SINGAPORE, 20 NOVEMBER 2008 — IN A SMALL and cosy room at Foyer 1, hall F, Kenny Low, Principal/CEO of City Harvest Education Centre (CHEC) Ltd, hosted an engaging session on the essence of Social Entrepreneurship. CHEC has been making a difference through its not-for-profit school business model, impacting many lives in Singapore.
For the resounding success of CHEC, Low was made Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2008. At this session, he easily connected to the listeners with his joke-filled sharing.
Low made his talk informative yet lighthearted, including giving the audience a glimpse into three case studies in which social entrepreneurship came into play. Through pictures and video clips, the attendees were given a good overview of social entrepreneurship in action overseas and in Singapore.
Adding on actual examples from his own life, he showed how the real problem was not about the marginalizing of the disadvantaged, but about the need to inject value into them.
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| PHOTOS: Jayson Lee |
Social entrepreneurship can be defined as the process of introducing and injecting new value into society. In order to help those who are marginalized, we need to first find the value in them, and then create markets for those values. The ability to do that is determined by how we see things: as a problem or a possibility. Social entrepreneurship aims to fulfill a social mission, and create a positive demand in the market.
