Key Principles of Social Enterprises: Has a clear goal as its core purpose

Customer Discovery
Developing a successful social enterprise is heavily dependent on understanding customer needs. This is primarily done through interviewing people and discussing their hopes, desires, and aspirations. You may not need to talk to a lot of people but it is important you talk to the right ones, whether they are individuals or groups of potential customers or subject matter experts.
Stakeholder analysis: The most effective way to identify who can help to inform your entrepreneurial ideas is to conduct a stakeholder analysis. A stakeholder is a general term used to describe individuals or groups that are actively involved in an entrepreneurial idea or should be based on their vested interests. A stakeholder analysis is a visual representation of your stakeholders which organizes them in a way that prioritizes their value and the effort you should take to engage with them. Below is an example of how a stakeholder analysis could be arranged:



1. High influence, low stake
+Meet their needs, keep satisfied, handle with care.
2. High influence, high stake
+Top player, key priority, keep engaged.
3. Low influence, high stake
+Keep informed, need help to participate.
4. Low influence, low stake
+Low priority, minimal effort.
Thinking back to Nawal’s story, the example above shows what her stakeholder analysis might look like. While the categorization of stakeholders can be objective in some cases, it is important to remember that a stakeholder analysis is flexible so some groups may move between quadrants over time. Below are explanations, by quadrant, describing how Nawal decided to sort her stakeholders:



1. High influence, low stake
+Though the commercial fishing industry and city administrators have high influence due to their positions of power, they are probably not very invested in Nawal’s early-stage enterprise. If either group were concerned about the landfill, a solution would likely have already been developed. While the general public has much potential for influence, they are considered to have a low stake now, however, it is possible for their interest to increase if Nawal engages them more in the future.