Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship

          Social entrepreneurship is the process of pursuing innovative solutions to social problems. More specifically, social entrepreneurs adopt a mission to create and sustain social value. They draw upon appropriate thinking in both the business and nonprofit worlds and operate in a variety of organizations: large and small; new and old; religious and secular; nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid.

Business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, but social entrepreneurs also take into account a positive return to society. Social entrepreneurship typically furthers broad social, cultural, and environmental goals and is commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors. Profit can at times also be a consideration for certain companies or other social enterprises.

          If  you are seeking ways to build a business and leave your mark on society, social entrepreneurship can help you do both. Social entrepreneurs use their business and creative skills to help identify and solve social problems on a large scale. According to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a social entrepreneur is a passionate risk taker who applies innovative and practical solutions to benefit society through their business practice. There are several benefits to being a social entrepreneur from both a business and societal standpoint.

          One of the ways is implementing Societal Change. Perhaps the most rewarding advantage of being a social entrepreneur is the impact you can have on society. Social entrepreneurs create businesses in a variety of industries that can have a positive impact on society, including alternative energy, health awareness and education. According to David Bornstein, the author of "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas," social entrepreneurs view communities as the solution and not as the beneficiaries of products and services. Social entrepreneurs provide the resources and expertise that help communities improve their qualities of life.

         

 

Another benefit of becoming a social entrepreneur is the freedom to explore and create innovative solutions that can inspire change. Social entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for new and inventive solutions to problems and often enlist leaders within their field to assist in project development. Social entrepreneurs are rewarded by taking risks, thinking outside the box and looking for create ways to address problems.

          Entrepreneurs do not work under a boss, so they have the freedom to trust their own intuitions and make their own decisions. According to the PBS website, there has been a surge of both entrepreneurship and social sector competition since the last decade of the 20th Century. Social entrepreneurs are zealous problem solvers whose leadership skills and passionate nature might cause them to feel unsatisfied in a traditional employer-employee relationship.

For example, GSM company  is one of the example of  non-profit making organization  which they to the downtrodden and the marginalized society in Malaysia by helping them to rebuild their shattered lives through love, rehabilitation and restoration. They have been in operation for the last 18 years in Klang Valley especially in the vicinity of Chow Kit, downtown Kuala Lumpur and some neighboring states.  Thousands of people have received help and aid from us in their hour of need. By joining the non- profit organization, we can increase the social entrepreneurs and  it will give deep personal satisfaction of knowing that you are accomplishing something good

          

Joining a nonprofit allows you to use your business talent, education and experience for the good of humanity or the natural world. This kind of purpose-driven experience can yield intangible rewards that you may find more valuable than any amount of wealth.    

History of Lim goh Tong

 Born in 1918 in Anxi, a mountainous county in southeastern Fujian province, China, Lim Goh Tong was the fifth child in his family. His father was Lim Shi Quan and his mother Goh Ban. He has an elder brother (Jing Ya), three elder sisters (Lim Zhuang, Lim Bau and Lim See), a younger sister (Lim Mei) and a younger brother (Jing Kun). Lim was born into a rustic environment in a village, during that time, China was in a period of turmoil and unrest after the 1911 revolution, but life was relatively sheltered for Lim in the village. He grew up peacefully and had the opportunity of studying in school. However, disaster struck and his father died when he was 16. Lim was forced to leave school and he and his elder brother had to take over the heavy burden of feeding his family.

As China's situation was becoming worse, Lim Goh Tong decided to take the plunge in venturing out to Malaysia (known as Malaya at that time) following his cousin, Lim Kheng Chong's footstep. He left China through Xiamen in early February 1937 at the age of 19. He worked for his uncle as a carpenter in the first two years, learning the Malay language in the meantime. After gaining experience he went on to become a building sub-contractor and completed his first job of building a two-storey school. He returned to Anxi in 1940, but went back to Malaya the next year amidst a deteriorating war environment.

The Japanese invaded Malaya in 1942 and caused Lim to have a few near-death experiences. During the early Japanese Occupation, he earned a living as a vegetable farmer, but decided to switch to petty trading for a better living. Later on Lim ventured into scrap-metal and hardware trading. When the Japanese Occupation ended, there was an urgent demand for heavy machinery for resumed operations in mines and rubber plantations. Lim seized the opportunity and engaged in second-hand machinery trading, making his first fortune.

From used machinery trading, Lim strayed into iron mining, joining as a partner in an iron mining company which couldn't settle the outstanding payment of two bulldozers with him. This proved to be a successful venture, and he later went on to form a joint-venture company which was one of the first Chinese tin companies to utilise dredges.

While dealing in heavy machinery, Lim accumulated a wide range of reconditioned machines as well as a substantial amount of cash to move into construction and related industries. In the name of his family construction company, Kien Huat Private Limited, Lim began taking on several contracting jobs with help and guidance from his uncles. Kien Huat won accolades and became recognised as one of the leading construction companies, building the Ayer Itam Dam  and the Kemubu Irrigation Scheme.

Developing Genting Resort

Genting Group's involvement in the property sector can be traced from the initial primary objective of holding land-based assets for long term appreciation and development potential to the current strategic move to develop and market the Group's landed properties mainly held in the plantation subsidiary, by Asiatic Land Development Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Asiatic Development Berhad

The Genting Highlands Theme Park

The idea of building a hilltop resort was first conceived when Lim Goh Tong was having a dinner in the Cameron Highlands. As he was enjoying the soothing cool breeze of the Cameron Highlands, an idea struck him that as the standard of living rose steadily in Malaysia, more and more people would visit mountain resorts for relaxation and recreation, but Cameron Highlands was too far away from the capital city Kuala Lumpur, therefore building a mountain resort nearer to Kuala Lumpur would have great business potential.

After doing some research, Lim found Gunung (mountain in Malay) Ulu Kali at a place called Genting Sempah to be an ideal location for his plan. He formed an expedition and explored the place, collecting a wealth of data on the topography, drainage, soil conditions and other relevant aspects of the region, this proved to be very useful in drawing up plans for developing the resort.

After getting approvals from the Federal and State governments, Lim began the project in the face of a colossal task. Among the problems were building the access road towards the hilltop, water and electricity supplies, sewerage system and fire safety. Lim managed to build the access road towards the summit in three years when it was estimated to take fifteen years. Several sources of water in the mountain were identified, water supply was secured by building water-collection stations and water filtration plants with treated water stored in reservoirs. Electricity is supplied through a central electricity generation system with 12 big generators.

During the construction, Lim survived six close brushes with death. Meanwhile, Lim had to administer another major project in Kelantan, the Kemubu Irrigation Scheme at the same time. This stretched his physical endurance to the limits as he had to shuttle between Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan and he worked seven days a week.

During the Genting project, Lim spent all he had without earning any income. He sold an 810-hectare rubber estate to raise RM2.5 million. In addition, he invested all the money he had made from iron mining, sub-contracting and hardware businesses. The project was a heavy drain on Lim's finances. When asked to invest in this project, Lim's friends turned him down and counselled him to drop the entire scheme instead.

Genting was granted the only casino licence after Tunku Abdul Rahman, the prime minister of Malaysia then, visited Genting Highlands and commended Lim's effort to develop a resort contributing to Malaysia's tourism industry without government help.

Lim managed to obtain a pioneer status for Genting Highlands and tax incentives despite its resort development not qualifying for it. He did so by convincing the government that tax incentives in the early stage of development of Genting Highlands were not only vital for them but also profitable to the government later on.

The whole Genting project was completed in January 1971, but prior to officially commencing business, Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding areas were hit by the worst rainstorms in a century, the road to Genting was closed by landslides at 180 locations, the damaged sections took four months to repair. Genting opened its door for business on 8 May 1971.

In the next 30 years, Lim continued to develop and expand Genting Highlands beyond its original idea of a hotel with basic tourist facilities. Among the projects were the construction of more hotels, indoor and outdoor theme parks, and a convention centre. A new road was built to shorten the journey to Genting from the northern states, and RM920 million was invested to widen a 10 km stretch of the access road to reduce congestion. Another RM928 million was spent on constructing a cable car system to provide visitors with an alternative mode of transportation.

In 1993, at the suggestion of Tun Mahathir, the prime minister of Malaysia then, a township was developed on an 81-hectare piece of land around the site of the Genting Skyway cable car station. It was named Gohtong Jaya after Lim as a token of remembrance for his efforts in the development of Genting Highlands.

As of now, Genting Highlands is one of the most successful Casino resorts in the world and is one of the primary tourist attractions in Malaysia. Lim's company, Genting Group operates Genting Highlands and has diversified into many other industries such as plantations, property, paper, power generation, oil and gas exploration and cruise boat industries. In the process new company brands were created that have become distinctive names in their respective fields, namely Asiatic, Genting Sanyen (paper manufacturing) and Star Cruises. On 31 December 2003, Lim handed his chairmanship of Genting Group over to his son, Tan Lim Kok Thay.

Type of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the willingness to take risks and develop, organize and manage a business venture in a competitive global marketplace that is constantly evolving. Entrepreneurs are pioneers, innovators, leaders and inventors. They are at the forefront of technological and social movements. Entrepreneurship refers to an entrepreneurial process while entrepreneur is the individual that executes the process. The entrepreneurship process may comprise several entrepreneurial activities which might be differ from one organization to the others.Types of entrepreneur are best described in terms of  their motives as well as their function as entrepreneur.

                                      Figure 3.1 : Types of Entrepreneurship

          Based on the figure 3.1, broad categorization of the types of entrepreneur  can be seen where the entrepreneurial activities are carried out in different forms of organization.  Percentages of profit making organization  is larger than non-profit making organization.

          In my opinion, entrepreneurship is not only based on profit motive when an entrepreneur starts up his own business. Nowadays, there are some organizations that are not profit making company but they did raising fund to help people. It refers to entrepreneurial activities carried out by social enterprises, NGOs and charitable organizations. The process involve recognition of social problem and the application of the entrepreneurial objectives.

Social Entrepreneurship can become a more popular and important aspects of the entrepreneurship discipline. For example, KECHARA is one of the example of  non-profit making organization and provide ‘ Kechara soup kitchen’ programme  which they search for a fund and volunteers  together help them, give the homeless food and medical treatment. By joining the non- profit organization, we can increase the social entrepreneurs and  it will give deep personal satisfaction of knowing that you are accomplishing something good . Starting a nonprofit allows you to use your business talent, education and experience for the good of humanity or the natural world. This kind of purpose-driven experience can yield intangible rewards that you may find more valuable than any amount of wealth.     

          Furthermore, start up a new business is not only the way for us to be an entrepreneur. Corporate entrepreneurship refers to the entrepreneurial activities carried out in large corporations. Company also have their own way to build business in their organization. The corporate entrepreneur is an individual who exists within an organization to generate product and process ideas that will create value for the organization, its stakeholders and its consumers that buy his products. In order to sustain their existence, the company should create new product or services to their customer.

          Large companies implementing entrepreneurial  culture can receive many benefits to help them tap into innovation and be competitive in this global market. If the company is encouraged to take risks, the employees are allowed to be creative and innovative, it becomes easier to generate new products for the market. It becomes clear from the convincing findings from academics and practitioners that there is a strong link between large organizations using corporate entrepreneurship and their growth and increased profitability due to it being a culture that increases pro-activeness within the organization.

Another benefit of corporate entrepreneurship is that it brings knowledge as everyone in the organization works towards the same goal. This creates valuable knowledge and understanding between all members. Thus the organization develops a continuous knowledge base of information that results in increased and better informed innovative behavior in decision making and risk taking. This increases the company’s competitiveness and ability to  use this knowledge to outperform competition and to become the top player in the market.

Moreover,  as we mentioned before, some organization was establish not only for doing their business, but they provide charity to others. Charitable organizations are a kind of business that fits within the nonprofit organization (NPO) category. In general, this type of entity is sometimes referred to as a charity or foundation, which can be run publicly or privately. Some charities may be centered around religious, educational or other public interest activities that are philanthropic in nature. Depending upon the location of the charity, the legal definition of what constitutes a charitable organization may vary according to its country of origin. Therefore, the tax implications for a charity will also depend upon the region or country in which the charitable organization operates.

          For example, Orphan Care is one of the organization who provide charity services to public. Orphan Care is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose objective is to give orphans and abandoned babies in Malaysia the love, care and security of a family in line. There are increasing numbers of babies born out of wedlock, many of whom are left in waste dumps, bushes, drains, public toilets among other places. Many of these unwed mothers are young and abandon their babies because of the social stigma and legal implications, compounded by a sense of hopelessness due to not knowing whom to turn to. OrphanCare was set up to discourage such women from abandoning their babies by providing the assurance that the babies would be placed in good homes.

By having an organization such as Orphan Care, we can attract more social entrepreneur and independent entrepreneur to help build more charity organization and provide service to them. A non- profit allows you to use your business talent, education and experience for the good of humanity or the natural world. This kind of purpose-driven experience can yield intangible rewards that you may find more valuable than any amount of wealth.