Social impact: what modern companies do differently
We live in a rapidly changing world. Fading online and offline borders enable the worldwide and instant transfer of knowledge.
Traditional companies struggle to find the best people in their industry; they struggle with the use of technology; and they struggle to put sustainability and social impact at the core of doing business.
Modern companies on the other hand are much more familiar with new developments. By offering solutions for social and economic problems, they intuitively generate social impact.
This contradiction puts the traditional balance of power under pressure. Innovation has long become an elementary matter for traditional companies and organisations, in order to avoid becoming a next Kodak.
Powered by a laptop, a smartphone and the Internet, I rode my motorcycle from Chile to New York in six months, visiting 35 modern companies along the way.
For-profit companies with a vision, that are able to attract talented people by being an inspiration, and through innovative business models. Companies that understand how to use the rise and availability of technology to their advantage.
Above all: companies with social impact, that are working to resolve current social problems.
Meet four of them.
Laboratoria trains young women from the urban slums to become web designers. Founded barely 2 years ago in Peru, Laboratoria already expanded their business to Mexico and to Chile.
Their remarkable story was covered by CNN and the BBC, and Laboratoria’s co-founder Mariana was recently invited to join a panel with Sean Penn and the founder of LinkedIn at a World Bank conference in Lima.
Founded 35 years ago in Bogotá, Crepes&Waffles is Colombia’s largest restaurant chain. A highly popular family business, it expanded its operations to seven other countries.
Over 90% of its 4,000 people work force was originally hired as a single mum.
Felipe, the son of the owner of Crepes, showed me around its headquarters, and invited me to the mountains outside Colombia’s capital to see how Crepes is turning their supply chain local and organic.
Coop Coffees is the largest coffee cooperative in North-America, that combines the buying power of 23 coffee companies to purchase an annual total of nearly 2 million kilos of coffee beans from farmers in nine coffee producing countries. These farmers are paid a fair price for their products.
Invited by the coop’s founder Bill, I was shown around the headquarters in rural Georgia. Also I visited two of the 23 coop members: coffee companies in Georgia and in northern Florida.
On a smaller scale, Don Leo, an engineer, is the owner of Hotel Galvarino: a mid-size hotel at the coast in northern Chile. Together with his son, also an engineer, Don Leo acquired a set of solar panels and a tube system that they installed on the roof of the hotel, and that heat all of the water for the hotel.
Within 2016, Don Leo wants to add windmills so that the entire property can run off of clean energy.
Innovation is often triggered under pressure. When the pressure to act is high, people become creative and come up with the best ideas. The same goes for companies.
Pressure on the American continent is constantly high.
Many Latin American countries suffer from substantial inflation rates. In Argentina, inflation as high as 10% per month is no exception.
All throughout Latin America, social inequality is soaring. In Colombia social classes are even officially categorised in so-called estratos: from 1 — rich, to 6 — poor.
Also, many countries in the region have weak government structures and institutions, and as a result a weak social security system.
People in the Americas are therefore constantly required to create new opportunities for themselves. This makes it an ideal continent to research innovative and alternative business models.
The fact that I communicate fluently in Spanish and English proved to be an important extra advantage during my trip, as it enabled me to interview people in their own language.
All along the way, my analysis focused on how modern companies differentiate themselves from traditional companies.
- How do they make use of current developments?
- How do they tackle social and economic problems?
- How can they be profitable and have social impact at the same time?
At every company that I visited, my own gut feeling was the most important indicator of whether that particular company was having social impact.
Most companies invited me for dinner. One company paid me a train ticket, and one paid my hotel reservation. Some of the companies showered me with a selection of their products. None of the companies however paid me to be interviewed.
Multinational companies with strong brands, fast-growing start-ups, and smaller companies alike: all over the Americas, companies are building a successful business case on resolving a social or economic problem.
For all these companies, social impact is the starting point of doing business. Moreover, they show that social impact is profitable.
In my book Connecting Las Americas — Towards Social Impact I explain what their model is, and how your company can implement the same elements as these companies from the Americas.
By following the same steps, you can turn your own company or start-up into a profitable business. And start having social impact at the same time.
Pre-order Connecting Las Americas — Towards Social Impact to learn how your company can start having social impact too.
Max Wohlgemuth Kitslaar is a speaker and business author who examines how businesses and individuals create social impact, and how we can learn from them. All through a combination of adventure travels and business.
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