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How can business profitably solve society’s big problems?
Business must integrate activities we think of as non-business today. My four-year old has mastered combining activities: for Reuben, learning, cuddling, and playing overlap. Reuben hugs Mom’s arm, leaning close to the computer screen to watch Mom’s physiology lecture. “What does osteod [osteoporosis] mean?” Reuben asks. To Reuben, there’s no confusion here: science is play to him, and both learning and his Mom are loves. That ability to combine activities will serve Reuben well when he’s older.
In today’s complex world, positive outcomes require integrating activities we traditionally think of as business with those we consider socially responsible. Improving our health requires more than a bright physician who recognizes medical problems and can prescribe the relevant pharmaceutical or surgical procedure. We must ensure social systems are in place to support eating healthfully, exercising, and following doctor’s orders. Delivering nourishing food requires more than just placing an ear of corn in front of a hungry person. Consumers must understand the basics of healthful choices, and food labels must be both understandable to the average consumer and representative of scientists’ innovative efforts. And education requires all children get to school safely, learn basic skills, and receive answers to the question, “If digital technology will be smarter than me in a few decades, why does my education matter?”
At its core, profit is a measure of how well you solve problems. So, find innovative approaches to deliver positive outcomes by integrating socially responsible actions with traditionally for-profit ones. Develop new insights, tools, and strategies that align all of those actions within your organization, or collaborate with others. And design the innovative business approaches that allow you to harvest resulting meaningful profit.
Solving society’s deep problems takes more creativity than publishing a Corporate Social Responsibility report that hides little effort. Yet the value to investors as well as society can be high.
Do your social responsibility efforts make you proud, and deliver meaningfully to your investors? Do they help you lead society?
Please also share your thoughts in the comments or by sending me an email: info@RodWallacePhD.Com.
Our society cannot just survive. For the sake of our children, it must thrive.
Rod
Dr. Rod Wallace is an economist, consultant, and speaker who helps businesses make more money by solving society’s problems. A Fulbright Fellow, he has led multi-organization billion-dollar initiatives worldwide and partnered with a Silicon Valley pioneer to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence on society.
Rod speaks about how to integrate social responsibility into business to maximize profit and purpose. He highlights digital technology’s impact on society and the strategies and tools with which business can solve our big, systemic problems.
Contact Rod at info@RodWallacePhD.com.