Is it the why or the what that matters?

Reflections by Daniel Seifter, The KaosPilots International, Team 13

In the latest issue of the newsletter CHANGE, distributed by myC4 (a platform for supporting social enterprise in Africa), a headline read: “Sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great”. Except the feeling of getting overwhelmed with responsibility, the headline inspires to look more into how social innovation can create new opportunities to solve world problems. How do we, as representatives of this generation, meet the yet unmet social needs?

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” These words of Buckminster Fuller, open up to the phenomena social innovation by inviting new initiatives to create social change. Fuller, who among other occupations were a visionary author and inventor, was throughout his life concerned with the question “Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?”

Companies and entrepreneurs today have a more central role in people’s individual lives as well as the society they operate within, and a question has arisen as to whether they have a responsibility in regards to questions of sustainability and social needs because of this strong position in the world. Looking at the market and society as a whole, it definitely seems to be the situation. The market is putting higher demands on products (environmentally-friendly, sustainable solutions, fair trade etc.), and companies in turn are required to take more responsibility on a social level (both in regard to its employees, supply chain and society overall).

Professor Bradley Googins at the Boston College, Centre of Corporate Citizenship describes what he calls: “The 5 stages of Corporate Citizenship” as:

1. Compliant (Do what is expected due to laws and regulations).
2. Engaged (Working with a CSR profile to contribute).
3. Innovative (Finding new solutions within their structure to create a greater effect on social needs).
4. Integrative (Integrating social innovations in the corporate system).
5. Transformative (Changing the Game. Makes it a natural way of running a business).

By creating a CSR profile a company displays that it takes some sort of social responsibility, whether connected to environmental sustainability or more direct social needs. It brings credibility and strengthens the brand in the eyes of the market, which is beneficial to the customer, the company and society. A survey made by the consultancy firm McKinsey in 2007 revealed that 95% of CEO’s said that society now has higher expectations of business taking on public responsibilities than it did five years ago. It is therefore no surprise that social and environmental issues are becoming business drivers.

Innovative Capitalism?

At a first glance the term innovative capitalism seems only to awake associations to new ways of making more money, but what if the new ways of increasing profit that stem from a demand in the market, results in an increased social responsibility? The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (a New York based business association), reports that the share of corporate “giving” with a strategic motivation jumped from 38% in 2004 to 48% in 2006. Also, in 2006, The Harvard Business Review published a paper on how, if approached in a strategic way, CSR could become part of a company's competitive advantage. Could these strategic plans be an example of such innovative capitalism?

Is it socially innovative although the priority is profit and not social needs?

Whether the initiative comes from the heart (social innovation in this text) or from the head (innovative capitalism according to the above), does it matter in the end? When a company improves its social responsibility as a part of a strategic plan to increase their turnover, it still improves society. A company which produces more sustainable and environmentally friendly products due to market demands might boost its profit while it is seen as a more responsible company, yet it contributes to a healthier world.

Which ever motivation the initiatives stem from, I feel inspired by the words of his holiness the Dalai Lama. “Rather give with an un-clean heart, than not give at all”.