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Corporate social opportunity

23 March 2009 | Strategy | Jennifer Rice

NYT had a great article a couple days ago called Solving A Social Problem Without Going the Non-Profit Route.

What to call these innovative businesspeople is the subject of some debate. The terms “social entrepreneur” and “social businesses” are generally used to characterize people and businesses that bring entrepreneurship to ventures that have a social mission. Yet there are those who would limit the social entrepreneur label only to those without any profit motive. A separate, but related, category are companies referred to as “socially responsible.” These are generally companies whose core business does not necessarily have a social mission, but who display socially responsible characteristics, like environmental sensitivity.

I’m using the term Corporate Social Opportunity to refer to businesses with a desire to do well by doing good. CSR, or corporate social responsibility, only goes so far… it often refers to what a business should stop doing (stop wasting resources, stop turning a blind eye to unfair labor practices, etc.) but it doesn’t truly address the opportunity at the intersection of profit and social good.

The NYT article focuses primarily on start-ups, but plenty of established companies fall squarely in this realm. Whole Foods is a good example, and even Walmart, which is already making an impact in packaging, detergent and consumer electronics industries to be more sustainable.

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