3 responses to “Lughenjo: The Economist starts a not-for-profit”
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Come on Ant, that’s got to be an April fool’s joke gone horribly wrong:
“After four and a half months of sweat and toil we are pleased to announce our idea:
“We’ve codenamed the service “Lughenjo”, an Tuvetan word meaning gift.
Also, didn’t they announce a jaded SNS several months back?: http://open.typepad.com/open/2007/05/mysun_mytelegra.html
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Hi Ant, I think your blog post has really grasped that what we’re doing. The point is that whilst we do have a social objective we will be a for profit company. Ludwig wrote a great post on what it means to be a social business enterprise:
“We are not the only ones who have begun to rethink the divide between profit and social goal. There is a growing “social enterprise” movement. One of its leaders is Muhammad Yunus, who – along with the Grameen Bank he founded – won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to create economic and social benefit from below, notably by pioneering microcredits. He is now promoting another idea that he calls “social business enterprise”. This is an enterprise that has an overarching social goal, but is run like a business – which can include making a profit.
“Once a social entrepreneur operates at 100% or beyond the cost recovery point he has entered the business world with limitless possibilities”, Yunus writes in an article on Grameen Bank’s website. “This is a moment worth celebrating. He has over-come the gravitational force of financial dependence and now is ready for space flight! This is the critical moment of significant institutional transformation. He has moved from the world of philanthropy to the world of business.”
(The full post is here – http://projectredstripe.com/blog/2007/06/29/charity-for-profit/).
Tom – I think it would be harsh to say we announced a ‘jaded social network’.I don’t think it is fair to say Lughenjo is just a me-too social network.
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(Antony – Apologies for using his blog for this discussion).
First of all. Having read your other post (and your comments here with regards to the phenomonal Muhammad Yunus), yes – it certainly seems there’s more to what you’re proposing than I had got from your main post.
And, yes, the idea of for-profit social projects certainly is interesting(although I would hesitate to put justgiving in the same category – they’re a pure for-profit for-profit organisation as far as I can see).
A small point that perhaps you’ll clarify soon is that if the Economist isn’t supporting the cause, what their role in it is?
Second of all, I (and perhaps Antony) had misintrerpreted your blog silence as meaning that your final idea was “just another SNS”. That wasn’t a comment about the new announcement.
Best of luck with it!
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