As someone who aspires to make an impact, one of the most important things that the fellowship taught me was that social entrepreneurship is opportunity-driven social change. A social entrepreneur must recognize a need, envision a possible solution, and translate that possibility into an organization. In my experience working with Cycle Connect, I saw how Cycle Connect and its personnel recognized a need and organized projects to meet those needs. Good social entrepreneurs exhibit two specific competencies (along with many others) that allow them to translate opportunities into an enterprise: the ability to recognize opportunity and the ability to assess opportunity.
A Cycle Connect Client with her Bicycle
Cycle Connect began as Bicycles Against Poverty (BAP) with the belief that a bicycle is a pathway to better health, education, and autonomy. Muyambi, the cofounder of Cycle Connect, was the person who recognized the need for bicycles in Northern Uganda after his neighbor transported him to a hospital on his bicycle. It was through his own experience that Muyambi realized the power of a bicycle. After learning about the origin of Cycle Connect, I realized that I often spend my time looking for opportunities beyond my experience and beyond my environment. My westernized upbringing instilled in me the belief that opportunities for impact must exist outside of our developed, picturesque Utopia. However, through other life experiences and Muyambi’s story, I was reminded that opportunities for impact can be found in one’s own life experiences. Opportunity recognition didn’t stop there for Muyambi and Cycle Connect. With co-founder Molly Burke packing up her things and leaving New York for Uganda, a second entrepreneur had her eyes peeled for opportunities. The transformation from BAP to Cycle Connect reveals that recognizing an opportunity is a never-ending practice. After seeing how a bicycle could transform individuals' lives, Cycle Connect began expanding their asset portfolio. While browsing Cycle Connect’s website in the early days of research, I stumbled across a post from David Resetar, the former head of Cycle Connect’s Innovation Department. In the post David mentions that as Cycle Connect grew, so did their clients' needs, leading Cycle Connect to create the Innovations Department. Through my experience, I was able to meet with David Resetar and discuss just how Cycle Connect was capitalizing on opportunities. David mentioned how Cycle Connect’s Innovation Department communicates with clients to assess their needs and then brainstorms products that will help meet those needs. However, David mentioned that each potential asset must be tested and tried which speaks to the second trait a good entrepreneur must have: the ability to assess opportunities.
Bicycles for Distribution to Group Members
While a social entrepreneur is an individual that recognizes an opportunity to meet a need and transitions the opportunity into an enterprise, a good entrepreneur understands that not every opportunity is a worthwhile investment. My time with Cycle Connect exposed me to the difficulties of growing a social enterprise. Running an enterprise is a resource-intensive endeavor, requiring money, time, and labor. The challenge in running a successful enterprise is knowing how and when to allocate these resources and to what opportunities. In a meeting with Molly, I learned that Cycle Connect invested in employing Emmy Okkema to be a Country Director because they recognized the value she would bring to the enterprise. Molly explained that sometimes if you want to achieve better outcomes you have to invest resources towards meeting those outcomes before reaping their benefits. Cycle Connect had a need: they wanted to grow their enterprise. Emmy offered a skill set that would allow her to help Cycle Connect achieve its desired growth. So, when the opportunity presented itself, Cycle Connect made the hire. The opportunity to hire Emmy underwent a rigorous assessment process that required Cycle Connect to evaluate the risks and rewards of making the hire. Hearing Molly talk about hiring Emmy made me realize that opportunities for social enterprises are not always externally oriented— social enterprises are not always looking for opportunities that benefit others. Opportunity recognition and opportunity assessment can be in the interest of the enterprise.
In fact, Cycle Connect’s taking on fellows through Miller Center is another example of CC taking advantage of an opportunity that benefits them. Thankfully, the experience was also beneficial to me.
Cycle Connect Brings Bicycles Directly to Clients
My time with Cycle Connect showed me that social entrepreneurship is about identifying a need, recognizing opportunities to address the need, and implementing a strategy to execute on the opportunities. Regarding my vocational discernment journey, recognizing how social enterprises rely on opportunities led me to shift my perspective on the behind the scenes work of running an enterprise. Before this fellowship, grant writing was never appealing to me; I wasn’t even aware that you could make a career out of it. Now, I understand that grant writing is an example of an enterprise recognizing an opportunity to acquire resources and taking advantage of it. When it comes to impact, I learned that opportunities present themselves in many different ways. One can draw from their own experiences or learn from others' experiences through casual conversations or more formal means like surveys or interviews. I’m not sure if there is a position that has the responsibility of going into the field and communicating with prospective and present clients to assess their needs and look for opportunities, but if there is, that is a position that I would certainly be interested in. I would say that I have a good eye for recognizing need, but my experience with Cycle Connect certainly expanded my understanding of what opportunities look like, specifically opportunities related to social entrepreneurship.
Cycle Connect Credit Officer Leading a Group Bicycle Training Session