Community Challenges Business

A number of years ago, we came to the conclusion that much more job creation would be needed in South African communities and that business should get much more involved in this area than was currently the case. As businessmen and women, we saw this as a growing challenge for the community in which we conducted business. We needed a solution in which business and concerned members of the public could play a practical role that was sustainable.

We considered that more businessmen and women should view the community the way that a farmer views the land that he prepares for seed sowing, eventually reaping a rich harvest as the result of focused caring, nurturing and effort.

We believe that the more business sows into the community, the more they will reap a rich harvest of goodwill that will result in more business and prosperity. It will be in the interest of business to think and act the same way as the good farmer.

Taking up the challenge, we applied 2-Tier (Business + Community) Entrep-reneurship. This strategy means that business will fill a leadership void in the community, in the critical area of job creation, with a plan that applies business solutions to address social challenges and thereby achieve the best results for the community in ways in which all are winners, including business.

BBN is a Social Entrepreneur Enterprise.

A social entrepreneur is a businessman or woman who sees a need in the community and addresses it as a business. In this respect, BBN is registered for profit and is accountable for its own successes and failures.

Our thinking is that aid ultimately undermines and creates expectations which often cannot be sustained by donors, particularly in tough times. We believe it is better to learn entrepreneurship, from those that must run their operation as entrepreneurs, to ensure survival. Their experience, passed to our learners, is invaluable for the growth of our learners as seasoned entrepreneurs and job creators.

In this way BBN expects to inspire and develop a generation and ultimately a nation of job creators and community leaders, in partnership with our alliance partners.