Destinationbg-en
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reason) of being used as a channel for money laundering and as artificial screens for “entrepreneurs” to gain access to funds entirely for their own benefit. This is the reason why they have to aim at becoming leaders.
NGOs should become the best run and the most efficient organizations of all.
They have to be the best in innovation, sales, customer service, transparency, social networking and partnerships; in attracting employees, measuring results and creating experiences – in short, in everything. They need to aim high because their products and services are the most difficult to sell and, as is the case with social businesses, they are competing with everybody else on the market. The first step in the process is to change the way we describe them – the term non-governmental organizations does not sound well, carries a negative connotation and determines their position not according to their role but according to the state institutions. Social organizations is a much better option. The second step is to develop their own business models, differentiating between beneficiaries and clients. Clients of a social organization are the ones that provide funding (in the form of campaign donations, for example), while the beneficiaries of its actions usually consist of a different group of people (elderly people in a nursing home). Therefore, social organizations need to start treating their clients as real clients and not only pay attention to the beneficiaries. They should provide real added value and not just beg for money in exchange for the altruistic feeling you get when you contribute to a good cause. The third step is to regain the trust of the communities, to defend their cause and to prove their value as organizations which can launch, support and develop real projects for tangible social change – both for isolated groups of people in small towns, as well as for the population in large cities.
If we want to become number one in social innovation, the potential of our local organizations and institutions will not be sufficient. We have to attract investors and partners from all over the globe who follow a similar path 39 / Home and who can contribute to the development of our own image. This is the only way to establish long-lasting relationships, regardless of the global economic outlook. We would have something much more important than financial interest to keep us together – a shared social interest. So far, each and every investor has asked us: “What more can you give compared to the others?” It is time for us to respond with a question ourselves:
“What more can you give for our social development compared to the others?”
We need to carefully select investors and attract those who bring the greatest added value for our society. Patagonia is an example of a clothing company with an almost fanatical social engagement and a strong commitment towards sustainable environment. I would be glad to bring them here so we can work together and make their products and services even better. Another guiding principle is collaboration – to be the best at what we do, we have to partner up with the best out there. If Ireland wants to become the center for innovation in Europe, we have to be able to offer them something connected to our vision – people, expertise or business models. This is not an innovation competition – it is a partnership for creating even greater added value in the spirit of social change. I already gave the example of Coca-Cola’s back office. Yes, it will create jobs and will send signals to other large investors. But this will not bring us any closer to our goal. We can make a difference if we are able to attract Coca- Cola’s center for social innovation. And if it doesn`t exist yet, we should encourage them to create one and set up it in Bulgaria (or at least to relocate their Foundation here).
We have one more task – to attract the leaders in social innovation research to Bulgaria; people, universities, think tanks and consulting companies whose ideas and insight are renowned worldwide. We should aim at having the best academic programs in social entrepreneurship, the largest number of kindergartens using design thinking and the biggest number of researchers looking for new global models for social innovation. The more ideas we welcome now, the more solutions will emerge in the future. 40 / Home What comes next To turn Bulgaria into a market for social innovation with a world-class expertise, we need bold solutions, pooling of resources and building capacity. These are several concrete ideas on how to begin:
accelerated practical training in social innovation, design thinking and creating experiences for large companies (especially for senior management), startups and social organizations. They could be organized individually or group several organizations together so they can collaborate and share their experiences. Simultaneously, we can launch top-class social innovation and design thinking educational programs in kindergartens and schools. We can also initiate the most ambitious academic university programs in the field in partnership with institutions such as Stanford d.school, companies such as IDEO, Frog Design, Ziba and Doblin, organizations such as Acumen Fund and Ashoka, centres such as Clayton Christensen Institute.
made here should comply with locally created and implemented standards for measuring the social value they bring to our society. We should aim at creating the best such standard in the world, thus sending a very clear signal that social innovation is our priority. It can be initiated not by the government, but by a group of companies and organizations, which adhere to it and extend it to others. Shared workspaces across the country – this idea isn`t a new one and it isn`t mine, but it is very suitable for our vision. There is a network of „smart work centres” in small towns in the Netherlands, usually located near a train station, with all necessary facilities such as internet access, workspaces and conference rooms. People don`t need to spend the rush hours in traffic jams, especially if their jobs don`t require them to remain in constant personal contact with a head of state or a CEO. People who work in the city but live outside of it and don`t need to stay in the office all day can also work there, as well as people who prefer the more relaxed atmosphere of the countryside. Imagine using two Bulgarian co-working spaces – betahaus and SOHO – as a model and applying it on a national scale, in sync with the needs of the local community and supporting its development with various initiatives. 41 /
Home Office space for social projects – office buildings are the ones that most often do not fit in the surrounding environment - not in terms of architecture, but in terms of their commitment to it. We have an abundance of empty office space – instead of waiting for large-scale tenants real estate developers and consultants can shake up the business model by allocating part of their space and accommodating a variety of social initiatives and entrepreneurs.
Bulgaria stopped the EU funds for social innovation because of lack of interest and relocated them to other programs. This could change if we adopt a vision for social innovation, but those funds won`t be enough. We need specific high-risk venture funds with patient capital that do not seek immediate returns and invest in long-term projects for social entrepreneurship. Rumen Avramov uses the term chronic disease to describe the fundamental lack of capital in Bulgaria, which often leads to a constant redistribution of resources and creates “fake capitalists” who have nothing to do with the market. Venture capital for social funding can be obtained through European funds since we already have them. The positive development of the Bulgarian startup accelerators Eleven and LAUNCHub gives additional reasons for that. In addition, a vision for social innovation on a European scale, launched by Bulgaria as a key stakeholder, might lead to the utilization of even more EU funds in this direction.
hosting monthly or yearly events of various scale, where we can discuss new trends in social transformation together with governments, companies, organizations and social innovators. This is a step towards becoming a thought leader in generating new ideas and concepts for the development of the field that will serve the bigger purpose of becoming number one. Co-creation programs for companies – rather than attracting interns and keeping them busy with routine administrative tasks, companies could utilize their creativity capacity and entrust them to seek innovative solutions for business development. The goal is to turn the idea of doing an internship on its head and imagine it not as something boring and trivial but as a possibility for direct involvement with the most important problems of the company. 42 /
Home Social innovation manuals – Frog Design, IDEO and Edutopia have created manuals which are attractive, clear, easy to understand, containing basic knowledge and advice for societal change, development of community initiatives and design thinking. We can create similar guides tailored to specific areas and local issues to be used by any person or entity in an easy and practical way. It`s always good to have the essentials near at hand in order to quickly move forward.
learn about good examples of social innovation currently being implemented. We can run campaigns aimed at promoting everything that works in the field, demonstrating why it works and suggesting how others can use it. In other words – we have to start celebrating all of our successes, not only our sporting achievements. The story As far as I remember, the year in which we officially become destination number one for social innovation is 2035. Surely it`s important to have a reference point in the future, but it is not the most important thing. What matters most is that we have a realistic opportunity to tell ourselves and the rest of the world a real, believable story that is ambitious and fascinating at the same time. We are starting from a position of weakness, unsolved problems and negative attitude. It might be a good thing, in a way, because the expectations towards us are practically nonexistent. What we need to do now is change our own expectations about what we are capable of. No one would be happy to have us on board because we are Bulgarians, but because we are doing amazing things that bring about genuine, visible change. Here is one version of the story we could tell in the future: 43 / Home “Throughout its existence, Bulgaria has been a country in constant social transformation. Many peoples have passed through our lands and everyone has left something. Although we live in a world where uncertainty is the norm, we actually feel pretty comfortable - not because we live in the best possible way, but because every day is an adventure. We used our environment to become the best in something that every country will need in the coming decades – social innovation. Our position as a European Union member state still bothered by problems more typical for the developing world may seem strange, but provided us with a valuable perspective. Our incertitude seemed like a disadvantage, but happened to be our greatest asset – it helped us seek and discover new solutions that we implemented locally and quickly yielded concrete results. All of this was accomplished by people with personal social responsibility and communities striving for social change; because of state institutions seeking to strengthen their ties with citizens and society as a whole; with the help of companies and organizations, which use design thinking and create experiences in order to make our lives better and more meaningful. Bulgaria has already become the number one destination for social innovation, offering the best and latest solutions to important problems, which can be used, transformed and remixed all over the world. Because we always find a way.” This story sounds good. We cannot say that it`s real yet. Today is a good day to start making it happen. This is why it`s our own vision – because we are not waiting for anyone to give us a starting signal.
We are ready. 44 / Home Georgi Kamov What I do for a living is to make change happen. I create new ideas and bring them to life with companies and organizations. I also lead workshops, lectures and presentations that ignite change. Before that I established and ran the innovation consultancy Nextdoor; managed leadership training programs in the Bulgarian School of Politics; developed Bulgaria`s Black Sea policy while working at our Foreign Ministry; wrote papers for think-tanks in Brussels and studied European studies in Nice. I spend the rest of my time exploring the world through the eyes of my ever-smiling son, taking pictures, skiing in deep powder, birdwatching and playing drums.
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More about me at about.me/gkamov I write about change at innovationation.tumblr.com Get in touch with me at gkamov@me.com Download a resume of the text at bit.ly/destinationbgsum-en The copyright of this work belongs to the author, who is solely responsible for its content. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. The cover photo is an author`s image taken in the village of Khan Asparuhovo, close to Stara Zagora. Now, back to work. 45
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