Page 298 - Social Enterprise A New Business Paradigm for Thailand

Public Company Limited, which used its social enterprise (SE) budget to co-establish Sarn Palung
Social Enterprise Company Limited, a firm within the PTT Group responsible for implementing
community, social, and environmental projects. This company also functions as a mechanism

for supporting other SEs and startups focused on social and environmental innovation.

Nevertheless, interviews with several social enterprises and relevant agencies indicate that a
growing number of private companies are beginning to support social enterprises. These
emerging forms of support show signs of both growth and continuity, positioning corporate
engagement as a promising funding alternative for social enterprises, especially those that have
progressed beyond the early stage and are preparing to scale. This support typically takes three
main forms:

(1) Collaboration refers to situations where private companies either volunteer or are
approached by social enterprises to partner in organizing specific activities or services aligned
with the social enterprise’s expertise. For example, a functional drink company partnered with

a-chieve to run career guidance camps for high school students (see Box 9.5), while a life
insurance company collaborated with YoungHappy, another social enterprise with key objective
to support the elderly for a better quality of life, to promote active aging by organizing
recreational activities for seniors. In the latter case, the same team managed to utilize the mall
spaces during off-peak hours, transforming them into recreational zones for those active seniors
interested in group activities. These collaborative efforts not only create employment
opportunities for social enterprises but also enhance the brand image of the supporting

corporations. As such, this form of CSR generates both business value and positive social impact.

Box 9.5: a-chieve

Helping Young People Answer the Question “What’s Next After Growing Up?”
Participation in rural development volunteer camps throughout the four years of study at
Thammasat University played a pivotal role in helping the co-founders realize their passion for social
development work. When they later came together to identify which social issues they wished to
tackle, they unanimously agreed on a key challenge facing Thai students, particularly at the
secondary school level: a lack of clarity about their own interests and aspirations. This stage of life
is critical, involving significant decisions that shape one’s future. The co-founders observed that
while many urban parents support their children through tutoring or extracurricular programs to
boost their chances of entering top-tier universities, guidance services within schools remained
either nonexistent or severely limited. Students had few opportunities to explore their interests,
whether related to future studies or career paths. This insight led the co-founders to propose a new
kind of service: an extracurricular guidance platform designed to help students discover what they
are truly passionate about, something they believed would resonate with their target audience of
secondary school students.

Their journey began at an opportune moment, as A-day magazine was then seeking young
individuals interested in launching socially impactful projects. This provided the co-founders a
chance to pitch their idea and receive seed funding to pilot the concept. This led to the founding of
the company a-chieve. The name is a play on the English word “achieve,” meaning “success,” and
phonetically resembles a-cheep, the Thai word for “career.” After receiving positive reception, the

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