How to grow revenues by connecting women

I am often asked, by clients or people I meet in the course of my work: What is the difference between embedding CSR into business decisions and doing business that improves sales and profits, provided its ethical? When you talk about embedding CSR into business decisions, its hard to know where business stops and CSR sets in. After all, both should lead to better business results. How can you know when a business decision has integrated CSR principles, or if it was based solely on goals of delivering income and profit growth? Doing "good" business, beyond philanthropy and community investment, is just doing good business. Or is it? 

I often answer this question rather simply, in a way that more or less aligns with the direction described in the Big Idea of Porter and Kramer, who explain: 

"The solution lies in the principle of shared value, which involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center."

My answer, then, is about the considerations involved in developing new business initiatives or products. If it's about selling more to create economic growth (which is, in general, a good thing if business is done ethically), then this is hardly embedded CSR. Economic growth alone, as we have seen, does not always produce equitable social benefit and even risks perpetuating many of the global divides - poverty, malnutrition, access to medicine etc - that society faces today. Embedded CSR means approaching business development in a different way, that includes an assessment of the social and environmental impacts of potential decisions, and the social and environmental imperatives in the markets where a company operates. In making such decisions, then, economic considerations as well as social and environmental considerations share valuable weight in the decision-making process. The outcomes are measurable benefits to business, to the economy and also equitable social advancement. 

So far, I suspect, there's not much new here for the rather enlightened readers of this blog. Most of you already will already be familiar with shared value and integrating CSR type concepts. So let's get to the point. It's this. Vodafone. Mobile Technology. Economic Empowerment. Measurable Outcomes. Connected Women.

Earlier this year, Vodafone published one of the most fascinating reports I have read in a long while about the effects of mobile technology on women's empowerment and improvement in the quality of life. It's called: Connected Women. This actually missed my radar a few months back when it was launched, in March, at a Vodafone Connected Women Summit. Better late than never, I guess, and what's more, it's still relevant, of course. I learnt about it this week via an item from IndiaCSR, reporting the launch of the Connected Women report in India by Cherie Blair. 

The report is the summary of research for the Vodafone Foundation conducted by Accenture Sustainability Services. In addition to assessing the impact of increasing mobile ownership among women, Accenture modeled the potential social, economic and commercial impact of five services in the areas of education, health, safety, work and loneliness in 2020. These services are: 

1. mobile learning for adult literacy 

2. Text to Treatment: using mobile payments to cover travel costs to receive maternal healthcare 

3. an alert system for women at high risk of domestic violence 

4. a mobile inventory management system for rural female retailers 

5. new services to connect elderly people to their family, friends and carers.

The research ran in 27 markets around the world where Vodafone does business.

Conclusions are summarized in this infographic below, with the overriding message that the services Vodafone provides in the markets where it does business could enable 8.7 million women to improve their lives. Around the world an estimated 300 million fewer women than men own a mobile phone.  

I guess we all know that mobile technology can support education, health, safety and work so it is clear that improving access in these areas will have social benefits. The Vodafone reports looks at each of these issues in detail, and in relation to the special opportunities that women could enjoy, providing perspectives, data and impacts. There are some very compelling examples. The thing that I found most eye-opening is the issue related to loneliness. I guess, at some level, we know that phone and internet can help older people feel connected. We have all heard the stories of delighted grandparents who sent their first email to their grand-kids. But loneliness as a social issue is perhaps more real and more extensive than we imagined. In Spain, for example, 38% of people over 65 that live alone or have limited mobility report feeling lonely, the research shows.

"Loneliness and social isolation in old age can lead to sadness and anxiety and can even affect physical health. It is particularly a problem for women, since they are more likely to live longer and to live alone in old age."

Vodafone's initiatives in this area meet such real social needs - perhaps even ones that haven't yet been fully articulated - and open up opportunities for great business. Vodafone cites a potential $1.7 billion annual economic benefit to society in 2020 through reduced healthcare costs and informal carers being able to return to work. This translates into a potential $450 million cumulative revenue for Vodafone through 2020. Just by helping older women feel more connected.  

One of the neatest things in this report is the summary of findings and impacts. 

In each area, there is a clear benefit for society and a clear revenue opportunity for Vodafone as a result of empowering women through technology. The report closes with four recommendations, that place focus on doing business differently, engaging in partnerships and considering new business models.

Focus on women’s needs and preferences: Only by understanding their different needs as well as user preferences in each market, can operators provide the tailored services that will be valued by women customers. 

Local implementation with relevant partnerships:  Operators will need to work in partnership with NGOs, partners and funders to launch programmes at scale. Working with local partners will enable operators to leverage their expertise and networks to reach more women more effectively. 

Explore new models and funding options: Different economic models would be required to deliver the different services at scale. An estimated $900 million in donor funding would be required to achieve wide uptake of the modelled services in health, work and education in emerging markets. The mobile learning and Text to Treatment services are likely to require ongoing, large-scale donor or public sector funding. Nominal fees for services to recover development costs and public sector investments could contribute to these costs in some circumstances. Other services, such as those focused on work, safety and loneliness, have the potential to be self financing or revenue generating. 

Use local infrastructure and existing technologies: Combining projects with existing services, for example the M-Pesa mobile money transfer system, or infrastructure, such as local healthcare networks, will significantly improve reach and effectiveness.

Back to the question of how to define embedded CSR / shared value, it seems to me that this is an example of exactly that. It seems to me that Vodafone is quietly pioneering new business models and innovative ways of combining social needs with business development. 

It just so happens that I am currently reading Alice Korngold's excellent book, entitled: A Better World, Inc. In this book, Alice focuses on many of the ways that companies (including examples from Vodafone) are engaging in this new economy and achieving success through addressing social needs. In fact, Alice makes the point that "only global corporations have the resources, global reach and self-interest to build a better world". She says: 

In combination with a fundamentally RATS approach (responsibility, accountability, sustainability, transparency), corporations have the potential to change our lives for the better. This Vodafone example shows how. 

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Understanding G4: the Concise guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting  AND  Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices . Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm

10 reasons not to write a CSR report

I suspect most people could come up with 3,483 reasons not to write a CSR report and all are probably true, but some are truer than others. I suspect there are more companies asking themselves why not write a report today, rather than asking why. The pressure to report is increasing and more companies are joining the reporting pool each year. So here are 10 reasons not to write a (first) report.

ONE: You have nothing to report.

It's never perfect. There is always more you can do in terms of sustainability performance before you launch the process of writing your first report. There is always a balance to be found between a lightweight report and a content-rich report. You shouldn't wait until you have got everything nailed down before you report (because you never have everything nailed down). But frankly, if you have no sustainability performance to report in any of the core areas of your business operations, then producing a compilation of CSR marketing-oriented mumbo jumbo and calling it a Sustainability Report won't cut it. By all means, produce a CSR brochure, or a CSR statement or a CSR policy paper ... but a report should contain disclosures of PERFORMANCE and not just intention. So if you ain't got it, don't report it. Work on getting it.

TWO: Your sustainability performance is really awful

So you measure your carbon footprint and it's been increasing year on year. You had 5 fatalities in your operations last year. Employee engagement survey results show that more are disengaged than engaged. You just paid a $30 million lawsuit for gender discrimination. Your supply chain audit showed that most suppliers are not compliant. Your CSO has just resigned. Now is not the time to publish your first sustainability report. Get working on addressing the issues. Get some good process in place. Then think about reporting.

THREE: You have no data-collection processes in place

Your first report should not stress out the organization in a way which immobilizes it because none of the data flows that measure sustainability performance are in place. If you have no data at all in your business - you have been recycling but you haven't measured the volume, you have reduced waste but you don't know by how much, you have had calls to your Ethics Hotline but you don't know how many, you have reduced employee turnover but you haven't measured turnover rates... then you have to concentrate on getting data infrastructures in place. It is better to postpone publishing your first report than to publish one with inadequate basic data - concentrate on getting a robust data-collection process in place.

FOUR: Your data is not reliable

You still work on excel and your data aggregation relies on many different individual inputs from around your company's globe. You have no formal internal auditing procedures in place and you cannot be sure that the data is reliable. Why publish it? You will only have to issue corrections down the line, which can create credibility issues. Make sure your data is robust and accurate before publishing your first report.

FIVE: You are in your first year of business

No matter how strong your commitment is to sustainability and even if your business was founded along sustainability principles, one year is not enough to demonstrate performance in all three triple bottom line areas of sustainability. You might have had a good first year, but wait to see if your second year is similar. Publish a first report only after two full years of business.

SIX: You have no budget

Yep, sorry to tell you this, folks, but reporting costs money. It may come as no surprise that I recommend using a consultant who specializes in writing sustainability reports (yes, ok, like me!), especially if this is your first report. This is based on experience. I have several clients who have produced their own report in-house and then come to ask me to turn it into, well, a report. One client recently confirmed that their management said they "can now appreciate what a quality report looks like" after using our report-writing services, the first time they have used an external provider. There is no getting away from the fact that reporting is not something anyone can do just because they work in the sustainability area and can string a few coherent sentences together. Sustainability reporting, for it to benefit both the company and speak to its stakeholders, requires experience and skill. For a first report, allocate some money to make that happen well.

SEVEN: You have no time

Clients come to me saying "We want a report in three months." For a seasoned reporter, whose data flows are well oiled and who have very detailed logging of sustainability events throughout the year, I suspect this may be possible (though I have never been part of a reporting process which has been completed from start to publication in three months). For others, well, reporting is not an off-the-shelf product. The reporting process takes time. It has to. It requires a different approach to the presenting the business performance and a different set of stories and data-points. These take time to develop. It involves many people for whom reporting is not their most urgent priority and who have many other things to do. People go on vacation. People are sick. People just don't get around to it. You have to have enough slack in your process to allow for all of this. If you have no time in your schedule for whatever reason to allocate a realistic timeframe for the report, then postpone your first report for another year.

EIGHT: You have no buy-in

A sustainability report doesn't belong to the CSO or to any individual manager in the business. No-one can publish a quality sustainability report alone. Even if the CEO decides there should be a sustainability report, it cannot happen without the buy-in and active collaboration of the senior management team and their teams. If you find that you are just not able to generate enough support to ensure a respectable flow of content, then stop. (This doesn't mean EVERYONE has to be behind it. There will always be those on a management team who question the value of reporting). But if everyone is against, and uncooperative, hold that first report and focus your energies on helping some of them come around.

NINE: You want to maintain a reputation as non-transparent, non-accountable and unsustainable

Most companies wouldn't declare this as an objective but not reporting defaults to this. RATS (Responsibility, Transparency, Accountability, Sustainability) is the way leading companies work these days. Fact. None are perfect but most are on the journey. Not reporting is equivalent to declaring that RATS is not important to you. If that's really the case, then don't go for that first report.

TEN: You have no ice-cream

Reporting is not an easy task. Ice cream always makes it easier. If you have problems securing a regular supply of ice-cream for the reporting team, postpone that first report until you can get it organized. 

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz/en  (BeyondBusiness, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

CSR and the rat race

I was starting a review of a  sustainability report for CorporateRegister.com  and the thought popped into my head  that what we are talking about when we say CSR and Sustainability  Reporting  can be termed RATS  for short.

The Rat Race (rat in singular) as we know it, tends to refer to a negative thing, it's a term for endless self-defeating or pointless pursuit! I suppose some of you may equate that to Sustainability Reporting (don't all shout at once) . Rats are often not credited with anything other than being a pain and a pest. Even the town of Hamlin hired Van Johnson to rid the town of millions of these unwanted guests. But, my thoughts about rats came from a different direction.  Rats themselves  live purposeful lives and make an important contribution to space exploration. They are considered to be fantastic pets, warm and cuddly, and very intelligent, as smart as dogs and  completely willing to learn new things. If you were born in the Year of the Rat, you possess outstanding qualities such as creativity, honesty, generosity and ambition. Rats are scavengers and will eat just about anything, and  therefore make a major contribution to environmental sustainability. Rats are community minded and live in colonies of 50 to 60 rats, making sure they care for all members of their community in true social spirit. Rats are real survivors and can fall 5 stories and live to tell the tale.. or should I say tail. Rats can survive without water longer than a camel which obviously is a benefit for water scarcity. There are 56 species of rat, which makes them a valuable element of diversity in our biosphere.

There are many references to rats and CSR. For example, in the book The Debate Over Corporate Responsibility, the authors talk about a typical CSR response to rat poison regulations. Indo Agri uses barn owls to control rats which are a threat to sustainable palm plantations, and Rentokil has a Rat Alert project in which volunteers run around capturing rats as their flagship CSR community contribution. Novo Nordisk report using nearly 60,000 rats and mice in animal experimentation in their 2009 Annual Report, and many other pharma Companies report on rat-use for similar reasons, whilst Dong Energy refer in their report to discount rats (page 101) (but I suspect they meant to refer to rates, not rats, and that they ought to fire their proofreader). And the most creative mention of rats in a CSR report goes to Straumann Holding AG, a global leader in implant and restorative dentistry, who tells the story of the Pied Piper, and then asks:

hmmm. Stretchng a point, no ? But full marks for imagination. And guess what, The German Council for Sustainable Development, who ranks sustainability reports is called a Rat.

But, aside from the obvious connections I have made above, what's the connection between the genus Rattus and CSR Reporting? I will now reveal all.

In my world, RATS stands for:

• Responsibility (of a business for its impacts)
• Accountability (of a business to its stakeholders, and its engagement with them)
• Transparency (of a business about its sustainability performance in the form of reporting)
• Sustainability (of a business through oportunities to improve performance whilst contributing to creating a better world.

Perhaps we should start changing the name of sustainability reports to RATS Reports? Perhaps we should have RATS Employee Engagement programs in the business? Perhaps we should have RATS Scorecards, RATS Reviews and RATS Communications Strategies ? Maybe we can convert the RAT race into a RATS Race ? In any event, if you really dont like the potentially negative connotations of pursuing a RATS strategy, you can always practice word-scrambling and convert your RATS strategy to a STAR strategy.

oh, and rats just LOVE chunky Monkey. So I hear.

elaine cohen is the CEO of Beyond Business, a leading social and environmental consulting and reporting firm. Visit our website at www.b-yond.biz/en