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Caro's Adventures in Moldova!

Monday, May 21, 2007

do corporations have a social responsibility?

Stanford Business Magazine this week tackled the above question in several articles .... here is an excerpt:

"In 1970, the late economist Milton Friedman famously said the goal of a company is to maximize profits, as long as it’s doing so legally and ethically. Although some experts still say that view offers the clearest picture of how businesses should make decisions, most business executives take a more expansive view. A 2006 survey by McKinsey & Co., for example, found that only 16 percent of worldwide business executives said companies should focus on getting the highest possible returns while obeying all laws and regulations. In contrast, 84 percent said large corporations should generate high returns to investors but balance this with contributions to the broader public good. This interest in doing good raises questions about what, exactly, corporate social responsibility is, how it can be reconciled with profit making, and whether “corporate social responsibility” is even the best term to use. "

certainly one question we are trying to tackle is: do corporations have a responsibility or an opportunity? or both? perhaps it is semantics, which Prof Brady alludes to later in the referenced article, but in many ways there is a substantive difference that arises in the approach of the organization or business. it can be a "let's cover our backside" or "let's figure out how to apply our business model in a way that creates value for both shareholders and society". starbucks has arguably created a growing and dynamic specialty market out of "socially conscience" coffees. so has unilever in india by repackaging consumer goods to fit the needs of the "bottom of the pyramid". these are businesses identifying and taking advantage of social opportunities that make business sense.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

incubators in Nepal

one of the amazing things about pursuing the idea of ReelImpact is that there is no end to social issues to tackle and likewise there is no end to the solutions business can address to mitigate / solve those issues.

take for instance, the Design for Extreme Affordability class, taught in the d.school with GSB Professor, Jim Patell. One of this quarter's projects is creating (that's right, creating) an infant incubator that can be sold in Nepal. the challenge of course is making it cheap enough (yet at high enough quality) so that people can both buy it and gain value from its use.

challenging, yet rewarding. trying to arrange for a team member to blog about his experience in bringing this project to fruition. stay tuned.