A New Entrepreneur for the Future

During this week I have heard about two scandals. One happened on an international level and another one in Russia. The international scandal was regarding Apple and its lawsuit against Samsung for copying its products – iPhone and iPad. What was more interesting is that another scandal appeared after somebody discovered that Apple has a special device on its iPhone. It collects information about the location of cell phone users and sends it to Apple’s center. Company management said that they need this data in order to improve the products quality.  Not of course all of the information is secured and Apple will never use it illegally…they say.

Another scandal happened a few days ago in Russia. The CEO and a number of other managers from one of Russia’s banks were accused of stealing money from the bank customers’ accounts through online banking.

This news made another idea come to my mind concerning entrepreneurship. We all know that there are three types of entrepreneurship; social entrepreneurship and individual entrepreneurship are most common.  I am sure you also remember that we have intrapreneurs too, those who are desperately hired by big corporations but still know – deep inside -that they are “entre”.

So, we have three types of entrepreneurs: social entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and the classic individual entrepreneur. Classic entrepreneurs are generally not concerned about the social benefits their business creates. They do not see helping those people who are dying somewhere on the planet, as a core goal for their business. They do not put anywhere in their business plan milestones like, “building a church as soon as I break even.”  What they are really concerned about is how they will make money and who they will have to pay their debts too. They plan their business without thinking of society, environment and the etc.  Well so what?

I do not see the egoism concerning all these peoples understanding of responsibility when they do business: responsibility for securing all the information about me traveling around the world with my iPhone, my money in their banks, or possible radiation coming from a product they offer.

When we talk about being social, I suggest starting first from understanding the responsibility that comes with launching a start-up.  If you are lucky enough to find or be the IT guru introducing a new product that will significantly enhance the quality of all human life, yet you just need all of my bio information to do so, I want you to understand that you need to take full responsibility for anything that might happen afterwards with access to that information!

Let’s imagine that you are a smart kid. You have read a bunch of books about entrepreneurship. You have listened to a bunch of lectures about the subject. You have been acknowledged as one of the best students in the class. You have seen great opportunities. You have developed a promising business model. You have found resources: money, people, and so on. You are doing great! Except that you do not understand that having started something (a business) makes you responsible for all the consequences that come out of it.  If you do not understand that, you should be afraid of the unnecessary “business” that may come to you… business that not only endangers you, but more importantly me as a customer.  

I do believe that social entrepreneurship is a good thing, but I believe as soon as we start talking about responsible entrepreneurship we will see a significant increase in the social benefits our businesses bring to consumers. 

-Dasha