By Ethel V. Sanchez
A lot of proof has been put out there of the gains that businesses get to reap for doing good, or as the industry fondly calls it, for effecting positive change in people’s lives. I have been closely observing the inundation of good initiatives, purpose and CSR work globally in the last decade. I am in awe of the way the world’s most creative minds are building businesses through ideas that genuinely make the world a better place. I am dreaming of this phenomenon evolving further into development of initiatives with the same power and longevity as the revenue-generating corporations they support, initiatives with sustainable impact, not just bursts of buzz, or brand love.
I think it’s just a step away.
If we take a closer look at the building blocks of sustainable social enterprises, these are undoubtedly the turf of the business community—creative problem solving, innovation and measurable impact. These are ways of thinking that are second nature to us.
A social enterprise is built on a fresh and smarter “line of attack” to an existing problem. Thinking starts on a clean slate, aimed always at a smarter solution—an easier way, a more effective way, a more impactful way.
A social enterprise aims to create a clearly defined experience and behavior change for a clearly defined beneficiary in a clearly defined geographic scope. The same quantitative and qualitative research tools we know are used to understand the problem experience, current way of life and behavior, and the triggers and barriers to this behavior being reshaped to support the proposed solution. The macro forces are studied, too, such as culture, the bigger economic context, and all other community and environmental variables influencing the desired change.
A social enterprise is a solution designed to be better than existing models—better than “competitors,” in conventional business parlance. It goes through the rigor of cross-discipline collaboration to design advantages over existing models in every step of the user journey, with focus on those directly impacting human experience, adoption, sustainability, systemic impact and cost.
Based on the above exercises, a positioning statement is defined—a social enterprise concept that is then pitched to investors, a concept that is clever, original, creative and viable because it is relevant, competitive and differentiated.
I bet this is all sounding very familiar and close to heart.
The same thinking we do for key performance indicators in business goes into social enterprise planning. The only difference is that a social impact side is added to the scorecard. A social enterprise has a double bottom line—financial and social objectives. That aside, we should be all set. For business strategists, performance measurement is as natural and as easy as writing briefs and weekly initiative reviews, not to mention the shiny tried and tested thinking tools, measurement models, and technology we already have in place.
It is the rather tricky task of optimizing financial and social measures through a single concept that calls for more than just business acumen or creativity, but a genuine social mission, as well.
The one thing that has kept me restless ever since I started racking my brain for brands and businesses—if we could rechannel to the bigger problems of the world even just a bit of the passion, brilliance and creative energies we give to brand and business building, a bit of the sleepless nights, passionate number crunching, or heated brainstorming sessions, imagine what we can achieve.
If we, business strategists, have minds so adept at changing attitudes and behavior, thinking tools that intelligently make bars in charts move from point A to desired point B with speed and certainty, shouldn’t we be at the forefront of social change?
Ethel Sanchez is a part-time university lecturer for the MBA Program of the University of the Philippines. Before joining NuWorks Interactive Labs as head of Strategy and Analytics, Ethel worked as a brand strategist for over a decade.
This column accepts contributions from the business community. Articles not exceeding 600 words can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com