In the business world, there are clear signs that large corporations and social impact organizations are developing new types of strategic relationships that challenge the traditional concept of corporate social responsibility.
These social impact partnerships, which focus on the bottom line, face pushback and skepticism because they challenge long-held perceptions that a corporation’s relationship with social impact should strictly be limited to charitable giving. However, there is growing evidence that business-focused partnerships between these two unique allies can create sustainable, scalable solutions to take on the world’s toughest problems such as poverty and disease, while meeting core organizational objectives.
What do large corporations stand to gain from partnering with social sector organizations? Corporations, especially those with tens of thousands of employees, can be slow and lumbering in testing new business models and experimenting with new market opportunities. Social entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, on the other hand, work extensively on the ground, interacting closely with end users of a product or service. They also have a certain level of freedom and ability to rapidly test ideas. These abilities are pushing corporations to see that social impact organizations offer more than just an opportunity to foster goodwill and brand affinity.
“Social enterprises are agile and innovative by their very nature. These are extremely resourceful organizations with deep subject matter expertise working to speed the pace of social change. By empowering these global problem solvers, we can deliver more effective technology-based solutions to serve disadvantaged people around the globe.” says Peter Tavernise, Director of Cisco Corporate Affairs.“We introduce our Cisco social impact grantees to potential ecosystem support from our customers and business partners where relevant.” In their corporate social responsibility strategy, Cisco has forged a successful shift from a traditional one-way relationship towards one that recognizes the value of a mutually beneficial collaboration with its social impact partners. Other companies such as Unilever and Vodafone are demonstrating a similar mindset by exploring business co-creation with nonprofits and social entrepreneurs.
A two-way partnership benefits both the corporation and the social impact organization; they have more to gain when they leverage their core strengths, skills and abilities. Co-creation opportunities that look beyond donation can be deeply valuable to the social entrepreneur. mPedigree, a social enterprise which has rapidly reduced the sale of counterfeit drugs in West Africa by utilizing mobile and web technologies, is a great example. When mPedigree was a startup, its founder Bright Simons struggled with a challenge most small enterprises face; there was little or no awareness about their brand and service. Partnering with a corporation offered a solution to tackle their need for more visibility and reach.
“We have worked very closely with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, in multiple countries, leveraging their industrial reach and well-resourced commitment to safer medicines to reach millions of beneficiaries we would never have been able to reach.” says Simons. “By piggybacking on the massive resource base, highly talented workforce, and global coverage of multinational pharma companies, our pioneering use of mobile short code technology to address the problem of counterfeit medicines translated from a grassroots effort into one of the most effective solutions for a highly intractable problem.”
This article was taken from here.