Social Innovations
Think Passionate
Investors screen for entrepreneurial passion when making funding decisions.
Innovative ways that organizations are using and adapting business strategies to advance social and environmental well-being (more)
Investors screen for entrepreneurial passion when making funding decisions.
Some of the brightest ideas for social change grow in the spaces between organizations and sectors. Yet few organizations have systems that make collaboration happen. To foster innovation, organizations need to develop places where they can come together and work creatively—that is, platforms for collaboration. In this article, a management expert identifies three kinds of collaboration platforms—exploration, experimentation, and execution—and then outlines what organizations can do to put these platforms to work for them.
Social entrepreneurship is one of the most alluring terms on the problem-solving landscape today. The question is not whether social entrepreneurship is a term in
good currency, but what it actually means.
Companies can indeed make money while operating in socially responsible and environmentally friendly ways. It just takes what supply chain expert Hau Lee calls the Triple-A approach—having agility, adaptability, and alignment. Closing the Stanford 2008 Responsible Supply Chains Conference, Lee describes how small to mid-sized companies in China, India, and Israel boosted profits while shrinking waste and pollution and providing a fair workplace for employees.
Not a week goes by without a product safety incident splashed across the headlines. As companies face increasing layers of suppliers, the task of monitoring the many links in the chain becomes a formidable challenge. The situation is particularly troubling for social entrepreneurs, who are especially vulnerable. In this panel discussion from the 2008 Responsible Supply Chains Conference, executives who have experienced product safety challenges share what they have done to address these challenges head on.
The White House is about to announce the creation of the Office of Social Innovation.
How can an innovative player in social entrepreneurship enable her exciting new idea to fulfill her dream of changing the world? This panel discussion of successful innovators examines the challenges of replicating and scaling ideas into massive realities of social change. Experts share their varied experience in identifying the important considerations that can grow a successful neighborhood social program into a global social venture.
This blog is the last of Marcia Stepanek's coverage of the Skoll World Forum 2009 at Oxford University.
In India and Africa, syringes are frequently reused, despite the obvious dangers of cross infection and death. Marc Koska talks about his involvement with Star Syringe, which designed and licensed an auto-disable syringe that prevents syringe reuse. He discusses how single-use syringe adoption is progressing in India, and also talks about the activities and aims of his charity SafePoint Trust.