Policy & Governance

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 jan 2017

Building a successful CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program requires commitment, consistency, continuity and culture within an organization. Claudia Schiepers, Chief Marketing Officer of Greystone and winner of The CMO Club's CSR Award'2016, helped promote a culture-centric curriculum for CSR and shares valuable insights to inspire marketing leaders to develop a successful CSR program in their organizations - (1) Start from the ground up: 'We try to engrain it in everything that we do. I would say start small, test and grow it from within the company...It's all about making suggestions, trying things out and then rolling them out across the organization.' (2) Assemble a top-notch toolbox: 'We gave them a lot of tools. We have employee engagement data that we share with managers, (teaching) them how to have difficult conversations and great conversations. So, it's all about empowering the managers in your company to use the system, having your employees feel like they are involved in it.' (3) Give instruction: Developed a culture book that outlines standards of behavior when it comes to being charitable. 'We say, at Greystone, (caring) means being interested in or concerned about the wellbeing of others. It means that you actively listen, keep an open mind, seek to understand, treat people with respect and kindness. We don't allow yelling. Mentor others, foster other's development, lead by example.' (4) Know that if you build it, they will come: Strikes a balance between good PR and sincerity by publicly commending their local offices' good deeds on social media platforms. 'I think that makes the story more powerful because it is not a corporate driven initiative. We don't do it to get a pat on the back afterwards. I think that's the key for our social responsibility. That is the biggest return on the investment, that we get people that care about other people to join our company.' Read on...

AdAge: Four Tips for Building Sustainable CSR
Author: Drew Neisser

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 nov 2016

Philanthropic giving continued to thrive in US and exceeded US$ 373 billion in 2015. Educational institutions got 12.86% (US$ 48 billion) of the total. As public funding to education gets reduced, colleges and universities are realigning strategic objectives and development goals to suit the funding priorities for donors and organizations. Donors have their own criteria to determine the funding goals that make an impact. According to Charles Koch, businessman and philanthropist, 'It is simply identifying organizations which want to make life better by empowering free will and enterprise. I decided that I wanted to give as many people as possible ideas so that they could transform their lives. That's been my motivation.' Michael Lomax, President and CEO of UNCF.org, recently shared his views on the potential for social modeling between UNCF and Charles Koch Foundation, and their US$ 29 million partnership for tuition assistance and career development. He says, 'The success of this program lies in our shared vision that a mind - and a life - is a terrible thing to waste. It is why our partnership's ultimate goal is to give students the opportunity to explore the values and skills of an entrepreneur, and better understand how an entrepreneurial mindset will benefit both them and their communities.' Nicholas Perkins, Founder and CEO of Perkins Management Services Inc, explains about his support to Howard University, 'Anytime that a minority company has an opportunity to partner with an historically black institution, that partnership should be the base from which growth and progress for that particular campus comes. So we always try to fit ourselves into that puzzle.' Educational institutions often find funding success by proactively tapping into the goodwill of graduates and stakeholders. Miami University of Ohio invested a substantial amount from its fundraising campaign towards enhancing academic programming in media studies, writing and gerontology. It launched 'Miami Plan', a 36-credit hour course mandate for all students to be immersed in and appreciative of the impact of liberal arts across all career paths. Gregory Crawford, President of Miami University of Ohio, says, 'For me, people don't expect a physicist to have such a passion for the liberal arts, but it had such a big impact on my life, my leadership style and my interests. I couldn't be more enthusiastic in sharing how it helped me to learn about human flourishing and in thinking more holistically, which was super important to me in the physics world.' He adds, 'Many of our own alums and donors understand the value of the education provided to them, and they love what we're doing with the Miami plan, so they freely invest in that vision.' Read on...

Education Dive: What inspires people, corporations to give to higher education?
Author: Jarrett Carter

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 nov 2016

Organizations should continue to seek innovation to stay relevant and competitive. Achieving continuous innovation is challenging and organizations have to create an innovation-driven culture as a long-term strategy to sustain it. Manoj Vig, Enterprise Architect at Shire Pharmaceuticals, shares his views on innovation, how to establish innovation teams and what should be done to ensure innovation success - (1) Organizational DNA: Innovation is neither a project nor a process, it needs to be part of organizational DNA; Focus on teams and groups. (2) Collaboration is important: Collaborative environment helps innovation to sustain and succeed in innovation; Collaboration develops and refines innovative ideas. (3) Find zoom out team members: Include members with diverse set of skills and competencies, and those who can zoom out to get a bigger picture. (4) Innovation teams and performance engines: Innovation teams are necessary to provide performance teams to work better. Better coordination and partnership between the two for seamless and continuous innovation. (5) A crazy man's idea: Nurture ideation in organizations even though ideas may initially seem difficult or impossible; Encourage sharing and free flow of ideas. (6) Glocalization and reverse innovation: Innovation teams should learn from these concepts and seek out what has been successfully done as a prlect for a specific use case at one place and reconfigure it for a larger user base within the organization. (7) Innovation catalysts and champions: Look for innovation catalysts that will become part of a dedicated team and then find innovation champions within existing and potential user communities to work with catalysts to solidify the innovation-based culture thinking within the organization. (8) Don't worry, be crappy: As Guy Kawasaki once said the phrase to make a point that when something is done to be radically different and better, waiting for perfection is not a good strategy; Deliver products and services quickly and without fear of failure. Such products/services can be tagged as beta or in incubation for user awareness. This helps engage with users early, set the right level of expectations and create a positive feedback loop. (9) Don't just focus on problems: Solving current problems with users provide quick wins and credibility boosters and must be used by innovation teams to expand their focus and work towards identification of opportunities for users that did not exist before; Focus on creating new opportunities and disrupting current ways of doing things. Read on...

icrunchdata: 9 Tips to Establish Innovation Teams
Author: Manoj Vig

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 oct 2016

Conflicts and wars, apart from taking human lives, causing destruction and displacing ordinary people, also disturbs affected children's educational future and creates regional human resources imbalances. The ongoing Syrian Civil War has led to an estimated quarter-million young people getting deprived of college education. Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of UK and currently UN Special Envoy for Global Education, explains collaborative role of charities, philanthropists and nonprofit foundations to overcome educational deprivation of displaced students. He advocates the need of realizing the potential of social enterprises to fill the gaps in global education. He says, 'With 260 million children not in school worldwide, education needs more champions to match the enthusiasm of advocates in, say, the global-health and environmental movements. There is more room for innovation in education than in any other international-development sector, especially as digital technologies and the Internet become more accessible even in the world's poorest regions.' He shares how Catalyst Trust for Universal Education, an education focused social entperise founded by former New York University President John Sexton, is helping out in global education efforts. Catalyst Trust participates in PEER (Platform for Education in Emergencies Response) project intended to connect college-ready Syrian refugees with refugee-ready colleges. Explaining the future of PEER project, he comments, 'In time, PEER will serve as a conduit to higher education for displaced students worldwide, and it will cater to all education levels, by providing web-based information, points of contact, and much-needed counseling and support.' He advocates support to social startups like Catalyst Trust, that are working on various aspects of education globally. He encourages education reformers to learn from pioneering work of Sir Ronald Cohen on social-impact investing. He cites some specific pilot projects that individuals and organizations can support to make a difference in education - help refugee students in their education; human-rights education to determine how school curricula can best cultivate inter-faith understanding; help the two million students who are blind or visually impaired, and whose educational needs have long been neglected. With new technology, we can now leapfrog the 150-year-old braille system and instantly render text into audio recordings, making all types of learning materials accessible to the visually impaired. Mr. Brown concludes, 'For anyone who cares about education, our task is clear: to furnish millions of poor people, especially in the remotest parts of the world, with the innovations they need to transform and improve their lives through learning. As the Catalyst Trust intends to show, a little social enterprise goes a long way.' Read on...

Project Syndicate: Education Needs Social Enterprise
Author: Gordon Brown

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 oct 2016

In the world of charitable giving, generally 20% givers use techniques and expert knowledge to maximize their effectiveness, while the remaining 80% are unaware and together pay millions in taxes that would otherwise be used for charitable work. Robert G. Collins, Tampa Bay President of NCF (9th largest US charity), provides specialist philanthropic advice and shares some valuable tools and techniques to enhance value of giving - (1) Use a donor-advised fund (DAF): DAF works like charitable account where the giver gets a charitable deduction when assets are contributed. It is also similar to private grantmaking family foundations without the work and expenses of running a corporation. DAF enables the giver to give when it's convenient for them and decide the amount, timing and recipient of the gift at a later date. (2) Stop writing checks: Giving with cash are after-tax dollars exchanged for a charitable giving. Gift appreciated assets to gain a fair market value deduction, but avoid the capital gains taxes embedded in the asset. This way you get a double benefit i.e. giving pre-tax dollars and still getting the charitable deduction. (3) Plan ahead for tax events: Capital gains taxes are optional taxes - you don't have to pay them if you don't want to. If you are charitable and you have a taxable event expected in future, explore your charitable options today. (4) Have a charitable shareholder: Consider gifting a partial interest in your business or income-producing real estate to your DAF. It is critical that the DAF or charity you are giving to has expertise in taking in business interests. (5) Give generously through your estate: Check out givingpledge.org to find out reasons why many respected business leaders are leaving a charitable legacy. A DAF is a simple, easy solution for a family foundation legacy, but ask the fund sponsor whether they have rules about appointing successors. Read on...

Tampa Bay Business Journal: 5 things smart givers know
Author: Robert G. Collins

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 oct 2016

According to the IMF's October 2016 'World Economic Outlook' report, global economic growth will remain subdued this year (3.1%), as US slowdown and Brexit happened. Moreover, persistent stagnation in advanced economies could further give rise to anti-trade sentiments and populist call for restrictions on trade and immigration. Maurice Obstfeld, IMF chief economist, says, 'Such restrictions would hamper productivity, growth and innovation. t is vitally important to defend the prospects for increasing trade integration. Turning back the clock on trade can only deepen and prolong the world economy’s current doldrums.' IMF suggests - For near term growth, central banks in advanced economies should maintain easy monetary policies; Governments should spend more on education, technology, and infrastructure to expand productive capacity while taking steps to alleviate inequality; Many countries also need to counteract waning potential growth through structural reforms to boost labor force participation, better match skills to jobs, and reduce barriers to market entry. IMF found emerging markets and developing economies as the only bright spots, where growth will accelerate for the first time in 6 years to 4.2%. They are expected to grow 4.6% next year. Although, prospects differ sharply across countries and regions. Growth in emerging Asia, and especially India, continues to be resilient. India's GDP is projected to expand 7.6% this year and next, the fastest pace among the world's major economies. Sub-Saharan Africa's largest economies continue to struggle with lower commodity revenues, weighing on growth in the region. While, economic activity slowed in Latin America, as several countries are mired in recession, with recovery expected to take hold in 2017. Middle East remains in challenging conditions due to subdued oil prices, civil conflicts and terrorism. Commenting on the policy challenge, Mr. Obsfeld concludes, 'By using monetary, fiscal, and structural policies in concert - within countries, consistent over time, and across countries - the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.' Read on...

IMF News: IMF Sees Subdued Global Growth, Warns Economic Stagnation Could Fuel Protectionist Calls
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 sep 2016

According to the first experts' poll conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation (poll2016.trust.org), in partnership with Deutsche Bank, the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network (GSEN) and UnLtd, the top nations for social entrepreneurs are - (1) United States (2) Canada (3) United Kingdom (4) Singapore (5) Israel (6) Chile (7) South Korea (8) Hong Kong (9) Malaysia (10) France. The poll included survey of about 900 social enterprise experts (social entrepreneurs, academics, investors, policy-makers and support networks) in the world's 45 biggest economies. 85% of the experts said the number of social entrepreneurs finding ways of combining business with social purpose was growing although there is little data tracking the sector. According to Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder of Pipeline Angels (US), 'If someone's interested in financial return on investment, that's not a good fit. We're about so much more. We're about doing good, we're about doing well.' Nearly 60% of the experts surveyed cited three major challenges in the growing sector - people do not know what social entrepreneurs do, which makes raising funds difficult and selling to governments is an uphill struggle. Anne Katrine Heje Larsen, founder and CEO of KPH (Denmark), says, 'There are still too many people who view social entrepreneurs as a bunch of hash-fuming utopian people in knitted sweaters. They couldn't be more wrong.' According to Ayşe Sabuncu, co-founder of Impact Hub Istanbulin (Turkey), 'People do not understand social entrepreneurs create money making businesses like any other business, and they question the philosophy of it if the entrepreneur ends up making profit.' Andy Carnahan, a Swedish social entrepreneur, says, 'A greater understanding of how for-profit businesses can be a driving force for social good would help. We need this (awareness)...among the public who don't realize how much good can be done by a for-profit business that has a social good built into its business model.' Poll found that India, Philippines and South Korea are among those where social entrepreneurs were finding it easiest to access investment. According to Prashanth Venkataramana of Essmart Global, 'A lot of people see India as an opportunity overseas, especially in America.' Bank of America's 2016 survey found that 85% of millennials were interested in having a social impact through investment. It also found that women were more interested in impact investing than men. Peetachai 'Neil' Dejkraisak of Siam Organic (Thailand) says, 'World-class social enterprises are run by women in Asia. They do a really good job balancing the social and financial objectives.' Rosemary Addis, chair of Impact Investing Australia, says, 'Individual enterprises are finding a niche and finding they can engage the market and sell their products or services. But as a sector, the concept of social enterprise and purpose-driven business has not yet got mainstream awareness. That's a job ahead to educate the public.' Read on...

Huffington Post: U.S. Is Best Country For Social Entrepreneurs - Poll
Authors: Pietro Lombardi, Ellen Wulfhorst, Pauline Askin, Nita Bhalla, Alisa Tang, Belinda Goldsmith

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 07 sep 2016

Students have to be taught about entrepreneurship and innovation early in their educational stage to better prepare them to adapt to the technology-enabled disruptive future of the world of work. Experts predict that technology is transforming work so rapidly that 40% of the jobs of today will disappear within 10-15 years. According to The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), advances in computer technology and automation would result in around five million job losses. Prof. Stephen Martin, Chief Executive of CEDA, says, 'If we do not embrace massive economic reform and focus on incentivising innovation, we will simply be left behind in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.' Jo Burston, serial entrepreneur and founder of small business platform 'Inspiring Rare Birds', has created an education venture 'Phronesis Academy' with Prof. Richard Seymour of Sydney Business School. According to Ms. Burston, 'Phronesis in Greek means practical wisdom - it's all about learning in action. There is actually no right or wrong and there is no pass or fail because we know that in entrepreneurship those things don't actually exist...We need to have young people thinking as entrepreneurs as they go into businesses because businesses are wanting to innovate. So the people who can innovate and create new revenue lines are the ones who are going to be highly regarded in their positions and I think there's an entrepreneurial mindset around being able to do that.' Jayant Prakash, business teacher at Darwin High School, says, 'It's very important to know entrepreneurial skills because every day we get up in the morning and we are dealing in the world of business, we want our young people to be innovative in nature and this subject gives them the chance to develop ideas.' Read on...

Huffington Post: Why High School Is The Best Place To Nurture Our Entrepreneurs
Author: Cathy Anderson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 aug 2016

According to Wikipedia, 'Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) became popular in 1960s and is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and national and international norms.' While BusinessDictionary.com defines CSR as 'A company's sense of responsibility towards the community and environment (both ecological and social) in which it operates. Companies express this citizenship - (1) Through their waste and pollution reduction processes. (2) By contributing educational and social programs. (3) By earning adequate returns on the employed resources.' According to a Global CSR Study conducted by Cone Communications/Ebiquity, 91% of global consumers expect companies to do more than make a profit but also operate responsibly to address social and environmental issues. From integrating a social mission into cross-departmental activities to engaging in sustainability practices, there are myriad ways in which organizations can adopt both a good business and commerce-driven model. A new report from PSFK Labs, 'Impact Debrief', explores how brands can innovate around this decades-old concept of CSR to elevate their social impact and influence. The study provides 5 key ingredients for creating social innovation - (1) Identify And Unite Around A Relevant Social Problem. (2) Promote Cross-Functional Integration. (3) Incentivize And Empower Employees. (4) Create Value By Maximizing Sustainability Efforts. (5) Deliver Transparency. Read on...

PSFK: The 5 Fundamentals For Corporate Social Innovation
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 jul 2016

Packaging is an important component of product handling, logistics, advertising, marketing and selling. There are variety of materials that are currently in use for packaging. Environmental challenges arise due to the waste generated through discarded packagings. The packaging industry is exploring better materials that can reduce environmental footprint. In spite of scientific breakthroughs in developing new packaging materials, there are issues related to their performance and price, inhibiting their mass adoption and usage. Bryan Shova, packaging designer and industrial design director at Kaleidoscope, explains sustainability aspects of packaging. He says, 'I dream of the day when material science and manufacturing can deliver on the promise of zero environmental impact, high performance, premium finish and low costs.' He explains, 'The viability of true sustainability is a complex economic challenge, and the ugly truth is that few consumers, brand owners or municipalities are willing to pay the premium price for cutting-edge sustainable packaging solutions. True solutions will come through "systems thinking" that requires the material supplier, manufacturer, retailer, consumer and the municipality to share in the premium costs and labor required to design, collect and recycle packaged materials.' He provides 10 principles for designing sustainable packaging - (1) Start with commodity materials that are commonly recycled. (2) Design the package from a single material. (3) Focus on the product-to-package ratio. (4) Design for assembly at the point of manufacture. (5) Avoid gluing and laminations. (6) Design for distribution. (7) Eliminate secondary and tertiary packaging when possible. (8) Design for disassembly. (9) Clearly mark the materials on the packaging components. (10) Use Lifecycle Assessment. Read on...

Packaging Digest: 10 ways to design sustainable packaging with intent
Author: Bryan Shova

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