Imagination for People is a multilingual web platform dedicated to social innovation. Imagination for People helps social entrepreneurs and engaged communities develop ideas and projects that lead to a more collaborative and responsible world.
i-genius: Why did you start Imagination for People?
Frank Escoubès: I thought Social Innovation should be as much fun and deserved as much creativity as possible. You don’t find solutions to the world’s most demanding issues using the same old models with outdated constraints.
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i-genius: What makes a good candidate for a CEO?
Frank: A leap of faith jumping into entrepreneurship, a love for innovation, and a bit of recklessness.
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i-genius: Who’s/what’s been your continued source of inspiration?
Frank: Great writers. Entrepreneurship is all about storytelling. And who is better at telling stories than, say, Oscar Wilde?
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i-genius: In what way is Imagination for People a social enterprise?
Frank: We’re a hybrid social business. Everything we do is open source, free to use, and accessible to everybody. But we need to pay the rent. That’s why we started a for-profit sister company called bluenove, that focuses on cool innovative stuff around Collective Intelligence and Open Innovation.
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i-genius: What difficulties did you experience setting up Imagination for People?
Frank: One, learning to work with developers! Two, inventing a business model, testing it, setting up the right legal and governance conditions. And having to deal with misconceptions about what it is that we’re trying to do, outside the conventional social economy structure.
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i-genius: What are the most crucial things you have done to grow Imagination for People?
Frank: Being daring. Starting collaborations with very large organizations. Ashoka, MIT, the European Commission, etc. Not being shy about growing through bold alliances. And finding ways to monetize our know-how with businesses and governments.
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i-genius: Why is collaboration important?
Frank: Collaboration is at the heart of Imagination for People. For us, collective intelligence is what it takes to invent the solutions of tomorrow. Real “collective” intelligence. Not restricted to activist communities. Citizens, public sector, private businesses, non-profit organizations, everyone.
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i-genius: We know you at i-genius by way of MySBM. What’s Assembl all about?
Frank: Assembl is both a methodology and a software that facilitates collective intelligence in large groups of people. Assembl enables online groups to co-design solutions with a final deliverable in mind: a formal document, a framework, a set of public policy recommendations, etc. In other words, Assembl does what forums and social media were not conceived to do: create new knowledge and formalize it.
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i-genius: Future plans?
Frank: Yep. Lots. Using Assembl to co-design an alternative to the GDP index. Deploying Assembl in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Getting into collective creativity. And going as far as real, I mean real collective action.
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i-genius: What is your favourite motto in life?
Frank: Think of your ideas as a virus, and believe in the power of compelling stories.
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i-genius: What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?
Frank: Stay away from technology, it’s too volatile.
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i-genius: What advice would you give to those starting up a social business/project?
Frank: Clearly define the social challenge you are addressing, think holistically about all stakeholders involved, start from day one with scaling in mind, and be systematic about potential financial models for sustainability. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
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This interview was conducted as part of the i-genius Getting Started interview series. If you would like to learn how to get started in your social business, then why not take our ‘Getting Started – Social Business Start Up’ online course with i-genius Academy. To find out more, click here!
