The Social Entrepreneur's Playbook, Expanded Edition: Pressure Test, Plan, Launch and Scale Your Social Enterprise

Ian C. MacMillan · James D. Thompson

Nov 2013 · University of Pennsylvania Press

About this ebook

Available for the First Time: The Complete Social Entrepreneur's Playbook

Covers all three phases of the start-up to scale-up process, developed with reader feedback from "one of the more unusual ebook...experiments of the year" (ThinReads)

Wharton professor Ian C. MacMillan and Dr. James Thompson, director of the Wharton Social Entrepreneurship Program, provide a tough-love approach that significantly increases the likelihood of a successful social enterprise launch in the face of the high-uncertainty conditions typically encountered by social entrepreneurs.

MacMillan and Thompson used their own systematic framework to publish The Social Entrepreneur's Playbook. To test the market, they offered the first phase in their start-up method (step 1) as a free ebook. Readers were invited to join The Social Entrepreneur's Advisory Group, and nearly 300 aspiring and active social entrepreneurs shared feedback that helped shape the complete edition of the book, which covers all three steps in the start-up to scale-up process.

Based on this crowd-sourced feedback from readers of the free ebook and drawing on the authors' more than 26 years' combined experience developing and studying social enterprises in the field across Africa and in the United States, this new edition provides guidance for each phase:

Phase One: Pressure Test Your Start-Up Idea. Based on the free ebook, this expanded section now includes advice on setting revenue and social impact goals, how to navigate the sociopolitical landscape, and how to develop a strong concept statement. In addition, MacMillan and Thompson provide advice on how to identify and test a proposed revenue-generating solution and define and segment your target population.
Phase Two: Plan Your Social Enterprise. All new to this edition, this critical phase shows you how to frame and scope the venture, determine what it will take to actually deliver a sustainable enterprise, identify the key assumptions that have been made, and design checkpoints to test those assumptions before making major investments.
Phase Three: Launch and Scale Your Social Enterprise. Available for the first time in this edition, you will learn how to effectively launch your enterprise, manage upside potential and downside risk, and strategically scale up.

Filled with accessible frameworks and tools, as well as inspiring stories of social entrepreneurs, The Social Entrepreneur's Playbook is a must-read for any aspiring or active social entrepreneur, as well as philanthropists, foundations, and nonprofits interested in doing more good with fewer resources.

Includes access to downloadable planning documents, including user-friendly spreadsheets

About the author

Ian (Mac) C. MacMillan is the academic director of the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center and Dhirubhai Ambani professor of entrepreneurial management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has also been a director of companies in the travel, import/export and pharmaceutical businesses in the United States, South Africa, Canada, Hong Kong, and Japan. He has also consulted to numerous companies, including Microsoft, DuPont, General Electric, IBM, and Citibank. He is coauthor of the bestselling books Corporate Venturing, The Entrepreneurial Mindset, Market Busters, Unlocking Opportunities for Growth, and Discovery Driven Growth. James D. Thompson, PhD, is co-founder and director of the Wharton Social Entrepreneurship Program. His current research is focused on social entrepreneurship, future market growth, and investment under conditions of high uncertainty. He has extensive experience in Africa and works around the world with organizations intent on growth in value. Jim has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Journal of Management, Long Range Planning, Management Science, Organization Science, and the Research-Technology Management Journal.