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3.10 Approaching Scale Critically

Course video 32 of 48

We must test our ideas in the real world, early and often, to determine if they can truly deliver on either their social or financial mission. Learn to build and use the balanced scorecard, a key tool to assess the real-world performance of a social innovation. The scorecard will allow you to measure and articulate both the initiative's current reach and health, as well as the work that is left to be done. An innovation achieves the intended social impact in a way that is financially supportable may be a candidate for scale. Learn to assess whether and how to approach scale for your social innovation.

This course offers an introduction to social impact strategy and social entrepreneurship, including key concepts, an overview of the field, and tools to get started as a changemaker. Students will learn how to innovate and design new ideas and new organizational forms to implement those ideas. Students who take this course will be better prepared to launch social impact organizations of their own invention. By moving through four stages, Define, Design, Pilot, and Scale, students will turn their passion for changing the world into concrete plans for launching a nonprofit or for-profit venture designed to achieve a social goal. This course will allow students to systematically think through problems; develop and test an innovative solution; assess risk, competition, and performance; and spread impact in a way that is financially sustainable. Students who complete the course become eligible to apply for an in-person educational experience, called the Global Social Impact House. GSIH is a seven-day residential program that provides fellows with the tools, community and training they need to advance their ventures. Workshops are customized to the needs of fellows and explore advanced concepts in business models, design thinking and leadership. The program is also designed to help fellows build meaningful, global connections while living together in an inspirational host location. For more information on the Global Social Impact House, please visit: socialimpactstrategy.org/residential/gsih

Skills You'll Learn

Market Analysis, Business Model, Business Modeling, Social Entrepreneurship

Taught By

Peter Frumkin
Professor

Transcript

[MUSIC]

So, let's think about scale in terms of a kind of a final four big questions.

Not all part of the organization or

the enterprise that you create are going to be equal.

And not all of the elements inside your organization are going to

be equally deserving of growth.

You may have one part of what you do that is powerful and successful and

deserving of scale.

That's great, grow it, build it, share it, get it to scale.

But there are other parts of what you may do that may not be as effective,

that may not be as powerful.

You need to be critical and realistic about what parts of the enterprise that

you're operating really deserve and have proven their merit on the road to scale.

So be critical about what parts of this organization that you're creating actually

have the most potential and have the most claim to scale.

You need to also ask another deep question,

which is, where can I actually start inside my organization to do more?

How can I start to take the road to scale by experimenting and

taking individual programs a little bit further one step at a time?

And this might be the moment when you start to distinguish which programs

deserve expansion and which don't.

So you can ask that question, about how do I grow individual elements

of my program as the first step towards getting answer to the question.

Of how do I think about scale across all the different things I do?

Then ask yourself one more deep question.

What is the real argument for scale?

Why am I pursuing scale?

Why must I go beyond the community I'm currently serving?

Now you may say that every social problem is enormous in its dimensions and

is deserving of our fullest attention across all of its many manifestations and

dimensions.

But there might be a moment where you need to ask yourself,

do I really need to take it to scale?

Do I really need to go beyond what I'm currently doing?

Do I really need to have this dream of scale be part of what I want to achieve?

I think in many cases there are parts of enterprises that do deserve and

are meriting of growth.

But there are other parts often that are just not ready.

And your job as a social entrepreneur is to be absolutely critical and

realistic about all the things you do.

To find those nuggets that are the most powerful, most valuable,

and to take those to scale, and to leave the others behind.

By way of conclusion, let's think about scale and

the big questions you should ask.

First, scale is in fact central to social entrepreneurship.

But as I've tried to explain, you need to adopt the critical posture towards it.

You need to ask some tough questions about it.

But let's think about scale in terms of what it demands.

It demands planning, and demands a lot of good strategy.

Scale just doesn't happen.

It doesn't drop onto the social sector.

It has to be pursued systematically.

It has to be sought, and it has to be It has to be part of your core planning.

It's not going to be given to you.

You really have to go after it systematically.

Think about the idea, also, that we talked about,

that there are many roads to scale, not one.

There's not just this idea of franchising and multi-site replication.

There are other roads to scale.

Comprehensiveness, program expansion, paradigm dissemination.

There are a lot of ways to get big, so

think about the whole range of possibilities that are out there.

Finally, I want you think also about one more thing,

which is that scale is not the ultimate final word.

It does give us some insight into market demand.

That is, if you grow, it may well be that you're tapping into a critical market

demand, but it doesn't necessarily always equate to effectiveness.

It can be an indicator, but don't assume that it's a perfect proxy for

effectiveness.

It will give you a sense that you're onto something important that people want,

if your organization is growing constantly.

But it's not going to necessarily answer the biggest of all questions,

which is about effectiveness.

So scale is a good thing.

It has to be managed.

Scale is not a substitute for effectiveness and

it's not a perfect indicator of impact.

You need to think about scale, not just in terms of revenue, but

in terms of this bigger question of increasing impact.

And finally, you need to understand the scale is a process that requires

deliberation, strategy and planning.

It needs to emerge from both internal and external analysis.

It can't just be assumed to happen.

It has to be planned for and pursued systematically.

[MUSIC]

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