http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/social_entrepreneurs/the-economic...

If I could, I'd simply copy and paste the entire article, which is probably one of the best pieces I've ever reads about social innovation...ever. From the McKinsey journal and written by Professor Iqbal Quadir, founder and Director of the Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT, it's a crisp and compelling exposition of the insight that much that we want to achieve in the 'social' depends on our ability to unleash the dispersing, leveling and empowering virtues of the 'commercial' and 'competitive'.

A few random quotes...

"Why should companies charge the poor? The simple response is that, among their many benefits, profits are necessary to achieve scale. Profitability, in a word, is scalability. A commercial approach can lead to economic empowerment for ordinary people when a product or service yields a higher value for a customer than what she spends on it."

"To understand that scale, let us begin by checking the basic arithmetic: one billion people around the world make $1 per day and another billion each make $2 per day. On average, these two billion people each make $1.50 per day or a trillion dollars per year combined. If their productivity were to go up by a mere 6 percent, these individuals would generate an additional $60 billion annually in prosperity, an amount far greater than what charitable approaches could provide in funding to alleviate poverty. If the productivity of the poor could continue to grow at this annual rate of 6 percent, after only a decade the poor would earn an additional trillion dollars per year. More important, this wealth would be generated on the ground and would therefore be less vulnerable to abuse or misappropriation than if it were disbursed by other means."

"Often, unintended—yet far-reaching—social benefits emerge in the shadows of successful commercial ventures. Grameenphone has directly improved the lives of ordinary people in Bangladesh by providing widespread connectivity and entrepreneurial opportunities. The for-profit nature of the venture has also led to a number of lesser-known benefits for employees and customers. Since the company invested millions of dollars in purchasing equipment, its profit motive compelled it to spend still millions more in training employees, in order to get the best return on the equipment investment."

You get the idea. It's impressive and persuasive.