Remember when our President & CEO Dave Shaffer won Entrepreneur of the Year for piloting our unique integrated social venture model? Right now, he’s at the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum with 243 other regional winners awaiting the announcement of the National Entrepreneur of the Year, socializing with innovators, visionaries, and nationally-recognized entrepreneurs who are, to put it simply, changing the way we do things for the better.
This has been a huge win for disability employment and social enterprise everywhere: The recognition of a model that leverages a population chronically under-served in order to create bottom-line business success by an globally-esteemed financial group is unprecedented. And we agree with Ernst & Young that entrepreneurism is certainly contributing to the recovery of our economy. Consider this:
– Data collected from more than 600 Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2012 finalists shows that innovation-driven entrepreneurs continue to defy the odds, expand their companies, spur job growth and create momentum in an otherwise declining economy (Ernst & Young).
– Research compiled from these companies, which together employ nearly 700,000 people, affirms that nationally, these innovative, expansion-oriented entrepreneurs continue to grow impressively, achieving 30% job growth (compared to negative overall US job growth as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) and 48% revenue growth (compared to overall US revenue growth of 5.6% as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) over the past two years (Ernst & Young).
Digging deeper into DePaul’s model, we can see revenue and employment growth through the recession, and climbing—employment of people with disabilities for us was up 25% from last year alone. The model of tapping an underutilized, driven workforce to provide labor for the private sector is a proven way to solve business and social problems simultaneously. This is a business solution that’s here to stay.
Learn more about the Strategic Growth Forum and the great sessions happening in Palm Springs.
