In a state like Romania, social entrepreneurs can probably be defined easily as the ones who rigorously pay their taxes. On the one hand because rigorously paying taxes is the most direct proof of a social conscience.
On the other hand, of course, any Romanian government of the next 50 years will be quickly suffocated by the yet unsolved social issues. Paying pensions, social benefits or state employees’ salaries will for a long time be the government’s main concern, the central theme of public discourse and the bulk of public spending.
But it is not enough. And not because Romanian politicians are corrupt or incompetent or because Romania’s social problems are too big and too difficult to solve. Nor should we confuse CSR or charity with social involvement. Social entrepreneurship, I think, is an entrepreneurial vision.
Beyond the profit margins, beyond the direct benefits and even beyond specific objectives like the amount of recycled materials used or the number of disadvantaged employees brought back into the workforce. Making profit efficiently, meaning quickly, legally and sustainably, does not make you a social entrepreneur even if you donate half of it.
The vision, the mission, the dream or however you want to name the goal that goes beyond the entrepreneur themselves – this is what social entrepreneurship means. We have plenty of examples to talk about. I suppose that Dedeman’s Paval brothers’ dream is for every Romanian to have a better life by having access to cheap and local building materials.
Or that Daniel Dines from UiPath dreams of a world where millions of back-office employees will be able to contribute to the good of society instead of scanning documents or adding columns to excel files. Therefore, contributing to making the world better and making money that way would be the most accurate definition of social entrepreneurship
