4 years down the line

Unlimited funding is a guarantee of success for any organisation, right? Wrong. In the course of  8 years working with community-based organisations in developing countries such as India, Jordan and Uganda we learned that resources need to be coupled with the capacity to strategically and sustainably invest them.

That is why, in September of 2010, we set off with a group of MBA students from the University of Westminster and a programmer from our strategic partner, Westbrook to Kampala, Uganda. Our mission was to support KCCC, a local clinic that provides free health care for the local community and neighbouring villages. KCCC had many patients and one problem: how to keep track of the data and treatment of all their 5,000 clients.  At that point, all information was managed by using over 10 spread sheets, each managed by a different department in the organisation.

Westminster students had done their preliminary research, and our strategic partner Salesforce.com had kindly donated licenses for their data management system, to be implemented at KCCC. The group had no more than 2 weeks working with the clinic and programmers to implement the system and train users. Quite a challenge.

But one that was happily overcome. By the end of those 2 weeks, KCCC had a new system implemented, with the information about patients, community workers and drugs already input, not to mention employees capable of using the system to increase efficiency in their tasks.  This included releasing four members of staff from data collection and management work to other areas, capacity building and building capacity!

The project was so successful that KCCC’s employee responsible to support the system implementation was invited by Salesforce.com to their annual conference in California, as a guest speaker reporting his experience.

Almost 4 years after the project, The Great Generation’s team spotted the lab employees still using the system in their everyday work life! And we are now preparing for the next projects that will build on this successful experience, and take KCCC one step closer to their long term plans.

Picasso once said that “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction”. How appropriate to remember this quote, as we were in the midst of planning our first session with the new cohort of students from the MSc in Marketing & Creativity from ESCP Europe Business School. We had in front of ourselves the challenge to lead an action-based session, part of a wider module named “Managing for Social Impact”, that would discuss “How positive social impact can generate value”. If we wanted to create something different, then our act of destruction was portraying itself as a paradox just in front of us: why can’t our minds be comfortable with combining social impact and value creation – even financial value?

Not to our surprise – because we knew the high calibre of students that would take part in the session – but to our delight, the discussion was energetic. They had been prepared to engage by reading examples of companies that had incorporated social impact to the way they do business. From Barthi Airtel, the low-cost network provider from India to the luxurious cashmere brand Brunello Cucinelli, and from Tesla Cars electric vehicles to Living Goods, the Avon-model distribution company in Uganda. They were familiar with a range of sectors and company sizes that viewed their impact beyond the sales of their own products.

Together, the class concluded that the paradox is a consequence of what we understand social impact to be. Social investment brings to mind the idea of companies sponsoring community projects and hunger programmes in Africa, but the cases and the discussion showed social impact to be much more than that. We understood it as the role a company plays to the agents that interact with it. It goes from creating jobs and development opportunities for its employees, and therefore developing the economy of the region around it, to creating a deep and trustworthy relationship with customers by offering products that are relevant to their needs and respect the environment at the same time.

Essentially, social impact will be the driver of the revolution we are starting to see in the business world: Business 3.0. The businesses that are concerned about not only existing in the next few decades, but also about having competent and dedicated employees, responsible investors, trustworthy suppliers, enough natural resources to produce and a loyal customer base. Ultimately: to be successful.

But those businesses can only succeed basing themselves on social impact if it’s authentic, integrated to the corporate strategy and sustainable in the long term. Are you wondering why? Stay tuned to our next blog post from our founder and CEO, Suzanne Gowler.