are interested in setting up a social enterprise or benifit corporation. Participants, including a legislator, basically all agreed at a legislative approach to encourage and solve obstacles when setting up and running social enterprises.

What do you think the outlook will be? Are you interested or have you ever thought about setting up a social enterprise here? I know many of you are cause activists such as environmentalists, pet rescuers, etc.; maybe it’s an approach to solve those social problems.

Wikipedia definition: A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being, rather than maximising profits for external shareholders. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit, and may take the form of a co-operative, mutual organization, a disregarded entity, a social business, or a charity organization. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise

I’m kind of interested in it, I’ve long been interested in the co-operative type model, how it allows members and workers to be shareholders.

There are a few large social enterprises in Taiwan, for instance the ‘housewives co-op’ (or whatever it’s called) that seems to have packaging and sales outlets nationwide and which works with farmers directly.
I think there are many aboriginal run social enterprises also.

Nice of you. I was just starting wondering why people have to go out of their own countries and solve social problems in others lol. But well, all social problems in all societies won’t be much different. If you make it in Taiwan, you can of course make it in your own country. It’s just because in Taiwan it’s not difficult to raise money for setting up a social enterprise, so make it successful, and copy and paste the model to your own country.

So HeadhonchoII, is there any specific social business model on your mind you would like to run?

Just a quick observation: I found there are more young girls more interested in this issue. :unamused:

Sometimes it’s easier to observe other cultures more objectively, so you might have solutions the locals haven’t thought of. It would be interesting (for example) to see what Taiwanese people make of the UK’s high crime rate. The downside is that most people resent “foreign interference”, but since social enterprises are … well, enterprises, they tend to be more successful. People can either pay for what they’re offering (if they like it), or not. Nobody’s being forced to do anything.

Not all. Most countries’ problems are quite unique, although they might well have historical precedents in other countries - and that’s where foreigners (who have, perhaps, seen it all before) can make a valid contribution. Copy-and-paste doesn’t work with most technologies, so I doubt it would work with social ones.

Me personally, I’m looking at going into organic farming with vertically-integrated retailing and prepared food, which (if all goes well!) ought to improve health, prosperity and employment at the same time as making a shitload of money. I’m not going to do it in Taiwan - much as I’d like to - simply because land prices have been manipulated into the stratosphere. There’s no way to make it profitable.

[quote=“golf”]Nice of you. I was just starting wondering why people have to go out of their own countries and solve social problems in others lol. But well, all social problems in all societies won’t be much different. If you make it in Taiwan, you can of course make it in your own country. It’s just because in Taiwan it’s not difficult to raise money for setting up a social enterprise, so make it successful, and copy and paste the model to your own country.

So HeadhonchoII, is there any specific social business model on your mind you would like to run?

Just a quick observation: I found there are more young girls more interested in this issue. :unamused:[/quote]

Well I think of it more as in giving ownership and financial feedback to people who contribute things and often don’t get what I would think is a just reward. I have some rough ideas

  1. Member owned social websites or discussion forums, he more popular or recommended you are or the more your content is read etc the more you get rewarded for that. Instead of the situation now where this website gives you nothing or Facebook which steals your personal data and pictures and sells the information to 3rd parties.

  2. Writer co-OP. Being a successful writer is a rare thing and its very difficult to predict who will succeed in the future. Why not set up a co-op or group of writers where they Pledge percentage of their future income in return for support now. Publishing rights could be fully or partially owned by the co-OP.

  3. Natural products - I am working on a business now related to this. The problem I find is that in Taiwan everybody has their own little castle or fiefdom and are paranoid of you taking it away from them (I mean the people with some skill or existing product). They mostly only think in traditional ways such as MOQs instead of seeing a long term or broader picture. This is driven by some of the factories also.
    I don’t know how well a social enterprise can fit well with the Chinese mindset. They lie ALL THE TIME. The most common lie is about origin of products. But many people here have no ethics with regards honesty.

Something like ‘fair trade’ in Taiwan. I mean, try explaining that to most people here. They don’t really get it, and to be honest it’s a bit of a woolly concept , I mean if your product is good enough you should be able to get a fair price in a developed country like Taiwan.

As I mentioned already, some aboriginal communities operate successful social enterprises, this seems to fit with their culture more as they simply aren’t as greedy as the Chinese (yes, massive generalisation I know).

I’ve done some research on Taiwan’s labelling laws. Did you know that Taiwan imports 20 tonnes of tea every year and also export tonnes aswell. But it only grow 1.5 tonnes per year. Yet almost all tea sold in Taiwan or exported claims to be made in Taiwan? That’s because Taiwan’s labelling laws state you only need 1% of the tea to be Taiwanese to claim Made in Taiwan. Crazy eg?

The difference between Taiwan origin tea and China/Vietnam origin tea is at least twice the price. This means that local tea farmers are being massively ripped off by tea producers and their allies in government here. A social enterprise tea model in Taiwan could consist of a enterprise that 100% guarantees that it’s tea is made in Taiwan and provides financial assistance to people who would like to start growing tea or expand their tea farms.

Please allow me to just throw out a quick reply because I’ll be very busy recently because I’ve got to prepare for the debut of my new product on MOMO TV shopping channel next week.

I think the “genuineness company” idea can be profitable. Many Taiwanese people need it, too. :bravo:

Talk to you later!

[quote=“finley”]
Me personally, I’m looking at going into organic farming with vertically-integrated retailing and prepared food, which (if all goes well!) ought to improve health, prosperity and employment at the same time as making a shitload of money. I’m not going to do it in Taiwan - much as I’d like to - simply because land prices have been manipulated into the stratosphere. There’s no way to make it profitable.[/quote]
Isn’t this kind of vertical integration fully matured in many countries? Like in Taiwan above mentioned “housewives co-op” and Leezen. What special about it? I think organic produce related markets are not very competitive yet, but it’s already hard for a new player to enter these markets because there are too many big players already in the markets. Or, organic food ONLY from high mountains around the world? :ponder:

The situation in Taiwan is not the same as the situation overseas with regards organic and natural products (and to be honest most products).

In Taiwan you have most retail concentrated in retail chains and franchises. So 7-11, Hi-life, restaurant chains, 85C and Starbucks and McDonalds etc etc. To be frank, it seems most business sectors in Taiwan are controlled by local big business chains and conglomerates.

The same happens with organic retail in Taiwan, it’s controlled by a few big groups like Leezen or Yogi and a few others. Almost no independent organic foodstores or retail outlets. The organic chains are therefore very powerful.

Overseas, while there are big organic foodstores in the US like Whole Foods, there are many more independent organic and health food retailers. They purchase their product through importing agents, distributors or directly from fairtrade companies or organic suppliers etc. Online sales are also a growing area.

[quote=“golf”][quote=“finley”]
Me personally, I’m looking at going into organic farming with vertically-integrated retailing and prepared food, which (if all goes well!) ought to improve health, prosperity and employment at the same time as making a shitload of money. I’m not going to do it in Taiwan - much as I’d like to - simply because land prices have been manipulated into the stratosphere. There’s no way to make it profitable.[/quote]
Isn’t this kind of vertical integration fully matured in many countries? Like in Taiwan above mentioned “housewives co-op” and Leezen. What special about it? I think organic produce related markets are not very competitive yet, but it’s already hard for a new player to enter these markets because there are too many big players already in the markets. Or, organic food ONLY from high mountains around the world? :ponder:[/quote]

What HH said.

There is certainly no vertical integration in the UK. What you have there is a bunch of farmers who are told when to jump, and how high, by half-a-dozen extremely powerful middlemen. In many cases, those middlemen are also retailers (hypermarkets) but more usually they are the same huge international conglomerates that control the rest of the world’s food supply. Profit margins are razor-thin all the way up the chain, virtually zero at the bottom, and quality is correspondingly poor.

But yeah, it’s not really new in terms of the business model. No point reinventing the wheel. It’s been done before … by McDonalds. In countries with poorly-developed agricultural markets, they often contract directly with small local farmers to supply nearby restaurants, with logistics and labour organised by McD’s. What’s special about it is that (a) I think I can repackage all the know-how and tech into a franchise model, so farmers can switch to chemical-free agriculture with minimal risk (b) I want to completely close the loop, so that restaurants match their menus precisely to farm output, rather than having restaurants demand certain things from the farms, and restaurant refuse goes back into a composting process. Without going into boring detail, I think I can optimize the whole thing so that costs are kept extremely low while maintaining top-end food quality. Nobody using the standard model would be able to even get close on price, especially not in the low-income countries I’m thinking of targeting.

Guys, thanks for sharing your valueable ideas. I believe after these recent food safety storms in Taiwan, there will be more necessity of your social business models for approving food safety. I’ll keep them in mind and when I have enough time and money, let’s do something together! ;D