The 24 social enterprise projects were conducted by professionals from RSM’s Dutch-taught Parttime Master Bedrijfskunde programme who started their studies in September 2015 and are now finishing their first semester. In addition to courses on strategy, finance and organisation, the professionals applied their new knowledge to advice on a pressing issue of a social enterprise.
Qualitative societal results
The students analysed the complex network of stakeholders of social enterprises. Working not only with employees, owners and board members, but also with volunteers, sponsors, donors and clients puts an additional challenge on an organisation that want to be economically healthy and – equally important – want to reach more qualitative societal results.
New model for ‘patient journey’
The Princess Máxima Centre for Pediatric Oncology (PMC) was selected based on the work of the project team that documented the experience of children and parents during the child's stay at the hospital. The team shared their analysis with management, medical staff and specialists during ‘customer experience’ workshops. The outcome will continue help PMC to improve the internal collaboration, to improve the communication with children and parents, and to contribute to the design of the new facility. The team used a creative way to extract and present the feedback of children and parents in order to develop a new model focused on ‘the patient journey’.
Organisations of the future
The projects were supervised by RSM faculty from several departments and led by Professor Rob van Tulder from RSM’s department of Business-Society Management. Each organisation investigated by the Parttime Master Bedrijfskunde participants is driven by societal impact: they define their purpose not only in reaching a financial result but also by achieving a positive societal outcome.
Prof. Van Tulder says people can learn a lot from social entrepreneurs on how to manage innovative and complex organisations. “Organisations of the future want to contribute to solving the problems of our planet,” he says. “Social enterprise show us the way forward. We hope through the set-up of this course that RSM also can contribute to the overall success of social enterprise in the Netherlands.”
RSM’s social enterprise initiatives
Participants also looked into the Rijksmuseum Muiderslot, Schroeder, Alpe d'Huzes, Brownies & Downies, Better Places, Prinsenkwartier, Woonbron Rotterdam, FC Den Haag, Koop een Koe.nl, Stichting Overbrugging, Wereldwinkel Krommenie, Capri Hartrevalidatie, Evangelische Gemeente Bommelerwaard, het Oranje Kruis, Stichting Aangepast Lezen, Rechtstreex, Seepje, Persu BV, Practica, Taal doet meer, Stichting Voormekaar, and Muzieum.
RSM has a number of initiatives related to social enterprises: scholarships, a research programme and lectures, and is presently working on the establishment of a chair on social enterprise.
Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology
The Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology conducts research to find treatments for cancer in children. Based in Utrecht, it will open a new building in 2017 and then become the largest pediatric oncology centre in Europe, functioning as a worldwide centre of reference, with a focus on excellent care, innovative research and education in the field of child oncology. The new Princess Máxima Center will accommodate 120 patient beds and 1,000 full-time staff members. Its target is to cure more than 90 per cent of all children with cancer in 2025.
