Posted by
Chris Pinney in
With input from IBM and nine other leading companies, the Council on Foundations has just launched an ambitious initiative to revitalize and redefine the roles of corporate foundations and philanthropy. Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value establishes a roadmap to help those involved in corporate philanthropy to dramatically increase its social and business value by moving away from “philanthropy as charity” and adopting a 21st century model based on leadership, innovation, and creation of sustainable value.
Our report is the result of an 18-month study that engaged corporate philanthropy practitioners and external stakeholders throughout the United States in a discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing corporate philanthropy in the 21st Century. Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value addresses an environment in which society is looking to business for leadership on social issues as never before. A 2009 Waggener Edstrom Poll found that 60 percent of consumers now believe that businesses are in the best position to create positive results on social issues. By contrast, only 14 percent of respondents believed that governments can drive positive results.
Sixty-four percent of respondents to a 2010 Edelman survey stated they believe it is no longer enough for corporations to give money. Corporations must integrate good causes into their everyday business, said those surveyed. As companies work to meet this challenge through strategies such as “shared value”, philanthropy must redefine its role to support this transformation. Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value establishes goals for this transformation, identifies the challenges to be addressed, and details potential leadership opportunities.
Key initiatives include:
- Creating a new narrative for corporate philanthropy as social investment
- Developing an inclusive protocol for philanthropic investment
- Professionalizing the practice of corporate philanthropy
- Improving collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing
- Mobilizing grassroots leadership
As a global leader of corporate philanthropy’s transformation from “checkbook charity” to creating sustainable value, IBM has played an important role in the development of the Council’s agenda. IBM initiatives such as Corporate Service Corps, Smarter Cities Challenge, and Supplier Connection are powerful examples of how a commitment to service can help solve society’s challenges while creating lasting value. The Council on Foundations looks forward to continuing to work with IBM as we support and encourage the evolution of corporate philanthropy.
Download Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value.
Chris Pinney is project lead for the Corporate Philanthropy 2012 project and author of Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value. Mr. Pinney is a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program and Senior Vice President of the Alliance for Business Leadership.
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Good Corporate Citizenship Sustains Our Society Through Changing Times
Posted by
Chester Karwatowski in
“Charity alone will not solve the world’s problems. Capitalism can help
and at the same time put people back to work.”
– President Bill Clinton, January 2012
“No one institution can change a complex system by itself.”
– Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School
Supplier Connection connects small business suppliers to large business buyers efficiently and effectively, while providing business value to all members of the community.
As soon as people hear about Supplier Connection, they get it. Imagine a student applying to college. The student fills out one application, a “Common College Application,” and multiple colleges will accept that application for consideration. Colleges maintain their unique selection processes, but have agreed on a streamlined, simpler and more efficient process. That is the starting point for one of the most exciting and important transformation projects that I have ever worked on.
“The process doesn’t exist today. There are no requirements. Many of the potential users are competitors. What can you do in three months?”
That was the challenge the IBM Foundation presented to a small group of IBM Supply Chain, Transformation and Technology experts in the summer of 2010. The reason was significant: U.S. unemployment was at a 25 year high, over 9.5 percent for much of the year. And there was a global financial crisis threatening to make things worse. Action was required. That call to action was compelling. Everyone who was engaged quickly realized how important this endeavor was. The challenge was great. Supplier Connection was a transformation science project! We had lots of study-based hypotheses with assumptions that we now needed to prove. I had spent my career at IBM solving vexing technical and business problems through the use of technology, complex analytics and a myriad of change-leadership techniques. But I had never experienced a project that needed more than one company to change its behavior; we needed dozens, perhaps hundreds!
Valentine’s Day, 2011
Five months after we started, we went live with Supplier Connection! We were now able to provide a “common supplier application” to small businesses. Valentine’s Day was apropos for the launch. When you go to a dance, you hope there is someone there that wants to dance with you! We were certain we could get suppliers to join, but we needed buyers at our dance! Program Manager John Dischinger was tireless in pitching the concept to CEOs, CPOs, government organizations and NGOs. It was a simple story: channel some of your existing spending to small businesses. We can help you to find suppliers you’ll like with our registration process and analytic tools. There are more than nine million small businesses in the U.S., and our mission is to help identify them, enable them, and connect them with the supply chains of large corporations.
Supply Chain “match making”
Similar to social match making, business-to-business “match making” is emerging as a process that successfully leverages social business technologies and tools. One business (buyer) seeks another business (supplier) for commerce (or vise versa). Going to an external community for this process of sharing profiles and applications and finding partners makes sense to both buyers and suppliers who have a shared vision and objective for the community.
The idea is contagious. And…you mean I can join for free?
Never before have I experienced the kind of emotional connection to a project that I have with Supplier Connection. Everyone on the team feels it. Everyone is proud to be working so hard on something so important. But we need your help. We are looking for volunteers to help us reach out to small businesses, attend match-making events in person, inform small businesses about Supplier Connection, mentor suppliers, and help us build a stronger community. If you respond to this blog, we will reach out and connect with you.
Yes, Supplier Connection is free! IBM Foundation President Stan Litow was very clear in his vision for Supplier Connection. The program is free and open to all suppliers and all buyers who commit to this shared vision of connecting small businesses with economic opportunities for growth. And the idea is contagious and growing. We now have 15 Fortune 100 companies who are part of the Supplier Connection consortium: AMD, AT&T, Bank of America, Caterpillar, Citigroup, DELL, Facebook, IBM, John Deere, JPMorgan Chase, Kellogg Company, Office Depot, Pfizer, UPS, and Wells Fargo. These companies represent more than $300 billion in buying potential.
More large companies will soon be joining us. On March 22, we announced a significant new partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration. SBA Administrator Karen Mills has invited more than 50,000 suppliers to join the Supplier Connection consortium. And as more businesses join, our opportunities to demonstrate the value of this simple concept with broad socially-responsible implications will continue to grow.
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member Chester Karwatowski is the CTO and Business Architect for Supplier Connection, an IBM Foundation-led initiative designed to spur job growth in the U.S. Follow Chester on Twitter.
Related Resources:
Article: Facebook Connects with Supplier Connection
SBA Administrator Karen Mills: Making it Easier for Small Businesses
to Make it in America
Video: Perspectives on Supplier Connection
Posted by
Nan Alpay in
Not so long ago, Facebook was considered a startup, so when we see great opportunities to stimulate entrepreneurship, we’re eager to help out. That’s why we’re excited to announce today that Facebook has joined Supplier Connection, a consortium of 15 companies committed to driving small business growth in the United States by amplifying access to their combined global supply chain.
We’re in good company, too. Caterpillar, Dell, John Deere, JPMorgan Chase, Kellogg Company, Office Depot, and Wells Fargo also announced their participation in Supplier Connection today, joining founding members AT&T, Bank of America, Citigroup, IBM, Pfizer, and UPS. Together, these corporations purchase more than $300 billion in goods and services annually through their global supply chains. Supplier Connection makes it easier for small businesses to get in on the action.
In New York City, Stanley Litow (left), President of the IBM International Foundation and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Karen Mills (right) sign an agreement to launch Supplier Connection, a free web site that makes it easier for 50,000 small U.S. businesses to sell their goods and services to large companies.
Through the Supplier Connection web-based portal, small businesses have the opportunity to present their offerings to Facebook and other consortium members with the goal of winning contracts, expanding business and creating jobs. It’s a free and automated process that also enables small suppliers to learn from, collaborate with, and sell to each other so that they can become more competitive and successful in a bid with companies like ours.
Beyond this initiative, Facebook has found other ways to reinvigorate the U.S. economy:
- Our “Small Business Boost” partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business is training small business owners around the country to use Facebook to reach new customers.
- Facebook also collaborated with the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), DirectEmployers Association (DE), and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) to create the Social Jobs Partnership with the aim of facilitating employment for jobless persons through the use of social networks.
We know the challenge of providing economic opportunities and creating jobs requires innovative approaches by American companies across many industries, and we hope our involvement with Supplier Connection, coupled with other efforts, can help small businesses thrive and spur job growth for years to come.
Nan Alpay is Director of Global Source to Pay and Supplier Management at Facebook
Related Resources:
SBA Administrator Karen Mills: Making it Easier for Small Businesses
to Make it in America
Posted by
Stanley S. Litow in
In the March 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes that “when business, academic, and policy leaders collaborate to bridge the gaps [between their silos], they create a fertile environment for job growth and more-inclusive prosperity.” Professor Kanter enumerates four key goals that should be on the agenda of every leader, and cites several IBM citizenship programs – Smarter Cities Challenge, Supplier Connection, Transition to Teaching, and the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) – as outstanding examples of companies can “[think] outside the building [to find] opportunities to influence the system around them.”
- “Link knowledge creation and venture creation to speed the conversion of ideas into market-ready enterprises. [Smarter Cities Challenge/Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Aquaponics Innovation Center]
- Link small and large enterprises to promote the growth and success of small and midsize companies and revitalize large corporations through partnerships with innovative SMEs. [Supplier Connection]
- Improve the match between education and employment opportunities. Develop a job-ready workforce through apprenticeships and other education-industry links, including new structures for schooling. [New York P-TECH, a grades 9 through 14 institution that directly connects education to employment]
- Link leaders across sectors to develop regional strategies and produce scalable models that build on local assets and attract new investment.”
Professor Kanter concludes:
Besides creating regional coalitions, business leaders can be institutional innovators. Creative leaders think not only outside the box but also—in my preferred metaphor—outside the building, finding opportunities to influence the system around them. Consider the efforts of IBM, already described in this article. They are business-strategic, involve a wide range of functions, and directly address ecosystem challenges. IBM leads the semiconductor research consortium in Albany; assists the aquaponics innovation districts in Milwaukee; runs Supplier Connection for SMEs; participates in creating six-year high schools in New York and Chicago; and retools engineers as educators through Transition to Teaching. Institutional innovations create better ways to focus R&D, supply chain, or training investments. When the private sector uses its core business capabilities to invent new prototypes for structural change, the public sector gets models to take to scale.
Read “Enriching the Ecosystem” (free registration required)
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the chair and director of Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. Professor Kanter is the author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good (2009).
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Social Responsibility and Business Strategy
Giving Kids the Right Start with Science and Math
Posted by
Stanley S. Litow in
In today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I advance three potential solutions for job creation and economic growth – not just for Atlanta, but for any city or community confronting the challenge of runaway unemployment among its young:
- Expand the Growth Potential of Small Businesses so that they may continue to serve as engines for job creation.
- Close the Gap Between Skills and Jobs so today’s young people will be ready for tomorrow’s explosive job growth for those with the right training.
- Create Public-Private Partnerships to Tackle Big Problems that no single sector can overcome alone.
Specifically, I detail how programs that are already underway are helping business and community leaders work together to revitalize the economy and make their cities better places to live.
Further Resources:
The Latest Thinking on Public-Private Partnerships
Degrees Remain Elusive for Most Community College Students
It’s Time for a New Model for Our Schools
Creating a Smarter Education System
