The Social Entrepreneur's Playbook, Expanded Edition: Pressure Test, Plan, Launch and Scale Your Social Enterprise

I've recommended this book to several people who are starting up new non-profit organizations and businesses alike. This was a textbook for a course I took and while I have no interest in starting up anything again, I truly wish I had had this guide when I was developing programs in the past. Easy to read, incredibly helpful, step by step guide to getting a major project off the ground and building it successfully.

I am a business management professor looking to get into social enterprise as I move on to my "second act." Whether social enterprise will be your "first act" career or second act this is a great book to read to ground you in either developing your own social enterprise or jumping on board one that exists.Written by two Wharton business professors affiliated with it's social enterprise center, this book is top flight. Although the examples in the book are taken from the developing world, the Playbook can be applied to any social enterprise anywhere.The book brings the reader from "breathing life" into the social entrepreneur's initial "big idea" to scaling up a successful startup for the next level. Along the way it informs the reader of many of the business basics needed to make hard nosed decisions. Using one of the authors' Discovery Directed Planning (read developing a living business plan that continually challenges critical basic assumptions) previously published in the Harvard Business Review for regular enterprises, the reader is introduced to a fairly wide range of business tools and concepts (e.g., return on sales, return on investment, etc.) in easily understood language and application and geared to the social enterprise in particular. For example, although the authors do not use the term SROI (social return on investment) they do an excellent job of introducing the reader to easily understood metrics in order to measure social impact, which is absolutely essential to get external funding from government or philanthropic sources. As another example, the authors fine tune applications of marketing and stakeholder assessment to the particular needs and challenges of social enterprises.Any business professor will tell you that an entrepreneur's initial small business is often an act of love--an endeavor that often blinds him or her to the harsh realities and hard nose decisions that need to be made with blinders off. Social enterprises are subject to the same harsh realities but subject to even more blind spots because of the big hearts they bring to their creations. The Social Entrepreneur's Playbook gives the reader the "tough love" (in a loving way) the beginning social entrepreneur needs while providing those who are somewhat more developed to acquire the tools and techniques they will also find necessary for their work as they scale up.I have been reading and reviewing at a number of books and articles, have been interviewing social entrepreneurs and enterprise workers, and have been investigating social enterprises worldwide in my "gearing up" for my second act (doing the typical "professor thing"). The Social Entrepreneur's Playbook ranks right up there with the top flight material I have come across.If you are interested in social enterprise--buy this book.

Had to read for my entrepreneurship program. It's not something I would have read otherwise, but the case studies actually made the reading more enjoyable than most text books. If you're trying to be a social entrepreneur this is a great book. For everyone else it's an intro that won't bore you to death.

Finally a book that provides a full play by play of how to set up a SE, not just concepts and theories! It’s like having a thoroughly experienced mentor at your side each step of the way. To have guidance through the process of taking your idea live or as the authors say from possible to plausible to probable and finally to plannable is invaluable. I would highly recommend that anyone interested in starting or investing in a SE read this book and take seriously their pressure testing tools, utilizing the checklist and tough love test at the end of each chapter as a mandatory step in the process of evaluating the plausibility and marketability of the idea. The SEs that they highlight to provide genuine examples of their recommended actions make it all come to life and helps to illustrate clearly the potential issues that are likely to arise in the process of bringing your SE to market or to scale. This is definitely a must-read (and must-follow) for anyone involved in the SE space! --By Natalie Miller

As a professor of social entrepreneurship, I have been looking for an thorough "how to" guide for would-be social entrepreneurs that would be easy for my students to understand. I wanted something that was not intimidating, but not 'Pollyanna' either. MacMillan and Thompson hit it out of the park with the Social Entrepreneur's Playbook. Their "tough love" approach, coupled with easy to use tools really do force the reader to thoroughly vet their ideas through a realistic (yet easy to use) process that results in a more viable social enterprise. I have poured through so many books on the subject that is very difficult for me to be genuinely impressed...and in this instance I have been blown away. Any social entrepreneur would be well-served to have AND USE this book in planning and launching a social venture.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to start a social enterprise. This book is very easy to read, provides sufficient examples, and gives a step-by-step process to launch a venture with impact. As someone currently working in the field, I wish I would've read this book much earlier. The tools that this book provides are now indispensable to me and my team in our quest for social impact.

The book starts on the right track emphasizing on social entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, the book turns into a start up manual and losses its focus.

Being active in this field, I will be able to be far more effective - not just another "dry" academic treatise but a HANDBOOK in the true sense of the word - will be of great value in mapping our various projects and turning them from feasibility to reality. Looking forward very much to "Volume II!" Well Done & Thank You, Gentlemen!