I've got a plan!

By now it is crystal clear for me that I want to help people. I have understood where this will comes from and know I need to translate it into a plan of actions. Before I start explaining this plan I would like to point out that 'making a living by making a difference' isn't just about giving but also receiving. Now it is scientifically proven, solidarity acts on brain chemistry like avitamin of health and personal fulfillment. This brings me to Rousseau's 'Social Contract' in which the author declares “Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains” and also to the word crisis (from the Greek – krisis) that also means 'testing time'. Let's make use of the ability to attune ourselves with others (empathy, compassion) and the willingness to help (supportive gestures) – that seem to be intrinsic to human nature – to rethink our future and build a society that promotes cooperation.

To do so it is important to understand the purpose of Business, that in which we allocate the majority of our time and energy. Business (from 'bisig', busy + ness; 'sense of work, occupation') is the origin and capitalism the engine we've created triggering prosperity and progress. Quoting Polly LaBarre, we need to “reimagine a profoundly principled, fundamentally patient, and socially accountable capitalism”.

That is exactly where I stand. At the intersection between people and businesses. On the one side, through human centered approach putting human needs at the forefront, finding people's desires and wishes, and discovering their aspirations often articulated by latent needs. And on the other side, helping organizations redefine themselves through reconceiving products and services, redefining productivity in the value chain, and building clusters and framework conditions in order to provide real value to the user by solving social problems. This is the foundation of long-term capitalism along with the notion of 'shared value'.

This paradigm shift affects all three sectors: public, private and third. Public needs to regulate minimum (high) standards setting the stage for private and third to compete. Even if non-profits still need to emerge as professional organizations (aka social businesses) capable of facing fierce markets, these often already have the appropriate mind-set. Whereas due to their flexibility, companies can create sustainable and scalable solutions to many social problems in ways that governments and NGOs cannot. This is why recent collaborations between multinational corporations (MNCs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have resulted in innovation of disruptive products and services. MNCs and NGOs have very different core 'businesses' which are highly compatible since the first is excellent at doing business and the second has extensive information about the needs of a specific target population.

My idea is to be a facilitator / translator at the center of this triangle, bringing together foundations and CSR departments (for now), non-profits, and ministries. It is the promotion of a greater well-being rather than a single-minded pursuit of growth and profits stimulating a strong sense of community that will generate coopetition (healthy competition) and therefore social innovation. This is the level I found myself to be most profitable, especially in the actual European context filled of opportunities.

Hopefully this is what I am developing at Soulsight –a strategic design consultancy from Madrid– in which I am currently working. 

Redefining Capitalism Through Design Thinking and Creating Shared Value

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been around since the late 1960 and early 1970, when multinational corporations (MNC) introduced the term stakeholder, meaning those on whom the activities of an organization have an impact.
CSR functions as an built-in self-regulated mechanism aiming at covering the responsibility of a company's actions and promote a positive impact through their activities on environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere that can also be considered as stakeholders.

Critics argue that CSR distracts from the economic role of businesses, while others argue that CSR is just a facade or an attempt by governments to control powerful multinational corporations. Moreover, in the neoclassical thought, the narrow perspective of capitalism, it is considered that companies contribute to society by generating a profit, which supports employment, wages, purchases, investments and taxes. Milton Friedman argues that the conduct of business as usual, is a sufficient social benefit.
Two decades of incentives on consumers to buy more and more, increased competition, the short-term pressure from shareholders has led to waves of restructuring, downsizing and relocating businesses to low-costs regions resulting in commoditization, price competition, little innovation, slow organic growth, and the loss of a clear competitive advantage. Communities where businesses operate eventually receive little benefit, even as MNCs profits increase.

A business needs a successful community, not only to create demand for their products, but also to provide essential public goods and infrastructure support. A successful community needs businesses to provide jobs and wealth creation opportunities for its citizens.
Shared Value Creation (CSV), which focuses on the relationship between economic and social progress, is inevitable and might probably trigger the next wave of global growth. As governments and NGOs, companies should also focus on solving social problems. This will require cross-sector collaborations - nonprofit, public, for profit- and the creation of new organizational hybrid models.
There are three main strategies to create shared value: reconceiving products, services and markets, redefining productivity in the value chain and enabling the development of local clusters.

At Soulsight, we use design thinking to understand the needs of people, and from a broader perspective, to solve social problems. We do this by collaborating with different types of organizations from different sectors and co-developing new services and organizational models. In a context of crisis, our human centered approach is a predominant response to value creation. Therefore, it seems natural to put our holistic and creative process at the service of CSV, as it is fundamentally aligned with the purpose of Soulsight: make our world a better place!
Still, there is a significant lack of structure as companies are still trapped in the old mind-set, believing that social problems must be addressed in the periphery of their business models and not at the center. However, the concept of CSV, has attracted a growing number of MNCs such as General Electric, Google, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Unilever and Wal-Mart as they sense it can be competitive advantage of the future.

So... what are you doing?