Jason Haber - The Business of Good: Social Entrepreneurship and the New Bottom Line

Praise for The Business of Good

I dare you to read this wild ride of a book and resist giving up your day job to become a Global Citizen. Jason Haber brilliantly captures the zeitgeist of todays social entrepreneur and shows you how to become a dynamic change maker.

GAIL SHEEHY, AUTHOR OF PASSAGES AND DARING: MY PASSAGES

Jason Haber has captured the energy, enthusiasm, and inventiveness of Millennials who have figured out how to contribute to the social good while doing well for themselves. Haber shows us where the heart of innovation lies. He persuasively explains that making a difference is good for business. Haber offers a dose of optimism just when we need it.

FRANK SESNO, DIRECTOR AND PROFESSOR OF MEDIA AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, FORMER CNN ANCHOR, AND WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

A revelatory and vivid analysis on the rise of social entrepreneurship around the world. Jason Haber depicts the new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs that are forging a new paradigm based on opportunities that bring together market forces and a drive to make the world a better place

AZADEH TAJDAR, SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR SPECIALIZING IN EMERGING AND FRONTIER MARKET STARTUPS

Based on careful research and his own deep personal experience, Jason Haber tells the intriguing story of the emergence of a new model of doing good in the world, one that combines the business savvy of a startup with the social consciousness of a classic charity. The Business of Good is a must-read for social entrepreneurs looking for ways to create meaningful social change in the 21st century.

STEVEN LIVINGSTON, PROFESSOR OF MEDIA AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

The Business of Good breaks important new ground as the first book that closely examines the why behind the increasing trend of businesses aiming to turn a profit while simultaneously transforming our world for the better. The author takes the reader on a thought-provoking journey using engaging examples with historical context to identify and uncover the roots of this phenomenon, and offers compelling evidence for its continuation and impact. This is a fun and engaging must-read for anyone interested in the evolving corporate landscape.

REBECCA SHIN, SOCIAL SECTOR MARKETING STRATEGY LEADER & GENERATIONAL EXPERT, WWW.GENERATIONEVOLUTION.COM

Entrepreneur Press, Publisher

Cover Design: Andrew Welyczko

Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions

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ebook ISBN: 978-1-61308-336-9

For Makayla, and the world that will be hers.

For Cory, and the world she has given me.

Table of Contents

contents

It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

WENDELL BERRY

T he most significant story of the 21st century has gone largely unreported. It is told but only in bits and pieces. Its a hard story to tell, but what a story it is. Its the story of usof how weve all been impacted by a higher level of social consciousness. Try selling newspapers with that headline. But its real and its changing everything. It has driven a hardly noticed, but hard to miss zeitgeist shift within our culture. Zeitgeist defines the prevailing mood or spirit for a specific period of time. Some shifts are amorphous: We dont know where exactly they came from or how they came about. But thats not the case with this one. We know exactly how it came to be. In this book, Ill explain it and define it. Its called The Great Convergence, and its the driving force behind social entrepreneurship.

Im sitting in a coffee shop on East 47th Street in New York City with Azadeh Tajdar, a social entrepreneur with an extensive track record initiating, leading, and scaling social ventures in frontier and emerging markets across the world. Its 10:30 A.M. on September 11, 2015. Fourteen years to the dayalmost to the very momentwhen the north tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. We are meeting to discuss social entrepreneurship, whose growth has a lot to do with the aftermath of 9/11. We talk about technology, culture, Millennials, and the surprising commonalities between the youth of Iran and of the United States.

Our conversation turns to Iran, a subject she knows better than most. A member of the Iranian diaspora, Tajdar maintains close relationships inside the country. She was recently there and paints a picture of a place not so dissimilar from our own.

Iran has an Iranian version of Uber. It has its own Groupon. It has an Iranian version of Amazon, she tells me. At the University of Tehran there are hackathons, startup weekends, and incubators for entrepreneurs. But nothing is quite as exciting as social entrepreneurship in Iran. In Tehranor Tehran Valley as some call itsocial entrepreneurs are working on a host of issues, from clean water to health care.

Tajdar teamed up with Leila Piran, a policy fellow at the School of International and Public Policy at George Mason University, to explore social entrepreneurship in Iran. This is not something you read about in the West, but it is happening and it is very important, she tells me. This was the first time academics sought to evaluate and understand the Irans social entrepreneurial market. Did one even exist?

According to their findings, there are between 50,000 and 75,000 active social entrepreneurs in Iran. In the first quarter of 2015 they worked with local partners in Iran to distribute a survey in English and Persian. Field work, in-person interviews, and further studies were conducted in April. Eighty-three percent of them are engaged in an initiative, organization, or startup with a social, economic, or environmental objective. Sixty percent believe using technology will help them find more effective solutions to their challenges. And more than half of survey participants intended to make social entrepreneurship part of their job, either through a new venture or by incorporating it into their current work.

Irans social entrepreneurs have their share of obstacles to overcome. Red tape and a lack of regulation supporting their work rank among their challenges. In addition, the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) restrictions have eliminated foreign grant money, halted impact investment, and prevented the growth of exchange programs with Iran. The Iran nuclear deal will alleviate some restrictions, but it is not a panacea for the countrys social entrepreneurial community. Many hope the deal is the start of better days ahead.