Why the social sector needs management talent

This article is authored by Gaurav Shah, co-founder and director, Indian School of Development Management, New Delhi.

When describing work in the social or development sector, it often proves challenging to convey the full scope of what this entails. Introducing the concept and our mission to create a unique management school committed to cultivating talent for improving the lives of millions living in poverty, only adds to the curiosity and sometimes confusion. This reaction is understandable, however, given the sector’s longstanding image. The reality simply is that the social sector is a burgeoning vast space with tremendous potential and India’s social sector spending has grown robustly, reaching approximately ₹23 lakh crore (around $280 billion) in FY 2023, which constitutes 8.3% of Gross Domestic Product.

Management (Photo by Freepik)

For decades, the social sector has stereotypically been stereotyped as a domain exclusively composed of small-mid sized organisations known as non-government organisations (NGOs) which try and deliver simple services to improve the lives of the underserved. Most people struggle to view the sector beyond organising blood donation campaigns, or food for the hungry or scholarships for children and voluntary teaching in schools. The assumption persists that this is not a sector in which to build one’s life and career, not a sector to offer full time jobs, or a career path in which one could earn a living and support their family. People still ask professionals working in the social sector if they draw a salary and if so, should they be paid a salary in the first place. After all, isn’t social change work just about serving from the heart and thereby why should anyone be paid for it?

The question that pops up then is why this sector would have a need for highly qualified professionals at all when it’s really all about their passion for a social cause. Now what’s important for people, and especially the youth to understand is that while passion is a necessary condition to work in the social sector, it’s most definitely not a sufficient condition.

As a society, we place a lot of educational premium on the skills and expertise needed to work in the corporate sector, but, surprisingly, we don’t demand the same preparation and learning in working towards the most complex problems facing humanity today. Problems like access to good quality education, health, water, sanitation, food and nutrition, energy, safety and security, having a voice in our society etc. for all. It boggles the mind when one thinks of how a simple truth such as this could have escaped entire generations. It’s absurd that we believe a deeper study of these complex phenomena is not an integral part of working on solving these incredibly stubborn societal issues. To unpack why such a small, informal, volunteer led, seemingly simplistic, unorganised sector needs professional, contextual Management talent let us delve deeper and try and explore this question in some more detail:

• The vast scope of the social sector: Unlike generally accepted notions, the social sector is not small and inconsequential by any standards. Today, it contributes to the well-being of more than at least 70-80 crore people in India, encompassing anywhere between 2-3 lakh active organisations, and employing between 1-2 crore people full time, managing budgets of $ 15-20 billion of just private philanthropy. The sector is in a position to influence anywhere between $ 250-300 billion of government spending on issues of social change. And all of this is being attempted without the scaffolding of good quality management talent who would understand the nuances of a multi-faceted idea like development and what it takes to make it happen.
• Complex challenges demand complex solutions: Consider the intricate and complicated task of lifting a person, family or a community sustainably out of poverty? How does a society ensure that no one goes to sleep hungry in this country, and that people have a shelter over their heads to sleep under, or clothes to cover their bodies? How do we develop strategies and methods to deliver good quality learning to a small rural tribal community in Jharkhand for which the generic education system seems so out of context to their living realities? How does one ensure that women are able to stand up against patriarchy and develop agency and a voice for themselves? How does one work on safeguarding farmers against debt that lead to suicides? One can go on and on with these examples. Addressing such deep-rooted social issues requires the ability to understand these matters holistically, seeing interconnections and designing impactful social change programmes through a systems thinking lens that can be delivered at scale.
• Diverse paths to drive social change: Today the sector consists of a wide range of different kinds of organisations. From small local NGOs to large national and international ones working across education, health, climate, gender rights, financial inclusion, and livelihoods. Careers could be built across for-profit social change models, philanthropic foundations, corporate social responsibility teams, consulting and research firms, and government agencies. To create real, scalable impact, management talent is essential for building robust partnerships across samaaj (civil society), sarkar (government), and bazaar (private sector) to lay the foundation for a more equitable world. If social change work is to create real change, then no one individual, organisation or sector can deliver that. To succeed, you need management talent which is able to build strong, synergistic partnerships across samaaj, sarkaar and bazaar to genuinely create the fundamentals of a more just, equitable world
• Building sustainability through structure and strategy: In general, the social sector is lambasted as being inefficient, badly governed, not high on accountability and more. However, even if these criticisms were accepted at face value it should be a given that without good quality management talent, none of these things are possible. Management introduces a structured approach to strategic planning, capital allocation, process efficiency, team motivation, and cultivating a culture focused on impact and purpose, elements critical for reducing risk and ensuring the sustainability of social initiatives.
• Scaling solutions: Management in both the business and the government sector (business management, public administration) has contributed to taking the work done by these sectors to scale. Governance of huge countries, the existence of trans-continental corporates has been accelerated post the creation of these professions. At the very least there is correlation, if not causality in this phenomena over the last century. If the lives of millions of people living in poverty have to be improved, we need to be able to design programs and deliver programs at scale and support this work over years through strong, accountable, professional, resilient organisations, systems and processes. This is impossible to do in the absence of development management talent.

If one is serious about creating a more dignified, just, equitable life for all, then it’s hard to ignore the importance and magnitude of the work being done in the social sector. For the sector to deliver better leverage and impact for the billions of dollars and millions of people hours spent every year on issues of social change then it is impossible to overlook the need to mainstream the idea of management of social change or development management as a new-age profession and career.

This article is authored by Gaurav Shah, co-founder and director, Indian School of Development Management, New Delhi.