Sara's Blog

We have produced our Social Impact Report summery 2012 and now we want to distribute it to as many of our supporters, friends and followers as possible. Since the printed one are heavy and expansive we have done a digital version that is easy to share. I hope that you will help us to share it to all your friends and stakeholders. Spread the link!!

Click here to view the impact we made 2012: Social Impact Summary 2012

Click here to view it in French: Evaluation De L’Impact Social 2012

Click here to view it in Russian: Краткий отчет о социальном воздействии 2012

So you started your business, it’s growing and expanding. Suddenly your little family of employees has grown to a little village. Perhaps the employees are placed apart from each other in different cities or so, and the local offices are expanding. What is then to say that the imprint you made from day one has been diluted and your company’s culture is something different? What makes a culture?

There are of course various factors that influence the corporate culture of your workplace, but journalist John Coleman of the Harvard Business Review especially singles out six points that can shape an organization’s culture and make it great and vouch for a lasting organization.

1. Vision: A great culture starts with a vision or mission statement to state the purpose, fill the company’s values and guide the employees in their decisions. It’s the foundation for the culture and cannot be an add-on, but must be what really is real. Coleman states that if the vision is really deeply authentic, “good vision statements can even help orient customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.” Simple is usually good. Examples can be “a world without Alzheimer’s” (The Alzheimer’s Association) or “a just world without poverty” (Oxfam).

2. Values: A company’s values are the core of its culture; a set of guidelines on the behaviors and mindsets needed to achieve that vision. Topics usually revolve around employees, clients, professionalism and so on). Examples might be McKinsey’s education of their employees on how to act towards clients, colleagues, and to uphold professional standards. Google, though, simply says, “Don’t be evil.”

3. Practices: Values mean nothing unless they are used in the daily routines. What you say is your values must be seen in reality. “People are our greatest asset” must be manifested in, for instance, investments in staff. Said values must be followed through in the company practices. John Coleman also presses on the fact that, “if an organization values flat hierarchy, it must encourage more junior team members to dissent in discussions without fear or negative repercussions. And whatever an organization’s values, they must be reinforced in review criteria and promotion policies, and baked into the operating principles of daily life in the firm”.

4. People: People who share the values are what build the culture. In recruiting, make really sure that the applicant complies with the values and stands behind the vision. People stick with cultures they like, and bringing on the right “culture carriers” reinforces the culture an organization already has, says Coleman.

5. Narrative: Storytelling. Every organization has its story. Astory no one else has. Make sure you use yours to build a narrative around what the company stands for. See good examples in the way the Barack Obama campaign in 2008 was built with the power of narrative or how Coca Cola built a World of Coke museum in Atlanta. Apple tells the story of Steve Jobs love for calligraphy led to the current Apple aesthetic culture. Powerful shaping of a firm’s ongoing culture.

6. Place: The in thing to do is build activity-based offices. Buildings made for spontaneous meetings and employees flowing freely around the premises without being pinned down to their seat and their desk. It’s no coincidence that creative giants Pixar have a huge open atrium where firm members run into each other throughout the day and interact in informal, unplanned ways. Place shapes culture. Place — whether geography, architecture, or aesthetic design — impacts the values and behaviors of people in a workplace.

Look at these six factors if you are creating a new venture, if your company’s culture needs revitalization or reshaping. I’m pretty sure they work!

Here is the Impact Update on the first quarter of 2013. We track four of our KPI’s on a quarterly basis. New for this year is that each Change Leader report one story each that proof significant change on an individual child. I have highlighted one of the story from the first quarter that illustrates one of the Russian Change Leaders solutions: provide laughter to hospitalized children, and children in orphanages through clowns. In this way, we can take part of some of our 46 groundbreaking solutions we support in our portfolio.

The first quarter we saw an alternation of generations in the Reach for Change Incubator. The first batch of 7 Swedish Change Leaders have just finished their third and final year in the incubator. Simultaneously, the biggest generation so far, consisting of 24 new Change Leaders from all operations have entered. For these new ones, in the first quarter the focus has largely been developing road maps (which is done together with Reach for Change in the Take off Session) and teaming up with advisers from our partner companies. In the coming quarters we expect to see great development and impact from our newest generation of Change Leaders.

Problem#1

Children who are hospitalized for a long time and undergo painful procedures, experience delayed social development. In the poorly populated areas of Siberia, children in hospital and institutions are separated from their families for long periods of time.

Solution#1

NATALIA SHIMINA, PARTNERS IN JOY, RUSSIA

Natalia provides laughter to hospitalized children in Russia by bringing them specially trained clowns. Laugh-therapy boosts the immune system increasing the effectiveness of medical treatments.

Maxim, 6 years old, lives at a home for children with disorders where Natalia gave a drawing workshop named “My future job”. As she was handing out paper and pencils one of the caretakers told her that Maxim could not participate, as he was blind. Since every child, blind or not, has future dreams, Natalia sat down with the boy. Together they draw a huge truck with chocolates and a train with bubble gums. Maxim told Natalia how to move the pen and what to draw – deciding colors and forms of the track. When they finished Maxim said: “I’ve never drawn this world before. But today I saw it. When will you come again?”

John Elkington is one of those who we in the CSR field often look to for input and inspiration. John Elkington is executive chairman of Volans and non-executive director at SustainAbility. His latest book is The Zeronauts: Breaking the Sustainability Barrier. In his new report he can show a clear shift from what he calls incremental solutions to system change, which is warmly welcome, and that business leaders largely drive the same change today. This is all a milestone when knowing that activists and civil society only did this earlier.

Wind the clock back far enough in relation to any issue and you find that the original agitation for change came from activists, NGOs and other organs of civil society. And now we see businesses and company leaders that want´s to take a lead towards a more sustainable state where social entrepreneurship and impact investment are key.   A growing number of corporate pioneers shift the needle, moving beyond compliance to new forms of citizenship and corporate social responsibility.

 The work that we do with Reach for Change in close cooperation with the Kinnevik Group Companies is a good example that the most effective way to fuel the agenda and tackle environmental, social or governance challenges is through strategic CSR-work.

 Elkington’s studies show that leading companies have worked out how to partner with social enterprises, customers, government and civil society, which is a great way to system change. Businesses are interested in the potential that lies in social and environmental enterprises, which in turn are getting more and more. He also notes ”growing business involvement in pre-competitive initiatives designed to bring the resources of many different companies to bear”. Environmental struggle is one field where this happens, for example the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals  in the sportswear sector via the Richard Branson/former PUMA CEO Jochen Zeitz-led B-team.

These kinds of breakthrough innovations, business models or policies must, according to Elkington be:

• Future-ready: Able to work well in a world of 7-going-on-9 billion people, providing affordable access to key products or services, while respecting planetary boundaries
• Ambitious: Aims to transform key aspects of capitalism, and drive radically better outcomes across the triple bottom line
• Fair: Helps tackle equity issues, including the transfer of intergenerational debt created by public borrowing, natural resource extraction and environmental destabilization
• Disruptive: Has potential to constructively disrupt the current economic and/or governance orders, moving the needle from instrumentalism to system change.

Focusing on the diagram, a diagonal trajectory runs from bottom left to top right, taking us from an early state of denial, through to the point of breakthrough – where the system jumps to a more sustainable, state.

The leading edge of change in most companies and most sectors is to be found in the social innovation and impact investment space, with one major milestone this year being the tenth anniversary of the Skoll World Forum scheduled in Oxford next month – and work under way on a Social Stock Exchange.

Every year the ”extraordinary women who tilt the world upside down” are nominated for the international Ogunte award that recognize women, influential leaders, connectors, campaigners and social entrepreneurs who offer innovative and sustainable solutions to pressing social issues.

Many apply to be one of the nominees and this year, the seventh yearly award round, the Ogunte jury have singled out the very best, and it’s still possible to vote. These women are offering models for impact and showing leadership qualities that can be learned and replicated.

For instance Benita Matofska with The People Who Share who want to make sharing mainstream. “Our vision of the future is a thriving Sharing Economy where the need to own is transformed. Everyone is a supplier of goods, services and experiences. Where people share skills, time, resources, knowledge, responsibility, opportunities, ideas, goods, services and stuff.” Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?

Child & Youth Finance International has a vision of a good world. ”Our dream is that eventually, every child will have access to financial services, financial awareness through education, a reliable source of income and the will to save and build assets to promote their future stability. Together we can ensure that every child can wave goodbye to debt and inter-generational poverty and enjoy a high quality of life.”

Jeroo Billiomoria, the Managring Director is one of the nominated. Take a look and decide which one you will vote for: Select here your favourite Woman Social Leader

The only thing that buzzes around in my mind these days is the meaning of real responsibility. One person’s voice and courage to stand up for what is right! How optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

I think about how unfair our world is, with all its’ injustices and cruelty. And how the opposite – respect of human rights and every child’s right to protection and participation – would be beautiful.

There is an opportunity for each of us to light a candle, to give hope and inspire to new visions of the future. To be a part of the journey from the darkest corner to a glimmer of light. I think about what it is like to stand there, in the forefront, waving my arms and advocating courage and moral responsibility.  Getting people to stand with me, to size up, to follow the movement of change.

I carry the memories of visiting places so grey, hard and inhumane. Seeing children with eyes extinguished and empty hands. And I cherish the opportunities I have had to be there and to humbly reach out. To try to take responsibility for the injustices and to dream of making the world a just place.

Being the one who have the opportunity to help, puts us in a position of strength, benefit, advantage – it is being privileged. To help is to take on a huge responsibility.

I can’t stress this enough. To initiate change is to take on a responsibility. Not just for the moment, but long-term – it is a promise of a better tomorrow. And the promise is made to people, real people. It’s not a business thing, it is human thing.

Making excuses, saying that your hands are tied, stepping down, is to relieve yourself of responsibility. The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same.

And doing the right thing, real responsibility, sometimes means pissing people off. I have a feeling that is what is going to happen now.

Together with Ashoka Scandinavia we are currently touring the country to raise awareness and talk to the public about social entrepreneurship. Both us and Ashoka have noticed a strong predominance of applications to our programs from people from the main cities, but we believe that there are strong entrepreneurs with strong ideas all over the country. The passed weeks we have visited Gothenburg, Karlskrona, Malmö and Uppsala. Half way into the tour we have met with some 270 visitors to promote our cause and the method we believe in.

You are welcome to join us in Umeå April 10, in Växjö April 16 and in Borlänge April 24.

Nowadays there’s no question that the big bucks in CSR are spent to protect companies long-term earnings, mitigate supply-chain risks and conserve the resource base needed for future production. A clear shift from how it used to be. CSR is now many times a part of the core business, often about protecting our natural resources for future generations, not at all working as a separate division of the company more seen as philanthropy with certain staff for CSR-work, set apart from the operational parts.

Another thing about how genuine CSR works as far as the production industry – companies don’t want to force their costumers to choose between sustainable and non-sustainable products, they want all their products to stand for sustainability. Responsible and wise in the long run. All else must be bad business. To draw from production sources until they end, or otherwise hinder social and environmental gain. Not good business.

The old question is once again answered; Is it possible to earn money while saving the world? Yes! Partnerships are formed to help reduce negative impacts of producing raw material for other products, such as cotton, which make about half the clothes and other textiles worldwide. Cotton grows where it’s hot, where water is scarce, often in developing countries where the production is affected by soil degradation or climate change. I read that IKEA used 210,000 tons of cotton last year. It’s of course important to them that they even can get hold of those amounts of cotton in the years to come, so what they do is collaborate with NGO:s like the WWF and others to develop a non-profit organization working with farmers to improve cotton production. The article said that in 2005, a project like this in Pakistan helped farmers to implement more efficient cultivation techniques helping them to reduce the water use by 37%, pesticides by 47% and chemical fertilizer by 40% in six years.

Food companies like McDonald’s are doing this, teaming up with NGOs in the fight for sustainability. Even the finance sector is taking social responsibility by for instance adding sustainability conditions to those lending money. Genuine CSR is really starting to look like it should.

Together with a great jury with representatives from Tigo Chad and Reach for Change, we have selected two inspiring Change Leaders who are improving the lives for children in Chad. We have had a great welcome in Chad and look forward to working with Jean and Djiminguebaye as they develop and svale their ideas to create lasting change for many children.

Jean Toningar plans to scale nationally an award winning cereal mix to combact malnutrition in children and women. He will be educating rural women to make the product for themselves and their children as well as selling the product to middle class women who are willing to pay for a convenient ready-to-use pack. He plans to leverage Tigo’s Channels for both the education and increasing the sales to lead to sustainable financing.

Djiminguebaye Madjimbaye is starting an environmental movement for children to have each child put one tree in each household across the country. This will combat the environmental degradation in Chad as well as inform and engage children on the importance of the environment to their well-being. This movement will be funded with sales of shrubs and plants to corporate clients, hotels, and other nonprofits. He hopes to make knowledge and care for the environment something that each child in Chad understands and is passionate about.

The new Change Leaders Djiminguebaye Madjimbaye and Jean Toningar in the middle, together with the teams from Tigo and Reach for Change in Chad.

If you’re say on the tube or in-between meetings, please take twenty minutes to watch Dan Pallottas TED Talk. Dan is an activist and a social entrepreneur himself who has written a book as a response to how media reports so negatively on when charities spend money on PR to raise more money for their cause. The rules stating that almost all of the donation should go towards the cause, is hindering the NGO:s to make real change. Overhead is not a cost, but an integral part of the process towards the cause. Of course no one should be wasteful, but we must stop accusing NGO:s of spending too much on ”irrelevant admin”. Nonprofits must be allowed to use the tools of commerce to thrive and accomplish their missions, just as other companies do. How will they otherwise be able to grow and scale up to help more? He is critical of the double standards of society picturing a CEO of an NGO as an extravagant person if she or he hopes for a reasonable salary for the staff. Double standards if you compare to the rest of the business world where everyone knows it’ s hard to recruit a hundred dollar talent with a fifty dollar salary. Double standards of the business field making it OK to earn 50 million by, say, selling violent video games to children, but not to make half a million to cure malaria, you’re considered a parasite yourself.

Why is it that big businesses can realize that it takes time to get return on investment like Amazon who went for six years before showing a profit, while every NGO you can name has the demand on them to not show a loss even in their first start up year, which means NGO:s are reluctant to try brave initiatives. Of course NGO:s will never be able to take market shares. “We are dealing with social problems who are really massive in scale, but our organizations are not allowed to generate any scale as Coca Cola or Burger King can.” Two sets of rules. Two different rule books.

I think people, deep down, know better that that. Honestly, who in their right mind would donate their money to an organization where the ambition to change the world is trumped by the goal to keep overhead low? Really, it’s not hard to understand that a high communications budget can make for MUCH more donations and the possibility to scale up. It’s like it’s OK to advertise if it’s add time given to you where the media couldn’t sell it to anyone else, than to buy adds using donated money to maybe double that donation or even triple it and giving that to the cause. Fundraising costs, and this must be OK, otherwise the not for profit sector will wither. “Our generation doesn’t want their epitaph to read We kept overhead low. It should read We made a change.”

I just love this TEDtalk, it feels like he talks my life story of working to try to change the world. Always running after people,  getting everyone to work pro bono, begging for media space for free, get people to commit to work for free, engage, inspire and never have enough resources! Don´t misunderstand,  I love working under tough pressure and to be super cost effectively. It´s part of the everyday challenge. But I hate to defend that it costs money to take responsibility and make major positive system change in the world.