During the first part of my career I built up significant experience in business strategy, in particular around shared value - which builds upon other concepts such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability to focus on profitable solutions to societal issues as part of a company’s central business strategy.
I have a unique experience from working in the global shared value movement, engaging with leading Australian and global businesses, government, consultants, and the not-for-profit community to innovate and address social problems at scale through business operations. From this experience I developed valuable insights into how various leading organisations are each implementing their business in society movements internally and externally, and bring experience in liaising with high-level stakeholders to showcase this activity through communications, advocacy, case study development, and servicing membership investments.
This is a lens I can bring to all my work and also led me to focus on supply chain and logistics, and the Circular Economy approach as part of my design work.
Shared Value
Shared value is a business strategy designed to solve social issues profitably.
It does this by leveraging the resources and innovation of the private sector to create new solutions to some of society’s most pressing issues. In doing so, it creates a more prosperous environment in which to operate, making business more sustainable and resilient.
An academic concept
Originally an academic concept, the idea was co-created by Harvard Business School Professors Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, and was introduced in 2011 in the Harvard Business Review article ‘Creating Shared Value’.
The establishment of shared value came after the global financial crisis, when capitalism and the reputation of business were under siege. Shared value made the radical proposition that corporate success and improved social and environmental conditions are in fact inherently linked – and when achieved together, they could dramatically enhance our future prosperity. The concept has since been adopted by global business.
Shared value in practice
Shared value is all about doing business differently – in a way the rest of the market is not.
To create shared value, a company must transform its business model into a self-resourcing value creation model; where it is designed to solve social challenges through the business itself. Shared value policies and principles can be adopted by Government and not-for-profits too; both of which can serve as valuable partners in delivering reliable and meaningful change at scale.
There are three key ways that shared value is achieved:
Reconceiving products and markets
Creating new products and services for existing or new markets which better serve societal needs.
Redefining productivity in the value chain
Accessing and using resources, energy, suppliers, logistics and employees differently, and more productively
Enabling local cluster development
Improving the local operating environment by supporting skill-development and capacity-building
The benefits of shared value
Socially and environmentally, shared value can vastly improve the conditions in which we live – advancing community health, education, employment, service access and participation; and helping to conserve our wildlife and wild environments.
The economic benefits afforded by shared value are also numerous, and include, but are not limited to:
Self-sustaining purpose and profitability
Stronger brand equity and marketability
Increased customer preference and loyalty
Higher advocacy, retention and productivity among employees
Resilience against external business threats
Regained credibility among a disillusioned public
Enhanced or sustained interest from like-minded shareholders and investors
Title image source: Harvard Business Review