Social Entrepreneurship Lecture Series - Business Beyond Usual - Social Innovation as a Sustainable Business Model Can Social Innovation be a sustainable business model? Nowadays, we do not simply rely on the government or NGOs for solving social problems. What can be done by a start-up enterprise or multinational corporation? How will Social Innovation be incorporated into their business pr…
If there is one thing that I have come to understand over the years it is the value of learning. At times, that means getting out into the field to learn about the challenges that are faced in society / environment, while at other times it means spending time with executives from different industries to understand the pressure that firms are facing. But, this week I will be doing something differ…
For me there are few speakers more interesting to me that Gary Vaynerchuk, Social Media's poster child and author of The Thank You Economy, and at a recent keynote he said the following: Imagine if business, because of the way the world is going, had to actually for the first time in about a hundred years started really caring about the people they sold their products to? It was a statement was…
Here it is folks. My first TEDx presentation - One Person Can Make a Difference. I was fortunate to have followed 6 speakers in August at the TEDxWanchai event. 6 speakers who had taken steps to change the world in their own little way, and by being the closer for the evening it was my job to take all that inspiration and turn it to action. I hope it inspires you to act as well. "Inst…
When looking to develop CSR programs that engage their employee base and the community at the same time, fewer programs are of interest than a day out volunteering at a school, elderly center, or school. It is an event that should have clear exceptions for the volunteer and the community partner, is more often than not meant to be fun (as a primarily channel for impact), and afterwards everyone…
Speak the words "Corporate Social Responsibility" and more often than not the perception of what is CSR is related to the philanthropic and volunteer initiatives of the firm. With some still only focused on philanthropy alone (particularly in China). It is a stereotype that I see reinforced time and time again by organizations as their CSR managers are asked only to manage those activities as…
When I first saw this map on a Google+ posting I was awed struck by the sheer size of the brand portfolios exist. Of course, I knew for years that these groups were actively consolidating a number pf brands (including the "green" ones), but when it is put onto a map like this ... well, wow. Interestingly enough, over the last 2 weeks I have had three discussions with firms represented in th…
While doing a bit of research on externalities and trade-offs this afternoon, I came across this graphic representation of sustainable development, and the forces that are in play. For me, it was a nice and clean graphic about how one can think about / present the forces that are occurring in today's market, environment, and society, and offers a starting place for framing the recalibration tha…
CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) is seeking projects and partners for its innovative MBA course on Business, Society and Environment (BSE). This mandatory course has teams of full-time CEIBS MBA students working with external partners to tackle an important sustainability or CSR challenge. We invite you and your organization to join us as a project sponsor and mentor. Since la…
Last week while debating the NEED for government action in the US on car efficiency as part of their energy policy, a good friend of mine wrote the following: You are worried about externalities? The consequences of using fossils fuels is an almost unimaginable improvement in the quality life for the average person. The average American today lives a better than the richest Medieval Kings of Euro…
Building off the presentations and research I have given recently on "Beyond Business As Usual", one of the common themes of discussion is why and how responsible firms will act when it comes to living up to their duty to more than just the bottom line. That, with the cost of externalities of the current business as usual model rising, a new dynamic is beginning to take shape where firms who do no…
Without a doubt, finding ways to effectively engage people is becoming harder to do. Yet, there are moments where a program is able to separate itself and engage using simple ideas. Ideas that don't force engagement, but are done in a manner that engagement is as easy as walking across the street. The recent BDD / China Environmental Protection Foundation did that, literally, and through its…
While interviewing the CSR manager of a large firm in China, we got onto the conversation of how easy it seems to get staff and executives to support programs where the benefactor was half way around the world, but so difficult to engage those same people to engage in a local issue. this is something that I have seen fairly frequently as many I speak have come from the "west", and are in Asia "…
In the recent article The Cheapest Generation, a paragraph stood out: It passed out 100 of the cars to influential bloggers for a free six-month test-drive, with just one condition: document your experience online, whether you love the Fiesta or hate it. Young bloggers loved the car. Young drivers? Not so much. After a brief burst of excitement, in which Ford sold more than 90,000 units over 1…
18 months ago while interviewing 75 social entrepreneurs in China, we asked the question "what has been your greatest success?". It was a question that was originally intended to elicit information about programs that had been successful, traction in developing a revenue stream, or some pride in the fact that their staff of 5 had stabilized and they were poised to grow. Instead, what we hear…
