Wellington
Mention the term 'corporate social responsibility', and you'll often get a "yes, but" type ofreply.
Yes, it’s a good idea, but doesn't work in practice. Yes, we should be doing it, but don't knowwhere to start. Yes, we'll do it when everyone else starts doing so.
Of course 2008's global financial crisis hasn't helped, with companies intent and focusing onpure survival, and any thoughts about triple bottom line reporting and/or greening up of the imageand actuality well and truly on the back-burner.
Under that 2008 collective mental model of corporate social responsibility, being 'good' wasdefined as not being bad, and most company strategies were defensive risk management plays neverdesigned to produce new value or to solve social problems says
"In 2008 there was an expansion of some of the shortfalls of CSR 1.0, and a growth in socialcynicism," Salmon says.
However, the 2011 version of corporate social responsibility, now perhaps better defined associal enterprise, is a new beast providing opportunities for innovation and income. Salmon says histhinking on the subject has been influenced by his reading, observations and meetings with peopleinvolved in this social enterprise, a "mash up" of ideas.
"Social enterprise is about how businesses align their values and behaviour with the expectationsand needs of their stakeholders," he says. "The model for CSR has been shaken in the past couple ofyears."
From that point of view, both innovation and kick-starting the economy is about finding socialneeds and finding solutions to them. As governments around the world remove themselves fromproviding different types of social services, the 'community' is expected to fill the void, and thewhole notion of community itself is being reinvented says Salmon.
He notes that many of today's (especially young) entrepreneurs see the world differently to theirforebears.
•Blend social and commercial objectives
•Creatively align public, private and NGOresources
•Leverage communities and collaboration
•Are well adapted to young worldenvironments
•Embrace the globalisation of the knowledge workforce
•Are solvingsystematic problems while meeting market needs
Within this context, Salmon says business schools (including Harvard) are racing to meet thedemand for social entrepreneurship programmes.
He says the whole notion of ownership (of knowledge and products) is changing, and "access trumpsownership."
Within this community and social enterprise framework, the Havard Business Review says businessis re-booting itself through shared value. To quote from it:
"Shared value is not about personal value. Nor is it about sharing the value already created byfirms - a redistribution approach. Instead, it is about expanding the total pool of economic andsocial values."
Under this philosophy, CSR is a growth platform says Salmon, with new entrepreneurs looking for asweet spot of social enterprise opportunity by asking the following questions.
•What trends are driving the gaps to widen and grow?
•Where can we make a difference?What are the unmet social needs?
•How can we make a difference? What resources, capabilitiesand networks can we deploy?
Salmon, who has designed a product (called NextPlays) to help people navigate in the brave newworld of corporate social responsibility, says social enterprise can be thought of as CSR 2.0
"Social innovation is designed to help companies evaluate their social strategies beyond moralobligations," he says. "It allows them to generate real business value and deliver positive socialchange or shared value."
"Social innovation should hold up to the same level of businessscrutiny and return on investment expectations as any other corporate strategy."
Salmon says there is a requirement to understand the metrics of social enterprise and innovation,which aren't necessarily the same as business metrics.
Social innovation and enterprise solutions tend to be small, tactical and easy to do.
"But there's no silver bullets as far as these solutions are concerned," he says.