Articles
Strategic Advantage & CSR
STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPY THAT LEVERAGES CAPABILITIES TO IMPROVE SALIENT AREAS OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
by Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer
In the article the authors argue the value of corporate social responsibility for both growth and impacting “the greater good”. How the interrelationship between business and society can play into legitimizing strategic CSR while minimizing the complexities of qualifying and quantifying it’s results. Corporations can now secure positive long term economic performance by reducing prioritized (described in the article) short term behavior that can be detrimental socially and environmentally, differentiating themselves from competitors.
For example the article highlights Nestlé’s implementation into the Indian market in 1962. In short, Nestlé needed a large amount of available local milk in regions where they wanted to sell their products. Since India had no infrastructure for refrigerating milk, locals generally had a single cow per family that barely fulfilled their basic needs. So Nestlé created refrigerated collection points in the district of Moga and sent trucks to pick up the milk from the dairies, supporting local farmers and helping them grow. They also educated the farmers on proper care of the cows, providing medicine for ailing one’s and taught irrigation methods for growing and sustaining feed. As a result the entire district’s living conditions substantially improved in parallel to the financial growth of Nestlé. Win, win.
SOURCE HBR
Building Trust with Transparency
by Kermit Pattison
The article highlights author John C. Haven’s book “Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build their Brand”. The article does goes through an interview with Mr. Haven where he describes the positive effects of transparency which can not only impacts PR but also internal productivity. One method that really intrigued me was opening traditionally closed channels of communication between the company and the customer. Here he gives an example of a successful implementation of the method:
“There’s a huge business case in terms of trust. One example of a very clear businesses advantage, sort of an R&D use of transparency, is the Southwest Airlines blog. On the blog people were saying, would you please start your summer airline rates sooner because there wasn’t a long enough window for customers to buy the tickets they wanted because Southwest had some internal reason. When they opened up that window, they ended up selling a lot more tickets, making a lot more money, because they responded to a consumer request.”
He strongly believes that blogs equal transparency and creates a excellent platform for a real dialog between the company and customer. Hint hint Detroit.
Here’s the article.
Source FastCompany.com / Getty Images
Advice For President-Elect Obama
An Article by Bruce Nussbaum
It’s all a bit narcissistic to find articles that reenforce your choice of career but I found this article especially enlightening because it not only fed my designer ego but it also illuminated the possibility of expanding the conventional role of a “design thinker”. The article describes a broad stroked idea that President-Elect Barack Obama should take into consideration when choosing his administration. Get fresh people with fresh ideas. After all his campaign ran on a platform of change. It does sort of make sense. Governments simply can’t keep up with the complexities and innovations involved in the global free market with recycled ideas. They’ll need innovative solutions to these issues and what better resource than from individuals trained to creatively problem solve, designers.
Source BusinessWeek.com
Design Thinking: On Its Nature and Use
I found this fascinating article on design thinking in the Winter ’08 issue of Rotman Magazine, The Magazine of the Rotman School of Management. It’s an analysis of the characteristics associated with design thinking and the unique values within it’s relationship with science.
Source BusinessWeek.com
Business Week: How Britain Jumpstarts Design
I found this Business Week article about a program developed by the British Design Council called “Demanding Design” that connects struggling small business with branding experts and designers. Proof that good design = profits.
