“Social innovation is nothing ground-breaking. It is about spending less to solve a problem. It is about noticing a social need, or a ‘blue ocean market’, and producing the same social impact with fewer resources.” Tracy Ng, Chief Executive of Fullness Social Enterprises Society (FSES) so described social innovation.
Tracy used to work for a global technology company. Introduced by Kee Chi-hing, chair and founder of FSES and a former colleague, she joined FSES as a knowledge volunteer in 2012. In late 2018, she accepted the invitation to be FSES’ Chief Executive, using her expertise in project management to help FSES draw up work targets, measure social impact (SIM) and improve performance. Currently, Tracy is also a part-time lecturer at HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education teaching Project Management and Management for Social Enterprises.
Tracy noticed that many young social entrepreneurs, despite being creative, lacked the skills to write proposals, pitch, look for funds and talents, and take care of financial management. Even the staff of FSES had the same problem. Therefore, utilising their extensive knowledge and experience, FSES’s chair and senior members provided training on FSES Social Entrepreneurship Body of Knowledge (FSES SE-BoK) to their staff and other knowledge volunteers who were encouraged to apply what they had learnt to FSES’ projects and share their experiences with other social innovators to expand the “community of practice”.
Social innovation was quite a novel concept in Hong Kong during the early years of FSES. Today, the work of FSES covers a much wider spectrum while social innovation is also more widely recognised in Hong Kong. Tracy attributes the blooming ecosystem to the contributions of forerunners. She encourages young social entrepreneurs not to be afraid of failure, “You have nothing to lose but time only. I always tell funders that we are not to pick the best projects but help young people build their resilience and confidence. Boldly try your ideas and learn from experience. You may find a new path, meet friends and fellows, and become others’ peer someday.”
- Fullness Social Enterprises Society Ltd is an intermediary of the SIE Fund responsible for designing and administering the innovative programme "Innovator Farm". More details about the programme can be found here.
Profession
social entrepreneur
Scope of Services
Beneficiaries
general
Read more
(To be updated)