Barloworld Limited: Leading Brands

Barloworld Mbewu subscribes to the following definition of what a social enterprise is:

• It is a mission or purpose driven organisation that seeks to solve a social challenge
• By using entrepreneurial skills, it practices a blended operating model balancing for profit and for social impact
• It is an organisation that reinvests any surpluses, generated in the enterprise, into greater social impact creation
• In simpler terms, a social enterprise is a very special type of business, one that often services the underserved in society, it is a type of operating model that combines for-profit and non-profit models. In other words, it offers products or services to customers who are not necessarily able to afford them from anyone else. The social enterprise balances the social impact it creates with the profit it makes and should there be any financial surpluses, those surpluses flow back into the enterprise so that it can make a greater social impact

• The Barloworld Mbewu programme will individually assess the needs of the applying social enterprise and the individual stage and development of the enterprise is taken into account. Support is tailored to each social enterprises' individual stage of business and its readiness to scale

• The Barloworld Mbewu incubation will be tailored to the social enterprise stage of development and starts with committed incubation for at least 12 months. At Barloworld we believe that the social enterprise, the entrepreneur and environment (which includes beneficiaries of product and service) must work hand in hand and that an enabling ecosystem remains our biggest opportunity
• The successful applicant will enter into a relationship with Barloworld and will be supported through the targeted interventions:
  • Tailor made capacity building and business incubation support specifically designed for the social enterprise
  • Funding based on the enterprise ability to scale up their positive impact on communities
  • Facilitated access to additional support from our strategic partners

• Organisations run by South African citizens
• Organisations that are operational for more than one year
• Organisations active in marginalised and previously disadvantaged communities are preferred
• Organisations active in education, industrial technology, agro-processing, agriculture, green economy or groundbreaking social innovation/technology that addresses local challenges

Candidates will be shortlisted based on the information contained in the video clips submitted on www.barloworld.com/mbewu as well as using the selection criteria.

A winning social enterprise must be able to meet the three broad selection categories with additional team capabilities and innovation as additional consideration

• Social Impact
  • Is able to demonstrate clearly defined social, economic and environmental problem with a strong economic opportunity
• Likelihood for Success
  • The organisations should be able to have a fit within their target market and understanding of the local community landscape and the social/environmental problem they are solving using a sound business model
• Business Potential
  • The intervention should be financial feasible, fundable and scalable and or replicable
• Team Capability

  There is a good match between the team and the idea that can support significant value creation. The following are true of the strongest ideas:

  • The team inspires confidence in potential investors
  • Team members have relevant experience and skills that form the basis of their initiative offering
  • The organizational plan for managing the initiative is clear and credible

Applications for the second cohort will open on 12 April 2021. Applications will close on the 31^st May 2021.