"The MDGs are intended, first and foremost, to help people. But they can be good for business..."
found that they did not just put affordable shoes on the feet of poor people but they also turned a profit doing it. But this particular documentary is not primarily about the companies; it’s about the people of Africa. In Zambia for example, we looked at how Standard Chartered worked with the Ministry of Agriculture to create a unique funding model for farmers. Instead of the banks taking out security against their land, they now take security out on their crops instead. This allows a farmer to send his kids to school and plan long-term without the constant fear of a bad weather season robbing him of his future.”
How else could companies overlook the well being of their customers, the depletion of natural resources vital to their businesses, the viability of key suppliers, or the economic distress of the communities in which they produce and sell? How else could companies think that simply shifting activities to locations with ever-lower wages was a sustainable “solution” to competitive challenges?
The objective here is to look at inclusive value. As former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently remarked, "The MDGs are intended, first and foremost, to help people. But they can be good for business: first, because helping to build the infrastructure is an enormous business opportunity; and second, because, once it is built, business will find larger, eager markets in place". This is the business model of the future. And people on the ground are interested as well. With our Facebook page we have an outreach of about 350 000 people weekly. They want to know how thy can get involved. ‘
Richard is very keen to underscore the difference between philanthropy – of which he is not really a fan – and altruistic investment. “We work very closely with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and IT'S AFRICA'S TIME is not about putting companies on a pedestal but rather recognizing that there's much to do, learning from each other, and building on each other's successes; the bottom line being that if business is going to contribute to taking care of people and the planet, business needs to recognize the importance of balancing the interests of 'people, planet and profit'. “A big part of the problem lies with companies themselves, which remain trapped in an outdated approach to value creation that has emerged over the past few decades. They continue to view value creation narrowly, optimising short-term financial performance in a bubble while missing the most important customer needs and ignoring the broader influences that determine their longer-term success. ‘
6 Magazine / Decl, 2013
Companies must take the lead in bringing business and society back together. The recognitions is there among sophosticated business and thought leaders , and promising elements of a new model are emerging. Yet we still lack an overall framework for guiding these efforts, and most companies remain stuck in a “social responsibility” mind-set in which societal issues are at the periphery, not the core.”