Entrepreneurial skills are hugely valuable when it comes to charity work, writes Caroline Madden

JOHN O’SHEA is the epitome of social entrepreneurship, embodying the key traits needed to excel both in the world of business and as a force for positive social change.

Having started out as a sports journalist, O’Shea set up the charity Goal in 1977. In its first year, Goal spent just €2,000 on a street children’s project in Calcutta. It has now spent more than €500 million implementing relief and development programmes in 50 countries. Its aim is clear – to help the poorest of the poor.

Although Goal is a non-profit organisation, business skills such as budgeting and planning have been as important to its survival as any other business.

As is evident from this week's visual case study ( www.irishtimes.com/business/education), O'Shea's entrepreneurial flair has been vital to the organisation's success.

Careful budgeting has enabled Goal to keep down its cost base. In particular, it has succeeded in keeping administration costs exceptionally low. One of the ways in which it has achieved this is through the secondment of staff from the corporate sector.

Keeping administration costs to a minimum is particularly important for charitable organisations as it can make fundraising easier – members of the public considering making a donation are often keen to know that their money will fund frontline services rather than pay for office staff.

In the case study, O’Shea describes how social entrepreneurs can use their business skills to help local communities help themselves.

O’Shea’s dedication to alleviating the suffering of the world’s most needy people was recognised in 2005 when he won the social entrepreneurship category of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Entrepreneurial skills are hugely valuable when it comes to charitable endeavours, but the reverse is also true: businesspeople can benefit greatly from being socially minded in the pursuit of their goals.

This does not mean they have to dedicate their purpose in life to a charitable cause. By simply keeping ethical, social and environmental considerations in mind, they can not only help the local and wider community but they can boost their bottom line.

But with companies concentrating all their energy on the immediate challenge of surviving the current downturn, is social entrepreneurship under threat?

Eibhlín Curley, assistant chief executive of the Dublin City Enterprise Board, thinks this is not necessarily the case. “I don’t think it has fallen off the agenda,” she says.

Curley ran round-table events last year for various sectors of the business community at which topics such as ethical trading and green issues were discussed.

The feedback was mixed, but she says many of the businesspeople who participated regard socially and ethically responsible initiatives as representing a “massive competitive advantage”.

Being able to say their product is eco-friendly or made from renewable resources, for example, can help a business stand out from the crowd. “They are being quite clever about how they do that,” she says. “It’s really about how it is marketed.”

In the food industry, for example, small businesses cannot compete on price with bigger operators, so they must be able to differentiate themselves in another way. One strategy is to focus on niche areas, such as produce that is organic, ethically sourced or produced, or that has a Fair Trade label. “It might be the only thing that makes your product or service stand out from others,” she says.

The Fair Trade movement is increasingly appreciated by consumers, as it guarantees that a large part of the price they pay reaches the producer.

Study aid

This week’s case study ties in with the following area of the Leaving Certificate business studies curriculum:

Unit 6:Ethics and social responsibilities in business – as founder and chief executive of Goal, John O'Shea works with the most vulnerable people in developing countries. He found that by applying his entrepreneurial skills he could help these people.

Unit 2: Enterprise – O'Shea demonstrates some of the key skills and characteristics of an entrepreneur. In particular he is an innovator, risk taker and motivator and is both decisive and realistic.

Business Education Series

THE BUSINESS Education Series provides second-level students with an insight into key business issues, and is published every Friday in the Business This Week supplement.

The entire series can be viewed at www.irishtimes.com/business/education/

It is intended to complement a series of 12 visual case studies available on the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year programme's new online business education channel, www.eoy.tv.

Teacher support notes are also available here. Students can watch the clips at home or in the classroom. The case studies have been developed in collaboration with the Business Studies Teachers’ Association.

Each case study is directly related to the Leaving Certificate business course and links to the curriculum are outlined here each week.