Organizations are increasingly paying more attention to two areas that are critical to business success and sustainability: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and human capital development.
Sandy Walsh, Director of the Social Innovation Group in Cisco’s Asia Pacific region, shares her perspective on how taking a “shared value” approach can help to accelerate social impact while supporting business goals. The Social Innovation Group leverages Cisco’s technology and expertise to develop innovative solutions to address social challenges throughout Asia Pacific.
Q. Why is human capital development — particularly in information and communications technology (ICT) education and entrepreneurship — vital for the community development and economic growth of this region?
ICT is a growth enabler. I saw this when I first moved to Asia. However, the real challenge is to recruit talent with the relevant skills to exploit this technology. Without the human capacity to exploit the capabilities of ICT, it won’t deliver on its transformative potential for the region, whether that is in improving Industry productivity or improving the delivery of citizen services.
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Tags: Asia-Pacific, Cisco CSR, corporate social responsibility, shared value, social innovation
The Shared Value Initiative just released a video interview of Cisco Corporate Affairs Senior Director Kathy Mulvany, taken during the Global Shared Value Leadership Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The term “shared value” is the concept that a company can enhance its own competitiveness while simultaneously alleviating social problems in the communities where it operates. What differentiates shared value from other initiatives is that it is far more sustainable than simply writing a check, than more traditional philanthropy, according to Kathy. “We really believe that if you are going to be able to maintain over the long run in driving community investment and building healthy markets for your products and services, that shared value provides a framework by which you can do that,” she says in the video interview.
One of the most important elements of shared value is building strategic relationships. The world today faces some major social challenges that cannot be addressed by one stakeholder alone. Business, governments, and nonprofits need to work together to create organizations and communities where people can thrive.
Want to learn more about share value? Visit the Shared Value Initiative or read Kathy’s blog on creating shared value through local cluster development.
Tags: shared value, sr
This post was also published on the Huffington Post ImpactX
The term “shared value” was introduced in 2010 by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, co-founders of FSG, a nonprofit consulting firm specializing in strategy, evaluation, and research.
But what does it mean? Simply put, it is the concept that a company can enhance its own competitiveness while simultaneously alleviating social problems in the communities where it operates.
According to Porter and Kramer, one way in which companies can create shared value opportunities is to enable “local cluster development.”
“When a firm builds clusters in its key locations, they also amplify the connection between their success and their communities’ success,” Porter and Kramer wrote in the January-February 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review.
I am a believer in this approach to creating shared value because it is the basis for the Cisco Networking Academy, our largest and longest-running corporate social responsibility program.
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Tags: cluster development, kramer, networking academy, porter, shared value
The discipline of community relations has evolved dramatically in recent years. Recognizing both the responsibility to support their communities and the business benefits of a positive reputation, companies have invested billions of dollars and millions of hours, resulting in a substantive impact.
Yet for many organizations, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is on the verge of the most dramatic change yet. It’s a shift to the concept of creating shared value, which tears apart the traditional lines between a CSR program and the business it supports. In many ways, it makes community relations obsolete, as the entire business becomes a community relations effort unto itself. The emerging practice of creating shared value can transform how companies grow and impact communities around the world.
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Tags: Cisco, community relations, corporate social responsibility, CSR, impact multiplied, shared value
Employees take Cisco’s corporate culture of environmental and social responsibility seriously. Some so seriously that they don protective gear and venture to the rooftops of Cisco office buildings in France and the United Kingdom to cultivate a greener world.
These Cisco employees are not modern day superheroes, but rookie beekeepers, intent on cultivating colonies of endangered bees to pollinate wild plants and food crops.
The European beekeeping project illustrates how people can use human and technology networks to multiply the positive impact of something they are passionate about. Read More »
Tags: Borderless Networks, collaboration, CSR, employees, england, Europe, France, shared value, United Nations