Evolving the Social Entrepreneurship Model
In Japan, children in the lower grades are not given tests or stressed academically, but are taught good manners, cleanliness, social responsibility, and other character-building initiatives. Imagine this happening in India. The teacher and school would be admonished, parents would be up in arms, social media would be in a frenzy, and news channels would be talking about “child labor in schools” and hosting a panel of 20 people shouting and abusing each other. In the end, everyone loses.
According to Google, “Japan is exceptionally clean because of a mix of deep cultural values, early school habits, and strict waste systems.” If you were to try this in India and correct someone, you would either have foul language thrown at you, be asked whether the place belongs to your parents, and at times, be slapped or hit. Well, that is what our education system has built: academic performance over societal and character building. So what do schools do? We may have a cleaning day once a year, with photos taken and stories written, but no follow-ups, no systems put in place, and no long-term mindset changes.
Working in rural Madhya Pradesh for the last nine years has been a profound eye-opener. This is a challenging topic, but one that needs to be brought to light nonetheless: How can social enterprises create sustained, systemic social change? How can we make our customers part of the journey where their participation does not end transactionally? And how can we build a feedback mechanism that goes beyond inundating customers with product info, focusing instead on tangible, outcome-based feedback?
India’s 7.8% GDP growth rate for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026–27, according to official data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), comes with many questions. Whether it is 7.8% or 2.6%, the real question is: is the change actually felt on the ground? Many would agree, and many would take the opposite stance, but the truth lies in the information we receive, how we access it, and how we can truly be a part of it.
With the Indian market becoming increasingly grounded in the retail space, companies have to adapt their business tactics. During the India vs. Afghanistan T20I series in September 2026 at New Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium, the concept of “cycling for lighting the board” was part of a unique “green innovation” and sustainability initiative introduced by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). Companies have taken a no-nonsense approach to showing the direct benefits of their products over others. It is time for social enterprises to adopt this same approach.
I find myself deleting messages I get from companies every day on my WhatsApp regarding their products. When we first launched, someone told me, “Aubrey, can you stop sending me info? There is too much.” How do we change the system from that to people asking, “Aubrey, what products can I buy to support your entrepreneurship?” To “Aubrey, what’s happening with your enterprise based on the products I have purchased?”
Let me give you an example. ₹10 from every soap sold went toward a library I was setting up for the school in Udaypur Gaon. We bought books and stationery, and people also donated books. Joanna, after whom I named a soap, set up a stall and donated the proceeds to our village, which we used to buy even more books and stationery. But the tough questions were soon asked: Were the kids actually using the books? Were they making use of the storybooks? Some of the books sent were in English, and even though the teachers were supposed to teach English, they didn’t know it themselves and were just copying text verbatim from the book.
It is like the toilet conundrum. Many toilets have been built, but how many are actually being used? How many have been converted into storehouses? Is there proper plumbing and water facilities, or are they waterless toilets? You see, data is king, but correctly collected data is the emperor.
That is why I started the model mentioned above. How can we support tertiary entrepreneurs while helping set up SDG-oriented, village-sustaining projects? Let us take our vertical gardens into consideration. To secure ingredients for our soaps, I set up a micro-greenhouse using vertical planters.
The breakdown for the various stakeholders is as follows:
Farmers
- Facilitate vegetation diversification
- Allow for newer methods of production and facilitate shift towards organic planting with proper data collection
- Allow for efficient utilization of farm land and water conservation
- Goal of having micro green houses in every farm
The Enterprise
- Help in growing our own organic ingredients
- Help solve any long term supply chain issues
The Children of the Village
- Help in increasing the nutritional aspect of the mid day meal
- Teaching kids about vertical agriculture and creating a platform to learn.
- Help set up the school vertical garden
Towards Customers
- Name Each vertical garden after loyal customers
- Provide periodic data on their respective vertical garden
- Provide a platform to talk to the village and be a part of social shange.
- Allow for idea and feedback implementation
It could be naming a vertical garden after a customer like the below pi
Or
naming a flower bed
Or
Naming a part of the forest after them
Or
Naming a room after them,
The list goes on. Weaving the legacy of our customers with the legacy of our brand is vital for spreading the word and building long-term loyalty. Organic growth driven by our customers is far more powerful than forced expansion.
We want our customers to be a part of our story and our product to be a part of theirs.
