IMBA C62 816012310

Literature Review

Social Entrepreneurship

The combination of determination, innovation and the passion of a social mission coupled with a
business like discipline describes social entrepreneurship (Dees 1998). It is the process of building and
transforming of institutions to eradicate social problem in society such as; poverty, illness, illiteracy,
human rights issues, corruption and environmental hazards. (Bornstein and Davis 2010). The Concept of
Social Entrepreneurship has been on the rise as a global phenomenon in recent years due to the rising
crises rising crises in environment and health and rising economic inequality.

Social Enterprise

According to (Alter 2007) a social enterprise is “any business venture created for a social purpose –
mitigating/reducing a social problem or a market failure – and to generate social value while operating
with the financial discipline, innovation and determination of a private sector business”. The aim is to
specifically benefit communities and society where the material(financial) interest of the investors are
subjected to limits, the autonomy and risk taking as it relates to the socioeconomic activity has a high
value placed on it.

Business Model Canvas

Business Model Canvas allows business model to be simple, relevant and intuitively understandable,
while not oversimplifying the complexities of how enterprises function (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010,
The Canvas provides an overview of the business model and the functions and the necceary inputs that
goes into the customer value creation. It has also been applied and tested around the world and is
already used by organizations such as IBM, Ericsson, Deloitte, the Public Works and Government
Services of Canada, and many others. The Business Model Canvas and the definition of the nine building
blocks are presented below
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Vi-Ability is a social enterprise in the United Kingdom founded in 2009. The organization has not been
assessed using the Business Model Canvas. The current state of the organization was assessed using the
Third-Party Funded Business Model Canvas. This type was selected based on the overview of the
company.

Customer Segment

The target market for the company focusses on the youths and young adults in struggling or depressed
communities, by equipping them with the business and employability skills to transform clubs into viable
business and community hubs. The company also offers consultancies to organizations to solve social
issues affecting them.

Value Propositions

The company aims to provide every depressed community with a thriving and financially stable sports
club, which provides youths with the opportunity to develop their life and employability skills. The
organization prides itself on being;

I. Ambitious
II. Entrepreneurial
III. Flexible
IV. Filled with Integrity

Channels

The company uses the direct communication channel via the online media platform and its physical
location to reach its customer base. The generation of today is known as Generation Z has been largely
associated with the use of the internet and technologies, this allows the use of social media to be
effective. The company also delivers its programs to the different sports clubs in the varying
communities.

Customer Relationships.

The company utilizes both the personal assistance and the community approach to its interaction with
its customer base, the clubs are community based in areas where the youth unemployment is relatively
high and the community has a great appreciation for sports. The company work in small groups of 10 to
15 persons where each person is a part of an 8 weeks training program that ends with the successful
organizing of some sporting events. The initial interaction is initiated by drop-ins, individual one on one
and teaser session.
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Revenue Streams

The company generates revenues via many donor sources; the company is given contracts through the
European Social Fund to conduct several of its ‘Run the Club’ program around the country, the company
also rely on grant funding from various donors who are promoting the eradication of social issues, the
company also engages in consultancy works surrounding the area of sustainable community
development.

Public donation is also accepted by the organization on a monthly basis. The potential donor must
register and submit his or her details and the contribution amount via the company website. The
company also forms strategic partnership with companies who also donate materials or finances to the
organization.

Key Resources

These Resources include the physical sports club in the communities, the youths who are at-risk and also
the training materials and programmes to be delivered to the participants.

Key Activities

Run The Club programme it focuses on teaching youths commercial skills, so they can help to turn
struggling clubs into financial sustainable businesses which has a positive effect on the depressed
communities. The entire process is linked to making a difference through a social action.
Vi-ability has created a programme for the commercialization of football which is approved by the
Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC), it also offers management level qualifications
through the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) to its members as part of their qualification
delivery component.
Consultancies and advisory services are activities done by Vi-Ability to help its subscribers solve social
issues and also help to develop the management capabilities of sports clubs in local communities.
The company also promotes an app Called Football CEO, which allows users to simulate the life of a
CEO of a soccer franchise, the aim is to take responsibility of the operational and commercial functions of
a Team.

Key Partnerships

The Key and strategic stakeholders partnership formed by the Vi-ability team are;

Stakeholders- The Sports Clubs and Communities groups provide the participants for the programs, even
if person are not members of the club at the start of their engagement they are linked to the club
closest to them at the end of the programme.

Corporate Sponsor- These includes companies such as Deloitte, Ashoka Network, Natwest to name a few
all of who contribute towards the sustainability of the company and the delivery of the services provided.
Volunteers- These persons commit their time towards working with the youths and delivering various
aspects of the curriculum or just giving pep talks to a group of participants.
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Cost Structure

The Cost Structure of Vi-ability includes the following areas;

Company overheads including the Fixed Expenses such as utilities and operational costs; which includes
marketing, awareness sessions and materials development costs.

Administrative Staff Salaries including the CEO, COO and Partnership mangers.

Facilitating Training and Training materials for each session organized for participants.

Expenses relating to engaging strategic partners for sponsorships and also banks administration costs for
maintenance of the accounts.
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Discussion

The analysis of Vi-ability using the Business Model Canvas revealed that the company was utilizing a
Hybrid Nonprofit Social Enterprise model, where the company offered training programs to at-risk
youths and also provided paid consultancies to companies and also revenue generation via a game
application. According to (Kickul 2010) a Hybrid Nonprofit social venture is one that produces both social
value and commercial revenue through a single, unified strategy.

The Customer segment and the value proposition of the company has clearly identified the target based
that’s being affected by the social issue unemployment and access to employable skills and identified
the services that will place the most value on the customers.

The communication Channels and Customer Relationship have similar structures to that of a developing
SME who focuses on the use of technologies and personal interactions with the customers to deliver an
excellent service or product.

The revenue stream of Vi-ability has largely been donor funded, the company generates a little income
of its own according to (Vi-Ability 2017) 60% of the companies income was generated from European
Social Fund contracts via donors. Not being able to generate a high enough fixed source of income may
make the business model not robust and sustainable.

Key Resources of the organization was easily identified based on its mission and values. The Key
Activities were identified and encompasses all the pertinent things that the enterprise must do to make
it successful. The Cost Structure is deliberately vague since this sensitive information was not available
but it contained the obvious expenses that came with similar business types, the expenses were mainly
related to the administration of the programmes.

The Key and strategic partnerships for the company are considerably numerous. This can be attributed
to the nature of the activities conducted by the organization. The heavy reliance on numerous partners
may suggest a weakness in the current business model of Vi-ability.

The Business Model Canvas was not sufficient to really measure the impact of the organization has I
would suggest the addition of two blocks to the traditional Canvas; a block that states and identify the
mission of the organization and also a block to high lighting the impact assessment aspect of the
organization. Vi-ability’s Mission would be to ‘Tackle the issues on a community level that affects the
sustainability of sports clubs, and youth disengagement via innovative programmes resulting in
entrepreneurial development. The Impact assessment Block would be according to (Vi-Ability 2017) it
engaged on average 300 individual yearly, it helped 75% of the Individuals who were trained to find
employment, it reinvested 2.8 Million back into local communities. Based on these two additional input
it is clear that Vi-ability has had significant impact in curbing the youth unemployment and creating
more sustainable community based sports clubs in Europe. However the company does not have a
strategic plan that guides its daily functions nor does it guided that youth fully in CV development and
writing.
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Recommendation

It is my opinion, that social enterprises are required to close the gap or provided a
complementary product or services not being fully supplied by the Government and other private
entities. The Vi-ability team has done a tremendous job eradicating the unemployment rate
among youths in the UK. The business however can make a few adjustments to strengthen the
current offering it makes to the society.
Create a Strategic Plan for the organization so all employees can be better guided and informed
of the roles of the organization and key players.
Create a train the trainers programme so that persons who were previously trained can do
continuous work in their communities, this will widen the reach the organization has and will
push the now sustainable clubs to give back to their respective communities.
Strengthen its consultancy programmes this will allow them to have a more stable source of
income, (Vi-Ability 2017) reveled that income has declined in recent years due to the unviability
of donor contracts and funding.
The Programme must also provide the necessary training for persons to develop their own CV
and more industry leaders should be brought in to give lectures to the participants in the various
communities.
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References
Alter, Kim. 2007. Social Enterprise Typology. Virtue Ventures LLC.

Bornstein, David, and Susan Davis. 2010. SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO
KNOW. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dees, J. Gregory. 1998. "The Meaning of "Social Entrepreneurship." Kauffman Foundation and Stanford
University.

Kickul, Jill. 2010. "Hybrid Models for Social." Stern Program in Social Entrepreneurship (NYUSTERN).

Vi-Ability. 2017. Report. Impact Report , London: Vi-Ability .