IESO

Iniciativa en Emprendimientos Sociales

Sobre nosotros

The Program on Social Initiatives, IESO, is a joint effort to understand and to change our surroundings through concrete proposals for action with social and business leaders, students, teachers and volunteers. IESO aims at supporting the economic viability of social initiatives and the proper social impact of lucrative ones. There is an important source of transformations and solutions to social problems in the adequate balance between the social and the economic.

Immersed in the University environment, the contribution of our Program is on three specific fronts: research which seeks to understand concrete cases of initiatives that have social goals; teaching which explores these experiences in the classroom; and service to individuals and organizations which are dedicated to improving the life conditions of different populations in our society.

The Program on Social Initiatives was born in the University of Los Andes in January of 2001. Three issues contribute to the context in which the Program emerged: the relevance of the social economy in today´s world and the significance of alliances as a business strategy; the prior work of the School of Administration in related areas; the invitation by Harvard University to form part of a Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN) together with other Latin American universities. Our goals are:

- To increase leadership, administrative, governability and entrepreneurial capacities in social enterprises.
- To promote capacities and commitment of business leaders which contribute to society through a variety of social initiatives.
- To apply knowledge about socially oriented business in order to contribute to the solution of problems faced by the country.
- To develop new teaching proposals and to strengthen the capacity and interest in the university in topics related to social initiatives.

Roberto Gutiérrez is the Director of IESO.

For other net participants we can procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.