We’re thrilled to announce that our CEO Dave Shaffer has been named a semifinalist for the second year in a row in Ernst & Young’s 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year® Awards.
Of the 2011 Finalists last year, Dave was unique in representing one of the very few nonprofit organizations honored for its entrepreneurial thinking. …
On the eve of the SEEED 2012 Conference at Brown University, we wanted to share a case study by Professor Silvia Dorado, University of Rhode Island, and our own Dave Shaffer, President & CEO of DePaul Industries, entitled “Governance among Confounding Logics: The Case of DePaul Industries.” The case study was published in the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship (Taylor & Francis Group) in March 2011. Both Professor Dorado and Mr. Shaffer are featured speakers at the SEEED 2012 Conference, which takes place this Friday and Saturday.
The case study concerns the difficulties facing social enterprises, specifically as a blend of nonprofit organizations focusing on social impact and for-profit organizations focusing on financial and competitive effectiveness. Professor Dorado selected DePaul Industries to observe, focusing on the pace of decision-making by its Board of Directors as a contributing factor to the organization’s success.
The study noted that “board decision-making in social enterprises, as that in nonprofits, is framed by a variegated set of interests and framed by a plurality of legitimate expectations that define organizational effectiveness.” Social enterprises by design necessitate worrying about mission impact and profitability simultaneously. DePaul Industries’ board focus historically has steered the growth of the organization with an entrepreneurial bent, focusing on growing mission impact by growing revenue and innovation. Therefore, it is important to consider timely decision-making to ensure that business is relevant to labor market changes and that impact metrics (in DePaul’s case, the number of hours worked by people with disabilities) are continuing to grow.
One of our board members summed up our organization design perfectly: “In the same spirit that DePaul provides employment instead of handouts for people with disabilities, DePaul finances itself with the revenue that it earns instead of with the contributions of donors.” In other words, if our mission is to create employment opportunities so that people can support themselves, we’re going to approach supporting the organization in the same way. The case study makes clear that DePaul Industries is a particular type of social enterprise—one in which social mission and financial goals are “operationally integrated.” The manner in which we’ve always done business does, in fact, have a unique standing in the field of social enterprise: We are an integrated social venture, with money and mission purposefully intertwined.
The paper’s findings attribute DePaul’s board’s efficiency in decision-making to a number of factors, with two key stand-out points:
• Potential for social mission expansion is crucial for boards of social enterprises to overcome concerns with the financial impact of a specific decision.
• Agreed upon metrics of control to measure mission fulfillment crucially define whether any particular decision is perceived as resulting in mission erosion.
Interested in learning more, but can’t attend the conference? Follow #SEEED2012 on Twitter for more information on Professor Dorado and Mr. Shaffer’s presentations, as well as for other great information on the economics of social entrepreneurship.
Are you a social enterprise? Leave a comment below to share information about your board decision-making processes.
We’re proud to announce that DePaul Industries has been named one of Oregon’s 100 Best Companies to Work For by Oregon Business magazine for the second year in a row—and are one of the few not-for-profit organizations on the list.
This honor is particularly important to us, of course, being in the business of employing people. Scoring high marks from employee evaluations in categories such as work environment, management & communications, and decision-making & trust is something we take very seriously and with great pride. Our CEO used last year’s survey results to implement some of the changes suggested by employees, and our workplace scored even higher in this year’s survey results.
Moreover, we’re proud that the business approach we take in serving our customers in our Staffing, Security, and Food Packaging & Contract Manufacturing divisions is particularly evident in our ranking here among nearly all for-profit companies. Our significant expansion plans are borne out of demand from our customers wanting to work with us and create more jobs. Having a great workplace with dedicated people on board is how we’re going to do it.
There’s also a great piece on our plans for growth in the same ’100 Best’ Oregon Business magazine issue by reporter Amanda Waldroupe. Read it here.
Want a peek into our workplace from the 2011 ’100 Best’ video? Watch it online, or the DePaul-specific spot below:
Want to know how to drive the economy through social enterprise? DePaul Industries’ CEO Dave Shaffer, a 2011 Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, will be a featured speaker at this year’s Social Enterprise Ecosystem and Economic Development (SEEED) summit.
The SEEED summit is a national conference that celebrates the growth of social enterprise, with a particular focus on its role as an economic development driver. Held on March 16-17, 2012 at Brown University, it brings together experienced leaders from around the country to share best practices in the rapidly growing field of social enterprise. Dave will be speaking about the DePaul Industries integrated social venture model of employing people with disabilities by driving business success, and will be joined by other high-profile speakers from organizations in the social enterprise sector, such as Ashoka, Keen Design Studio, Network for Good, and Social Enterprise Alliance.
Interested in attending this one-of-a-kind conference? Register now >>>
Want to learn more about the “marrying of market forces and social change?”
Watch this brief introductory video about SEEED 2012:
There’s a great radio overview of the DePaul Industries’ business model at 105.1 FM The Buzz, highlighting our various business units and how we operate a integrated social venture—successfully helping business and people with disabilities simultaneously. It’s an interview with CEO Dave Shaffer from a little over a year ago, but it is still supremely relevant to the way we operate:
“Our business is completely competitively driven. There are no excuses. People are not hiring us or engaging us because we employ people with disabilities. They’re engaging us because they need to have the work done.”
Listen to the interview at 105.1 The Buzz.
