Doing Good By Doing Well
My team of researchers and I have found a number of companies that are breaking the mold-they are moving beyond corporate social responsibility to corporate social innovation. These companies are the vanguard of the new paradigm. They view community needs as opportunities to develop ideas and demonstrate business technologies, to find and serve now markets, and to solve long-standing business problems. They focus their efforts on inventing sophisticated solutions through a hands-on approach.
Tackling social sector problems forces companies to stretch their capabilities to produce innovations that have business as well as community payoffs. When companies approach social needs in this way, they have a stake in the problems, and they treat the effort the way they would treat any other project central to the company’s operations. They use their best people and their core skills. This is not charity; it is R&D-astrategic business investment. Let’s look at a few examples from the fields of education, welfare programs, and inner-city development.
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