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Designing for social change to create shared value innovation
Should all firms pursue shared value innovation? It depends
Every firm in the world can change how it thinks about creating value in the world. If the primary bottom-line of firms changes to a mix of social and financial factors, then their businesses will be able to deliver a more sustainable and equitable growth for all stakeholders.
Social Entrepreneurship not always a solution
Firms realize that social problems present both daunting constraints to their operations and vast opportunities for growth. If the purpose of a firm becomes about solving a social problem, then in some cases they can be limited in being able to create shared value innovation. Social Entrepreneurship can be a huge force in creating social and financial value together, however it might not always be a solution for solving every social problem. Looking at the structure of how different impact organisations function some social problems might require a governmental or policy approach to be solved, while some issues that need immediate attention and social amelioration need to be handled by Non-Profit organisations.
The book “Getting Beyond Better” creates a framework through which impact firms and social organisations can be segregated by. First is by nature of action with stakeholders or customers, which can be direct or indirect and the second is outcome of actions or impact made, which can be incremental or transformational (Martin and Osberg, 2015). This shows that business cannot be the only way to address societal issues.
Multi-sectoral collaboration to solve systemic problems
Complex systemic problems thriving in the society need a more multi-sectoral collaboration and approach to be addressed and solved. Climate Change or inequality cannot just be taken up and solved by firms alone. It would require multi-sector stakeholder partnerships to create change. Just because every firm adapts shared value innovation, there is not a possibility of…
