This is a question posed to me when I was in Cairo earlier in February. I had the good fortune to be working with the British Council Egypt and several Egyptian government departments on the creative social enterprise sector.

After wrestling with the existential question, and a brief pause to gather my thoughts, I expanded on a model I have been developing and speaking around for the last couple of years.

I’ve called this the Cairo Model in honour of the place where my thinking became a practical diagnostic tool and template for further action.

The model can help you understand:

• The “problem” and how it is perceived by stakeholders
• What type of activity you can meaningfully do to fix the problem?
• How and what to communicate with the general public and policy makers
• Where resources can come from to support your work

Once you have used the model you should be able to think about the existential question “Is a social enterprise better than a charity?”

The answer, it turns out, is that it depends.

Next month, in part 2 I’ll explain how to use it.

Published: February 25, 2019. Categories: News and Robert's Blog.