Social enterprise

Month three of our special series on scaling entrepreneurial solutions that benefit society.

The story of how one organization envisioned a future transformed.

Satisfied with doing good, too few foundations work strategically to do better.

To understand your social impact, you need to measure the right things.

We all remember the SunChips Episode of 2010. Frito-Lay introduced bio-degradable packaging for SunChips in March, and was surprised to see sales of the...

In the course of the last three days I have spent at the 2009 India Economic Summit organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF), I have heard speeches from many politicians and policy-makers — from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning […]

Data shows that direct cash transfers can lift people out of poverty.

To strengthen their impact in the world, philanthropic investors need to rigorously define their goals, be realistic about how to achieve them, and commit to continual, systematic improvement.

(Editor's note: This post is part of a six-week blog series on how leadership might look in the future. The conversations generated by these posts will...

Looking for a grand vision to excite imaginations, stimulate investment, and get the economy moving faster? One with potential to improve lives, generate...

How businesses and governments can work together to build digital foundations that benefit everyone.

They’re taking multiple routes to social good.

Getting there will take classic business skills.

What can Procter & Gamble learn from Method, the San Francisco purveyor of natural home products? How about Fidelity Investments — could it profit from observing Zurich’s Sustainable Asset Management? What lessons are offered to mainstream companies by mission-driven companies, those small- and medium-sized enterprises that balance profitability with social and environmental goals? By studying […]

Social entrepreneurs need grit, courage, and commitment.

Connecting philanthropy with need.

Done right, it's a major competitive advantage.

Focus on the problem you want to solve.

For visionary CEOs in the for-profit finance sector, a giant business opportunity is emerging: connecting entrepreneurs and their organizations with the resources they need to create lasting social change. Since the late 1980s, the citizen sector has taken off and experienced rapid growth in terms of productivity and impact. The financial industry has not kept […]

The industry giant is creating shared value with African businesses, paving the way for others in the process.

This case follows the development of Daddy Lab, a Chinese social enterprise founded in 2015 by Wenfeng Wei. With extensive experience in product safety...

The case analyzes the evolution of the business model of the Spanish multinational Konecta, which, since its origin, was dedicated to providing Contact...

Starting in 2001, Inditex's Sustainability Department promoted with the Group's business units a unique chain that remained largely unknown to the general...

This case is written from the perspective of Ting-ting Loh, CEO of Aguila Safety Group (ASG). A prominent UK-based personal protective equipment (PPE)...

The case describes Arla's history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual...

Corporate foundations represent a distinctive avenue for companies to channel their resources into social initiatives, often straying from their core...

Describes methods to calculate the carbon footprint (greenhouse gas emissions) of an organization's operations and supply chain, and a product or service....

A cutting-edge, relentless, objective approach to inclusion. Companies spend billions of dollars annually on diversity efforts with remarkably few results....

At the end of 2018, Ana Milena Munoz, of Carvajal Empaques S.A., a subsidiary of the Carvajal organization, was concerned. She was at a crossroads in...

In February 2020, a social geographer at the University of Victoria was approached by one of the co-founders and managing partners of Raven Indigenous...

In 2005, Vineet Nayar, the former CEO and Vice Chairman of HCL Technologies, and his wife, Anupama Nayar, committed $100 million of their personal wealth...

Makena Wanjiru, chair of Kiri Mount Kenya Conservation Network and Resource Centre (Kiri), wondered whether turning Kiri's loans business into a co-operative...

The case is set in November 2021 and traces the journey of a unique women-led collective-Weavers Resource Bridge (led by Talish Ray and her fellow handloom...

Shein, an ultra-fast-fashion brand, is one of the most downloaded shopping apps in the United States. With an estimated value of USD100bn in 2022, Shein...

Acumen Fund is a global venture capital firm with a dual purpose: it looks for a return on its investments, and it also seeks entrepreneurial solutions...

Starting as a modest 20-bed hospital, Aravind had grown into a 1,400-bed hospital complex by 1992. It had by then screened 3.65 million patients and performed...

Randall Krantz sets out to transition his career out of engineering and into an environmental NGO. The case outlines Krantz' career before taking on the...

ApproTEC markets a range of technologies to improve the income of subsistence farmers and other small-scale entrepreneurs in East Africa. Having achieved...

Month three of our special series on scaling entrepreneurial solutions that benefit society.

The story of how one organization envisioned a future transformed.

Satisfied with doing good, too few foundations work strategically to do better.

To understand your social impact, you need to measure the right things.

We all remember the SunChips Episode of 2010. Frito-Lay introduced bio-degradable packaging for SunChips in March, and was surprised to see sales of the...

In the course of the last three days I have spent at the 2009 India Economic Summit organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF), I have heard speeches from many politicians and policy-makers — from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning […]

Data shows that direct cash transfers can lift people out of poverty.

This case follows the development of Daddy Lab, a Chinese social enterprise founded in 2015 by Wenfeng Wei. With extensive experience in product safety...

The case analyzes the evolution of the business model of the Spanish multinational Konecta, which, since its origin, was dedicated to providing Contact...

To strengthen their impact in the world, philanthropic investors need to rigorously define their goals, be realistic about how to achieve them, and commit to continual, systematic improvement.