How can innovation be guided by more than just profit?
Digital innovation continues to transform every aspect of our lives; from how we communicate to the way we shop. In a world of rapid change, it’s become the main field of competition. “If you’re not innovating, you’re standing still. When you stand still, the world is leaving you behind.”
But having become successful on a culture of innovation and re-inventing the rules, it seems some leading digital disruptors have started to think that other rules don’t apply to them either. The pressures of balancing short-term profit and long-term growth has seen some high profile cases of businesses’ ethical standards falling short.
Facebook is the one currently in the dock. We love its innovation and have willingly accepted it into our lives. However, when it comes to data it turns out they’ve been stepping over the mark — for several years.
Obviously hardly anyone ever reads the Terms and Conditions before agreeing to them. So we are not aware of what we are sharing with sites we’ve signed up for. And you can’t opt out of sharing data, even if you don’t ever opt in!
Facebook have only recently been exposed for their misuse of people’s data, completely disregarding any sense of security or privacy online. And it’s difficult to say it’s not been a case of profit over principle. Our data is Facebook’s most valuable asset. In 2017 they made $26 billion in revenue from selling advertising — but not taking any responsibility in the event of advertisers pushing ‘fake news’. And 87 million people were unaware of which 3rd party apps their data was being shared with and for what use!
A second example is Uber, who have come under fire for avoiding employment obligations by calling themselves an “information society service” and maintaining that all their driver’s are self-employed. This subtle classification protected Uber from all sorts of costly regulations.
And then, of course, there’s the whole discussion about GAFA’s global tax avoidance!
It seems that in a bid to be the most innovative, some brands have lost the human angle in their approach. In a world of socially conscious consumers, this isn’t only wrong, it’s bad for business!
Increasingly people want to know that brands are delivering what Michael Porter called ‘shared value’, where profits are generated in a way that also adds value to society by addressing its challenges. In the emerging world, social thinking should be at the heart of economic and business problems.
In April, Facebook launched their apology campaign, “Here together”, to acknowledge the need for data transparency and ‘honest’ advertising on their site. Uber swiftly followed with their “Moving forward” ad in the hope of gaining forgiveness for the mistakes of their high-profile scandals.
So how can we ensure innovation is guided by more than just profit?
For Radical, innovation is about partnering with smart companies to help them design radically better businesses. And “better” doesn’t just mean more competitive and more profitable.
We know that people come first, so we develop ideas in the context of brand values and emerging cultural trends to ensure that disruption is a springboard to positive change.
References:
Creating Shared Value by Michael E. Porter
