WHEN in doubt that Jamaica is blessed and has within it the seeds of its redemption, look to the field of entrepreneurship. Sandals, owned by Butch Stewart, is rated by Inter-brand, an organisation specialising in valuing brands, as one of the top 20 brands in the Commonwealth. Each year this newspaper, which is also a member of the Sandals family, hosts an awards ceremony at which it honours business leaders. This year’s competition, like the others that have gone before, reveals the amazing courage and inventiveness of local as well as foreign business people who have invested in the Jamaican dream.

A few weeks ago, the Michael Lee-Chin-controlled National Commercial Bank held its Third Annual Nation Builder Awards function. This year the award went to Jason Henzell and the Treasure Beach-based Jake’s Holdings Limited, a renowned boutique hotel and home of the famous Calabash festival. Jason is also president of Island Outpost, an entity controlled by Chris Blackwell; another entrepreneur with a name that is known to the investment world and with roots firmly planted in Jamaica.

These names are readily recognisable, but Jamaica’s entrepreneurial stream runs quieter and deeper than that. The Global Entrepreneurial Monitor compares countries based on the prevalence of nascent and start-up entrepreneurs. Going back to 2005, Jamaica ranks near the very top. Trying to list names is an exercise in futility. One would exhaust oneself as entrepreneurs of substance are found at every stratum of Jamaican society.

But now there is an interesting game changer being introduced into the mix. The October 4 edition of The Gleaner ran the story: Business boom for Montego Bay — Branson centre creates business opportunity for young entrepreneurs. The story covered the announcement by Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group that it plans to launch the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Montego Bay. Named after group CEO Richard Branson, one of the world’s richest and most alluring figures, the centre will utilise the business incubator concept to spawn, sustain and grow micro-enterprises.

The Branson Centre will target aspiring entrepreneurs 18 – 35 years old who have brilliant ideas in their heads, little or no cash in their pockets, and who are lacking in critical knowledge like business management, marketing and accounting. It will provide them with the necessary mentoring, shared services and financial assistance to ensure the survival and viability of their fledgling businesses. Patrick Casserly of E-Services fame and fortune, who will serve as the centre’s interim chairman, is quoted as saying the following. “Using the community of Flankers in St James is the perfect example for this project. We do not see formal businesses being located there by its residents, yet think of the body of services that such a large community needs within its confines, creating a basis for viability and sustainability”.

Many Jamaican businesses and entrepreneurs have established foundations to manage their investments in the social sector, but this latest approach by Richard Branson marks an interesting crossover into social entrepreneurship. Who is a social entrepreneur? He is someone who applies business knowledge, principles and techniques to solving complex social problems operating in the not-for-profit non-government sector. Simply put, it is someone who has powerful ideas for improving people’s lives without an immediate or apparent profit motive. It is not charity. In the words of Former United States Secretary of Commerce Alexander Trowbridge, “I am not appealing for charity (to solve social problems) but for the application of tough business thinking and shrewd business criteria to these problems.”

Bangladeshi economics professor Muhammad Yunus is the epitome of the social entrepreneur. He is famous for helping poor peasant women, once considered unbankable, to gain access to affordable credit through an innovative group lending process that keeps delinquency lower than in the commercial banking sector. Today, his Grameen Bank stretches worldwide and he has been recognised for his work with a Nobel Prize.

The term social entrepreneur may be relatively new but people doing humanitarian work out of their business acumen have been around for a long time. Mary Seacole, George William Gordon and Marcus Garvey would qualify. There are awards that indirectly try to encourage this novel approach to solving social problems. I have mentioned the Observer Business Leader Award and the NCB Nation Builder Award, both of which emphasise individuals giving back to society. There are also First International Caribbean Bank Unsung Hero Award; Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Civic Personality Award; Gleaner Award for Community Service, and the Michael Manley Foundation Award which recognises outstanding community building effort through self-help.

The field of social entrepreneurship is expanding rapidly and is increasingly being viewed as an alternative career path. The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, left his day job at Microsoft to head the US$50-billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to solving some of the perennial problems affecting people at the bottom of the social and economic pyramid. Social entrepreneurs, like the Gates, are showing that it is possible to do well by doing good.

As is the case with traditional business entrepreneurship, there is a growing trend toward leading universities offering degrees in social entrepreneurship. Right here in Jamaica, Agency for Inner-city Renewal, a community-based organisation in Trench Town, is combining forces with the University College of the Caribbean to develop and offer an MBA degree in the discipline.

Entrepreneurs cannot be accused of having got Jamaica into the economic, moral and social mess that it is in. But it is, nevertheless, social entrepreneurs that are coming to the rescue, “so that Jamaica may, under God, increase in beauty, fellowship and prosperity, and play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race”.

hmorgan@cwjamaica.com