Think Globally, Act Locally.
The Information Age has forever changed the world of business by making consumers more knowledgeable and demanding than ever before. Information technology has led to the unprecedented level of accountability business leaders are facing today. As a result, many global companies institute a top-down approach in the development, communication and measurement of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Leadership teams of large-scale operations intend for company goals to trickle-down the ranks, but the strategy more often leads to an exhausting chase of short-term returns.
So, What's the Big Deal? It becomes increasingly difficult to funnel unified messaging and action items down to the individual offices and employees as companies grow. Setting lofty CSR goals without the forethought of scalable implementation leaves corporate citizenship efforts destined for failure. Instead, RightCause encourages companies of all sizes to focus on addressing global challenges, while engaging stakeholders in taking local action.
According to Leslie Crutchfield, Executive Director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, modern social change is fueled from the bottom up. Crutchfield’s research on, “How Change Happens” describes grassroots efforts as a key component of today’s “viral” social movements.
Think About It: One of the world’s largest information technology companies has already blazed the “Think Global; Act Local” trail. On November 6, 2008 at the Council on Foreign Relations, IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano introduced us to the idea of a “smarter planet” – one comprised of Interconnected, Intelligent systems and technologies that would Instrumentally improve our world. Palmisano leveraged IBM’s core strengths as an international technologies company to mobilize and equip worldwide progress with localized efforts.
While the vision of IBM’s Smarter Planet was to address global needs (transportation, energy, healthcare, water, safety, food), its campaigns were championed by individuals. Within the first year, IBM enabled hundreds of clients to build smarter systems and bring measurable benefits to their companies, communities and cities:
“In Spain, eight hospitals and 470 primary care clinics implemented smarter healthcare systems across their facilities—and improved clinical results and operational efficiency by up to 10 percent. In a study of 439 cities, those that employed smarter transportation solutions reduced travel delays on average by more than 700,000 hours daily. And four leading retailers reduced supply chain costs by up to 30 percent, reduced inventory levels by up to 25 percent, and increased sales by up to 10 percent by analyzing customer buying behaviors, aligning merchandizing assortments with demand and building end-to-end visibility across their entire supply chain.” (Source: IBM History)
Following a momentous first year of the Smarter Planet initiative, IBM launched its Smarter Cities campaign in 2009. The campaign aimed to help leaders around the world explore innovative ways to run better, more efficient, and less costly cities. IBM hosted nearly 100 Smarter Cities Forums in 2009, only to expand the campaign in 2010 to include training and education of college students around the world. As a result, the Smarter Planet initiative generated IBM $3 billion in revenue and double-digit growth from more than 6,000 client engagements in 2010 alone.
[Triple] Bottom Line: Big companies have big impacts, and they are not always good. So, meet the negative consequences of your business with active and honest efforts in the right direction. Think globally while acting locally by building adaptable programs that uphold your company’s social purpose, leverage its strengths, and work from the bottom up. By engaging internal and external stakeholders in the planning of your CSR initiatives, you’ll find priorities shift from “making the numbers,” to making a difference.
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Ready to profit with purpose? RightCause offers consulting services, educational resources and operational guides for corporate purpose discovery, cause marketing campaigns, events and fundraising. Learn more at rightcauseconsulting.com or email kwright@rightcauseconsulting.com to get started!