Guest Lecture by Mr. Fons van der Velden
Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur feels proud to have hosted Mr. Fons van der Velden, Founder - Context, International Cooperation, to deliver a lecture on Social Business as a transformational approach to the students of PGP04 batch. Over the years, he has worn many hats including that of a social entrepreneur, a development practitioner, a researcher, a lecturer, a trainer and a process facilitator. His thematic areas of expertise include social entrepreneurship, capacity development and organizational learning. In the lecture, Mr.
Fons talked about what defines a social business and its characteristics. A social business is an organization that uses business principles to create blended value in a financially sustainable manner in order to contribute to systematic societal change. The core objective of social business is eradication of poverty and contribution towards an improved economy. He further accentuated the importance of having a blended value of financial, social and environmental sustainability for organizations. Traditional for-profit organizations have lesser social sustainability and non-profit organizations have lesser financial sustainability. Social businesses bridge this gap by contributing significantly to the society and generating profits for long term sustenance. He concluded by quoting, "Social business has a Social Return on Investment in addition to regular ROI."
