Paper Example on Balancing Social Agenda and Operating Challenges: FreePlay's Mission

Introduction

Sometimes, it is challenging for companies to balance the social agenda and deal with operating challenges. The mission of FreePlay is to make energy available too throughout (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2013). The company also has a social agenda of making radios available freely. Companies have a responsibility to the shareholders to ensure that there is profitability. However, the company also has a social responsibility to fulfill to reconcile the social agenda and the challenges of running the business the company to establish why it is important to pursue the agenda.

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Communication is very important in life as it fosters positive living hence the reason why it is essential to pursue the agenda. Ensuring that there is free accessibility of radios to Africa will help deal with the Hiv/Aids through awareness creation (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2013). By providing a channel of communication; therefore, FreePlay has helped solve a social problem by educating people about the causes of the disease and how it can be prevented.

To achieve the social agenda and the commercial challenges, the company needs finances as required resources. Sometimes especially when the company is new, there is a challenge of inadequate finances. To reconcile the social agenda, the company should manage its cash flow and finances effectively. In FreePlay's case, those in need cannot afford even the batteries; hence the company cannot sell the radios (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2013). However, they can partner with aid charities that can purchase the radios at an affordable cost. This, however, may be unsustainable hence the need for diversification for commercial markets. Freeplay Energy group, for example, can be sustainable by producing other products for other commercial markets, thus generating income.

Challenges

One of the challenges faced by businesses trying to remain sustainable is managing cash flow. Freeplay provides radio to those in need for free (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2013). This means that they do not generate any profit from the sale of the products. The project is, therefore, facing a challenge of economic viability, which will affect its sustainability. Therefore, it means that they will have to look for other means of generating income. To deal with this challenge, Freeplay has to plan and anticipate the costs of producing and distributing the radios. With effective planning, they will have suitable funding for the business. To deal with the challenge, Fireplay began market diversification to adapt to the shift.

Since the people who need the radios cannot afford the batteries, they also face energy consumption. To operate the radio needs the energy; therefore, Freeplay cannot provide the radios without providing a solution to the source of energy to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2013). Many people in the targeted areas do not have access to electricity, which poses a challenge on which energy source will be affordable to radio users. Therefore, they created a need for innovation of alternative sources of energy such as wind or generator.

The other problem that Freeplay may face in trying to sustain the business is creating quality programs. The free radios are for education purposes, hence creating the programs that will effectively educate the audience about HIV/Aids (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2013). Creating these programs is not an easy task, and the company may be required to partner with highly knowledgeable professionals about Hiv/Aids. Time and resources will be utilized to develop these programs, which mean that apart from budgeting for the production and distribution of the radios, Freeplay will require a budget allocation for quality programs. Resources, time and personnel costs are the major setbacks in innovation and enterprise.

Jennifer Peters Water Treatment Idea

Access to clean drinking water is a basic need for everyone, but this basic commodity is not available to some people. Keeping water systems in Africa is extremely challenging. Contaminated water causes diseases such as typhoid, polio, diarrhea, cholera and dysentery. Each year water contamination causes approximately 502,000 deaths globally. The majority of the countries which are affected by water contamination are low and middle-income countries. Africa is among the continents affected by water contamination, and clean drinking water is unavailable in homesteads and health facilities. 38 percent of health facilities in low and middle-income counties do not have clean water, and 19 percent lack improved sanitation. 38 percent of the facilities do not have water for hand washing nor soap (World Health Organization, 2019).

The data above shows a dire need for clean water in Africa whose member countries are low and middle-income countries. In social entrepreneurship, it is important to consider different things for the project to succeed. The first step of the social entrepreneurship venture is writing a mission statement (Roundy, 2017). The second step is market research, whose aim is to assess water treatment in Africa. Jennifer Peters also needs to identify the causes of water contamination. With poor sewage management, the water drains into the water systems, thus causing contamination (World Health Organization, 2019). Water systems are also contaminated by oil spillage, agricultural activities as well as river and marine dumping. The next step involves understanding of the history of water contamination to establish whether there has been any effort to solve the problem and any challenges that may have been encountered.

Resources, time and personnel, will be required in effectively carrying out the water treatment projects. Therefore it is important to forge health partnerships (Roundy, 2017). Jennifer should ensure that she garners enough support from different stakeholders as well as the community. Involving the community members who will be beneficiaries of the project will be essential as it will give them an opportunity of contributing to the project, thus strengthening the venture. Partnering with people in the water treatment sector locally and internationally will be beneficial in promoting project sustainability. Before venturing into the social entrepreneurship; therefore, Jennifer should plan and source funding and attract investors.

One of the setbacks of social entrepreneurship is the lack of economic viability (Roundy, 2017). Jennifer should be aware that the project viability is not guaranteed since most people may be unable to pay for the clean water. This means that she will have to provide water for extremely low prices or free. This is a threat to the project's sustainability, hence the importance of conducting a cost-benefit analysis before starting the venture. The cost-benefit analysis helps in estimating the costs incurred in a project and possible profits.

The second setback that social entrepreneurs face is a lack of funding and support structure (Roundy, 2017). Social entrepreneurship is not recognized and regulated, which makes it difficult to get funding. In the early stages of the project, implementation Freeplay realized that it was problematic to depend on the government, charitable aid and international aid. To solve this problem, they diversified into commercial markets.

Sustainability of Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship entails coming up with businesses that deal with challenges affecting the society and a particular society. Creating a sustainable business venture with a social entrepreneurship idea is easier because the idea is based on the existing need in society (Kickul and Lyons, 2020). The social entrepreneur idea gets accepted by the target market because the potential customers want the need met to deal with the challenges that they undergo. Entrepreneur success is dependent on the existence of a need in society. The higher chances of social entrepreneurs succeeding are because people who are the customers are desperate to deal with the challenges that the social entrepreneur seeks to solve.

There are also social entrepreneurs that get support from non-governmental institutions and other bodies that are involved in community affairs. The support increases the chances of the entrepreneur succeeding because there is a flow of resources that are required to support the business (Halberstadt et al., 2020). There are instances when the problem the entrepreneur wants to solve keep on increasing hence expanding the customer base and the number of people purchasing the product that the entrepreneur is offering. The non-governmental organizations do not engage in business; therefore, it contracts the social entrepreneurs to supply the products that are required in ending the challenges affecting communities and societies. The business from organizations makes it easier for social entrepreneurs to succeed.

It's easier to create a sustainable business venture with social entrepreneurship idea because the business takes a shorter period to break even based on a high number of people that purchase products that the entrepreneur offers. The earlier the business breaks even it increases the chances of continuity because the entrepreneur does not need to support the business from personal resources (Kickul and Lyons, 2020). The profit the business earns is reinvested back to the business hence growing the venture. Social entrepreneurs have higher chances of succeeding, and in most instances, there are no competitors that might reduce the chances of success because of competition. Businesses require support when they are starting to ensure that the business sustains its operations.

Social entrepreneurs also have higher chances of getting financing from financial institutions and other organizations that see the niche that the business plans to exploit. Financing is the main challenge affecting many entrepreneurs where they lack the resources required to run the business and sustain it, including paying the bills that are associated with the running of the business (Halberstadt et al., 2020). The financing gives the entrepreneur an added advantage to compete with other players in the industry that offer similar products and services. Resource mobilization is a challenge that many businesses are unable to deal with limiting their rate of growth because the business can only grow as the resources enable.

Social entrepreneurs also risk failure when the niche the business invests in gets the solution that eliminates the challenge at a lower cost and with a short time (Kickul and Lyons, 2020). For instance, the radio business that creates awareness in the community for a disease that is affecting people, the radio niche might no longer exist when the disease gets the cure. People do not have reason to listen to the radio again. The success of the business is dependent on whether the niche that the business exploits exists. The risks of social entrepreneurs are less when compared to commercial entrepreneurs that start more competitive businesses.