Helping entrepreneurs do good: U of T alumni in Taiwan

Talk about being in the right place at the right time with the right stuff. That’s the vantage point of some recent Arts & Science graduates who are making sense of the wave of social innovation and social enterprise sweeping across Taiwan and the surrounding region.

Founded as the Social Innovation Research Group and recently renamed Surge, the organization is a platform created to exchange knowledge about the phenomena across East and Southeast Asia. The group observes and analyzes social programs that do good by benefiting people while doing well in terms of being financially sustainable, whether sponsored by government, corporations, NGOs or individuals. They then share what they learn and encourage others to pursue their own activities.

“Social innovation is a way of reinventing the status quo,” said Asia-Pacific studies and international relations graduate Remi Kanji, one of the group’s co-founders. “For low- and middle-income countries where traditional mechanisms for creating equitable social access and value are still finding their feet, it’s a citizen-oriented way of kick-starting the process.”

To understand the trajectory of social innovation in Taiwan and learn how and why some programs succeed or fail, the members of Surge interview organizations, entrepreneurs and thought leaders to identify factors influencing achievement and which models of innovation work in particular contexts. An innovative start-up itself, the group acts as consensus brokers for building policy agendas and entrepreneurial ecosystems that create value in Taiwan and beyond.

Among the more successful operations they’ve already come across is an agency known as Aurora Social Enterprise Company that connects geographically isolated Taiwanese farmers with markets willing to pay a premium for their products, and a health care provider helping to facilitate drug delivery to consumers.

“There’s a lack of information about social enterprise and social innovation as it’s happening in Taiwan,” said international relations and political science graduate Melinda Jacobs, another of Surge’s original members. “Telling these stories hasn’t been a priority of academia or the media here, so a functional party able to interact with all stakeholders has yet to emerge. As external players, we’re able to inform individual parties and bring them together without a commercial or political agenda.”

The group also spreads information about the sector abroad by sharing their findings on networks like Socialfinance.ca, the Guardian Social Enterprise Network, and other platforms.

Organized through the Asian Institute, Surge was assembled by Asian Institute director Joseph Wong. The group works closely with the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei and U of T’s Global Innovation Group, a partnership among top researchers in health, business and politics created to address social problems in developed and underdeveloped economies. After only a year of operation, Surge has also set up networks and connections with social innovation groups in such places as China and Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.

The group recently deepened its collaboration with U of T to share some of its research and findings with students enrolled in programs at the Munk School of Global Affairs. Surge will also arrange for internships for U of T students with organizations they work with in Asia for the purpose of learning and professional development.

Kanji credits Surge’s swift success to their studies at U of T which prepared them for the work they’re doing.

“We had the chance to do valuable field research here during undergrad and meet with high-level officials on various occasions,” she said. “There’s an art to doing different types of interviews, and without having initial guidance on how to ask questions during things like the Asian Institute’s field school and making a documentary about political identity during Taiwan’s 2012 elections, we would have had a much harder time with this.”

Wong suggests Surge is simply another example of the sort of thing that U of T provides for students to practice what they are already capable of doing.

“All of the students expressed their own interest in getting involved,” says Wong. “The real key for students is finding sources to add value to their education. Our job is to provide experiential learning opportunities to put them in places where they can experience the things that pique their curiosity.”

Kanji says the group’s mission is to help others develop opportunities to use their own skills to do good.

“You don’t have to be an entrepreneur, have a business background or undergo extensive training to generate social impact,” she says. “We want more people to realize they have the potential to be a changemaker and go for it.”

Sean Bettam is a writer with the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto.