Social Innovation – Innovation for Everyone
According to Wikipedia Innovation is defined simple as a “new idea, device, or method”. According to most of the people innovation is rather some technology-related thing, such as electronic devices or any new mobile app, than an idea or method. However, technological innovative products are usually available for just a small number of the world’s citizens and does not reach the people who really would need improvement and progress. Those people need meaningful innovation addressed to their problems and needs. In other words they need social innovation. Social innovation is an inter-sectoral approach with new strategies and concepts addressed to social needs and issues with the goal to create an added value within the whole society. On the basis of two examples I will illustrate how a little change of our perspectives or new business approaches can lead to social innovation and thus changes the lives of millions of people.
The first good example is microcredit. A concept where small loans are given out to impoverished people who usually never had access to any kind of financial credit. This inclusive approach which is addressed to the poor people at the bottom of the pyramid was a revolutionary change with many advantages and benefits across different communities worldwide. The facilitation of paperwork and especially the empowerment of woman and the introduction to financial services has improved and stabilized many families in poor communities around the globe. Last but not least it incentivised entrepreneurship in poor communities and enabled hundred thousand of people to start their own small business and consequently manage their daily challenges more independently. The elimination of this financial barrier for poor people by introducing the concept of microcredit was certainly one of the most game-changing social innovations in recent times.
Aside from this inclusive and “bottom of the pyramid” approach another way to tackle social issues is to put terms such as collaboration (instead of competition) or sharing (instead of owning) in the centre of business strategies. There are already several big companies which have noticed that doing business and creating an added value for the society can be very profitable. One of these businesses is the car sharing concept Car2go by Daimler. Daimler has realized that for people cars are not the same status symbols anymore as in the past but that the need for cars is still high and even increasing. Furthermore, cars are often too expensive and too inconvenient in big cities regarding parking and space. Hence, Daimlers came up with the great idea of providing cars for cities and let the people use and share them. According to the size of the city a certain amount of cars are provided and distributed, ready to use for all registered members to comparatively low costs. Thank to this revolutionary business model financially weaker people get access to better mobility opportunities and moreover the parking and space problems of cities can get reduced.
In conclusion the way of doing business is changing on a high pace, the potential for social innovation is increasing and so the opportunities for social entrepreneurs are huge. However, there are no doubts that also the contribution of classic business and big companies is needed to first open the door to a sustainable future, then walk through it and finally create a better and fairer distribution of resources and wealth. In order to create social innovation often a little change of our perspectives of doing business can be game-changing as my two examples of microcredit and car2go have illustrated.
No hay comentarios /
19 May 2016
por
ckain
IMSD /
.png)
].gif)
.png){kind=logo}
].png)
].png)
].png)
].png)
.png){kind=logo}
].png)
.png){kind=logo}
