The Hankyoreh (South Korean independant newspapers) interviews Kim Alter

From http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/319189.html

Sutia Kim Alter is a world-renowned social enterprise consultant. In other words, she is recognized around the world for her expertise in turning social issues into market opportunity. Founder of the social enterprise consulting agency Virtue Ventures and a researcher at Oxford University’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Alter recently came to Korea to participate in the Asian Social Entrepreneurs Summit, organized jointly by the Work Together Foundation and Hankyoreh Economic Research Institute.

In an interview with HERI, Alter said that Korea’s social entrepreneurs “need to work harder to create business plans from social issues.” She emphasized the importance of government support, saying that countries around the world are supporting social enterprises by outsourcing government services and by providing managerial support.

The following are a few excerpts from the interview.

HERI : There is a lot of interest in social enterprise in Korea these days. Is this a global trend?

Sutia Kim Alter: There is, in fact, a lot of interest around the world. In business, there has actually been a lot of interest in the simultaneous realization of social and economic value for some time now. Lately, the media has taken a lot of interest as well, and in many societies it has become a key part of the public agenda. If you look at the big picture, what we are seeing is the overlapping of business and social interest.

Q: The world is being confronted with a financial crisis and is looking a recession right in the face. How will this influence social entrepreneurship?

A: I think it’s both a threat and an opportunity. Social enterprises are companies that sell products and services on the market, so they are going to be hit by the recession. This is all the more so because the environmentally-friendly, fair trade products social enterprises produce are often more expensive than regular industrial products. This makes the role of government more important. When social enterprises fall, the shock is the same as when for-profit companies collapse, except that the social value they produce is also lost. This is why U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama has made promises that relate to social enterprises.

Q: What about the slump will serve to be an opportunity?

A: The current crisis is a crisis in the kind of capitalism that pursues only profit. A new order will come into being after we’ve gone through the crisis. Over the long term there will be more emphasis on the social responsibilities of business and transparency. Do we not see criticism of the Wall Street investors who are the culprits in this crisis, but quietly make their escape unscathed? In the future, the market will look for entrepreneurs who pursue social values instead of the entrepreneurs we’ve seen. This will present social enterprises with opportunities.

Q: While studying socially responsible management among East Asian companies, the Hankyoreh Economic Research Institute has discovered that merchants in traditionally Confucian society gave a lot of importance to their social responsibilities. Do you think this region might be better for the development of social enterprises?

A: Even if you look at the cooperatives that existed in Europe, their history goes back to the 1700s. Individualism has not been valued socially for very long. It has barely been a century since people started thinking that life is about earning money, getting off work and looking after their families, and doing good deeds on weekends by volunteering and making donations. If communal thinking is still the mainstream trend in East Asian countries like Korea, then that would mean the region is a good place for social enterprises to develop. In communal societies they do not keep the economic activity of labor and earning money and realizing social value separate.