Business planning for social entrepreneurs - Episode 1

Admittedly, this is a pretty grim part of the course: the place where our dreams of changing the world by innovation and goodwill have to come to terms with the "business" in social business – and some of them will come down in flames. It was all about rigour, data, and hard economic logic. Students took it in stride: well done!

Let me remind us of the rules of engagement for this part of the course.

1. we are going to be completely honest and trasparent about our business case. Remember, business planning is a troubleshooting exercise: if you try to camouflage your errors they may not show up – until it's too late, and you are committed to running a crippled business. 
2. we are going to be very upfront with our feedback about each other's business planning. Be generous when praising, merciless when criticizing. No ego massaging or bleeding hearts allowed :-)
3. we are not going to take offense when somebody else exposes our mistakes. This is not personal: criticism is, actually, a very precious gift.

All clear?