‘The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go a little beyond them.
All the way to the impossible’
Arthur C. Clarke
At the centre of social innovation lies ambition, the courage to dream of a better future and, of necessity, the persistence to make it a reality. Ambition is the ignition element that drives social entrepreneurs to overcome obstacles, challenge the status quo and create solutions that positively impact social realities.
What I learnt teaching entrepreneurship:
In the subject of entrepreneurship in higher education, I set students a challenge every year: develop a project that generates a profit of 20 euros from an investment of 5 euros, in just one week. The average initial result? 20 euros, precisely. Intrigued, years later I raised the target to 50 euros. And what was the result? The average profit of the projects also rose to 50 euros. The same thing happened when the target was raised to 100 euros.
This simple but powerful experience illustrates a fundamental principle: ambition drives results and innovation. When we set ambitious targets, we force creativity and ingenuity to flourish. We look for potentially innovative solutions, explore new paths and go further in our efforts to achieve the desired results.
Ambition as the driving force behind social innovation:
In the context of social innovation, ambition plays an even more crucial role. It drives us not to settle for superficial or palliative solutions, but to seek transformative responses that tackle the roots of social problems.
Ambition motivates us to think big, to imagine a world where poverty, inequality and social injustice are eradicated. It inspires us to create innovative solutions that empower communities, promote social inclusion and build a fairer, more sustainable future for all. It urges us to start local, but to constantly focus on growing and thus having a greater impact.
The Portuguese social innovation ecosystem:
I've been involved, in different roles, in the Portuguese social innovation ecosystem for roughly 14 years. During this time I've had the privilege of seeing the ecosystem grow, with the mapping of social innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives, the dozens of qualification programmes that have disseminated concepts and tools on the subject, and I've also seen the emergence of new agents and resources in the field of social innovation funding.
I do, however, miss seeing broadly transformative social innovation initiatives reaching a significant scale of intervention. The vast majority of flagship projects in our ecosystem over this period have grown little, stagnated or even ended.
I believe that we will achieve better results by being more ambitious. Being more ambitious means being more demanding when designing projects, more demanding when designing business models that allow for growth and sustainability. It means using technology and science in the service of social impact. It means attracting the best talent to serve these initiatives.
We have many cases of social entrepreneurs and their initiatives that already have a very significant social impact, and we should applaud them. Initiatives such as the Portuguese Aphasia Institute in caring for people with aphasia, or Fruta Feia in reducing food waste are examples of good projects that make a difference every day.
However, I would like to point to Sword Health, one of Portugal's unicorns, which intervenes in pain relief and physiotherapy care using artificial intelligence, as the greatest Portuguese example. Many people probably won't recognise, or will dispute, the idea of considering this company as the flagship of social innovation. But for me, no other initiative has achieved such impact and scalability.
With a mission to lift 2 billion people out of pain, with more than 2.5 million physiotherapy sessions completed and as one of the 30 fastest growing companies in the United States, this is an example of ambition and achievement that should inspire us to go further in creating a better world!
