Is Walmart promoting social entrepreneurship in Africa by Brian Dinning?

What is a social entrepreneur?

In our world today, social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.

Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.  Bill and Melinda Gates are the leading examples of social entrepreneurs in our world today dedicated vast resources to tackling some of the world’s most pressing societal issues.

Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else.

Each social entrepreneur presents ideas that are user-friendly, understandable, ethical, and engage widespread support in order to maximize the number of local people that will stand up, seize their idea, and implement with it. In other words, every leading social entrepreneur is a mass recruiter of local changemakers—a role model proving that citizens who channel their passion into action can do almost anything.

Why “Social” Entrepreneur?

Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.

Historical Examples of Leading Social Entrepreneurs:

• Susan B. Anthony (U.S.): Fought for Women’s Rights in the United States, including the right to control property and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment.
• Vinoba Bhave (India): Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres of land to aid India’s untouchables and landless.
• Dr. Maria Montessori (Italy): Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education.
• Florence Nightingale (U.K.): Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions.
• Margaret Sanger (U.S.): Founder of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she led the movement for family planning efforts around the world.
• John Muir (U.S.): Naturalist and conservationist, he established the National Park System and helped found The Sierra Club.
• Jean Monnet (France): Responsible for the reconstruction of the French economy following World War II, including the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC and the European Common Market were direct precursors of the European Union.

“Social Entrepreneurs are changing the face of the world around us. With all major universities offering business courses on social entrepreneurship, we are training future leaders to promote social ventures to change society and our world, ” says Ray Dinning.

South Africa and Walmart – Unions tough business for Walmart by Brian Dinning

Adapted from http://www.fastcompany.com:

When Walmart announced plans to buy South African retailer Massmart Holdings for roughly $4.25 billion last week, pundits could not stop talking about the implications for African business.

After all, Massmart is one of the country’s biggest retailers, with 232 domestic stores under brand names including Game (discount store) and Builders’ Warehouse (hardware/home), among others. Massmart has 24 additional locations throughout the continent, most of them in neighboring Botswana.

But the big story is how South Africa’s unions will handle the retail giant, who some labor factions say, is known for an anti-labor stance and accusations of worker mistreatment.

As the deal unfolds, Walmart, Massmart and South Africa’s labor unions are all strategizing and spinning as best they can. In the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the nation’s largest trade federation, it is even causing internal rifts.

COSATU’s Western Cape branch announced its opposition to the planned purchase hours after news went public. Its statement accused Walmart of being “notoriously anti-union” and called for “urgent national action from the government to investigate this hostile move by Walmart … Companies whose practice it is to abuse workers rights are not welcome in South Africa.”

Meanwhile, COSATU’s national leadership is borderline bipolar. The labor federation put out a long list of concerns on behalf of constituent member the South Africa Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union. The COSATU national/SACCAWU statement praised Walmart for making Massmart’s share price jump by more than 10% while accusing the international chain giant of 14 different counts of anti-union activities. For good measure, Walmart was also accused of being “one of the worst and stubbornly anti-union companies in the world” and of enacting a “severe blow to all our intentions and attempts to build and develop local manufacturing.” However, the statement also left a door open to work with Massmart during the transition and indicated that the union is grudgingly accepting the likelihood of takeover.

As for Massmart, they are doing what every retailer who hits the multinational jackpot does: Playing it safe. The chain posted two short statements on Sept. 27 and 28, attempting to put the best possible face possible on the union front. The first statement hesistantly notes that “Walmart has relationships with unions, at some level, in approximately half of the countries in which it operates.” Another statement takes great pains to note that Massmart is “committed to the principles of freedom of association for our employees and regard union membership as an important indicator of this commitment” and that “Walmart will honour pre-existing union relationships and abide by South African Labour law.”

The reaction on the South African street has been mixed. Massmart’s shares, as noted, have seen a solid jump. Above all, there seems to be joy on the part of South Africa’s business community that an African retail firm could score a multi-billion dollar deal. An editorial in the influential Mail & Guardian newspaper sums up the purchase as “the story of a dramatically changing world order, one in which cash is flowing ever faster out of developed economies towards the opportunities offered by emerging markets” that compensates for South Africa’s sub-BRIC performance. The Mail & Guardian‘s editors, however, also note that the nation is likely to enter a period of “truly savage retail competition” and that Wal-Mart’s relations with local unions will be, at best, rocky.

Jeremy Daniel of South African business blog Memeburn also notes the contrast. By email, he notes that the country’s business community is “excited about the deal and sees it as a vote of confidence in the country,” while also describing South African unions as “extremely wary” and fearing a “loss of control” once the likely Walmart deal goes through.

But the reality for Walmart’s labor union relations in South Africa, ultimately, is destined to be muddled—and an instructive lesson for other multinationals entering African retail. COSATU and other local labor federations are far more powerful than their American counterparts—and far more likely to take up an antagonistic attitude towards Yankee newcomers.