A1: It is interesting to see the way this question is framed, and actually it made me think about what are the key requirements for social innovations to thrive (within organizations) at the different stages of the idea development process.
There are many, well researched ways to help corporations generate social innovation ideas - through organizing participatory hackathons for colleagues or bringing innovation consultants to work with your product teams, for example. However, for social innovations to be generated outside of those conduits, you really need to have a culture that supports systemic innovation (and I know we e talking about that later that later on today but itâs such an important piece!). What that means is that innovation within the company should be primarily guided by the needs of society and the planet â some of these will be commercial products or services, whilst others might be changing a legal process or contributing to industry standards. Depending on the type of innovation that an organization is looking for, you can provide additional support for intrapreneurs solving in a particular way. What we have found in the SIF, however, is that supporting the enabling environment is critical for all stages of an innovation.
I would actually reframe the question slightly: âHow can social innovation create a supportive environment for ideas to be generated and taken to scale that support serve core business interests, which happen to include planet and society as well as profit?â
This is really about thinking differently about role of business and society⌠so #leadership and #culture are the name of the game, and social innovation is one of the new(ish) ways of thinking about businessâ role in and impact on planet and society.
To do this is a blend of âtone at the topâ with board, CEO (kudos, @johnfallon for active leadership here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/our-2018-sustainability-report-john-fallon/ ), and executive team; grassroots engagement (and leadership) from employees, partners and customers; AND donât forgot about the âmiddleâ. Far to often, change hits the wall âin the middleâ, so clarity of purpose and active engagement of hearts & minds is equally important amongst the proverbial âmiddle managementâ, too.
Beyond culture, this is also about process, #systems-level thinking, and #perseverance. For purpose to thrive in a business and to ultimately benefit society takes more than an ad hoc or short-term approach. Social innovation is still (sadly) regarded as more about âdoing goodâ rather than smart, transformational business model and way of doing business. Creating Shared Value is over a decade old now, but this and other innovative models for transforming how we do business (with society and planet fully accounted for in the model) are still maturing and evolving.
@Pearson has the privilege of working and collaborating with some great people and organizations who embrace and drive new business model thinking and help to make it a reality. In addition to Business Fights Poverty, DFID, Business Innovation Facility, I want to acknowledge and commend our strategic partners at TIL Ventures http://tilventures.com/ (@MilanSamani, @ErikSimanis, Tom Manuel) for the continued, successful collaboration on our TMI (Tomorrowâs Markets Incubator) initiative https://www.pearson.com/corporate/sustainability/sustainability-stories/tomorrows-markets-incubator.html
I like the way the question is posed, which actually shows the key of where I see the solution lies. One of the most powerful things is to be able to align the core business and social innovation agendas together. This way we can use the whole structure and potential of the company to be thinking and acting towards social innovation rather than having the niche of the âsocial innovatorsâ and the rest.
At the League of Intrapreneurs, we have been studying for years the examples of social intrapreneurs and their stories, and you can find them anywhere even in the more hostile industries and organizations. However, there is a whole different game and beauty when there is an organizational purpose and vision.
Three weeks ago, I was at the League of Intrapreneurs event in Chile, and the current CEO of Unilever Chile was there, and he was sharing how for him, it was such a big shift when Paul Polman assumed and came in and said that the goal was to double profit + double social impact + reduce by half environmental impact. This served as a âcompassâ for all line managers and unlocked a whole new set of conversations and projects.
A1: Just continuingâŚin terms of testing and taking to scale, thereâs so much to say on this. E.g. a performance management system which rewards behaviours and attitudes over just outcomes. Where failure can be seen as a source of learning.
A1: The last bit of the question relates to "serving core business interestsâ. For me, this is too often short hand for dollar profit. We need to evaluate new innovative initiatives on far broader terms and see things like employee engagement, leadership development, brand benefits and having strategic footholds in new markets as just as important as hard dollars.
Fully agree and championing this! The âhowâ is sometimes more important than the âwhatâ. This measurement is finally beginning to take shape at RB at least
I read a nice quote today which I think confirms what people are saying: â some companies have a head of innovation, and nothing changes for the rank and file, so people get penalized for thinking differently - and that doesnât workâ
A1: On the topic of testing, something that has worked well at Barclays is a robust and institutionalized mechanism in place within the organization that enables a centerpoint for innovation focused on societal challenges and the environment. We have made SIF accessible to individuals (or teams) with an idea, and that can help intrapreneurs overcome the usual barriers to social innovation. Within the Barclays Social Innovation Facility, we provide various support mechanisms, but one that we have available is what we call âdiscovery fundingâ. If you have an idea that is interesting, no matter how farfetched you think it might be, you can apply for discovery funding. This funding is to be used for exploratory purposes and what is key about it is that, unlike other types of funding we offer for fully-fledged propositions, we (SIF) do not expect to recover any of that money. This is our way of saying that we understand the merits of testing (and failing, then pivoting) new ideas and we want to provide a mechanism at Barclays for colleagues to be able to do that, without like @hamzahsarwar said, being obsessive about scaling it to the masses so quickly
Interesting answer Flo. Would be keen to hear from Clive as to how that might change or not with the new regime of Alan Jope. I hear good things so farâŚ
@paul.ellingstad love the Tomorrows Market Incubator, Teodora is a League of Intrapreneurs Fellows and it has been great to see it develop.
I like a lot your point on #middle management. Out of the study we did on Intrapreneurship Ecosystem, this came many times as a key space to focus on. We have been discussing with quite a few academics that work with innovation and intrapreneurship, and this could be a focus for a deeper study.
Welcome Danielle! We have a couple more minutes for Q1: How can companies create a supportive environment for social innovation ideas to be generated, tested and taken to scale, while serving their core business interests?
Teo and TMI are awesome! Really good culture @ PearsonâŚ
Innnnnnterested to chat about deeper study,⌠this is definitely part of renaissance of lifelong learning, IMO
"double profit + double social impact + reduce by half environmental impact. This served as a âcompassâ for all line managers and unlocked a whole new set of conversations and projects.
I think this is great and can definitely help steer. My only concern is the âWinners take allâ mentality to creep in, with companies only acting with their own bias i.e. if no profit to be made = no social impact to be had. Looking for new ways to combat this. thoughts?
A1: Iâd be interested in hearing any experiences from the hundreds of people online. Anyone feel their organisation is doing somewhere particularly effective in this area?
I think this is great Daniel.The risk capital is key!
It is similar to Danone Ecosystem Fund.They have a 100 million euro fund globally to support ideas for social innovation related to their business. This funding structure is used as risk capital for intrapreneurs. Talking with intrapreneurs from Danone in Mexico, in Brazil and France , they say it is crucial. It gave the seed funding, âmatch-fundingâ, to get things started.
