[1] They Noticed
Kyle Westway said it best, in his popular Weekend Briefing, that a “powerful group dropped a bombshell of a statement redefining corporate purpose to include all stakeholders and not just shareholders. […] But, here’s a huge difference between making a nice statement and actually shifting the way business is done. It will take decades for real change to occur at these legacy companies. In the meantime, the young social entrepreneurs leading the next big companies will be the vanguard of change.”
Read the statement. The signature list is as impressive as the statement.
[2] Capitalism vs Sustainability
In a call to “abandon the goal of increasing GDP through consumption in favor of growing the well-being of people and Earth by supporting culturally rich, low-consumption lifestyles”, David Korten writes about figuring out priorities that will be life-sustaining… because you can’t put capitalism over sustainability.
[3] It pays to think about more than profits
If your life touches the world of business, you’ve probably heard that millennials are demanding work that does more than earn money… they want purpose too. And a lot of companies are responding… even if it takes a lot of trial and error to get it right.
Capitalism is effective at building companies that make money, and we’ve built our economy and metrics around that. But I think the trend that’s emerging is that there is another way because embracing a positive business model is good for more than just your community.
[4] Solutions that work rain or shine
I often think of social entrepreneurship following a buy-one-get-one or a hiring model. But FINCA Ventures, an impact investor, shows in “Why We Invested: Ignitia”, how social impact models can also be providing solutions, information, or technology to the right people at affordable prices, that will transform those social issues. In this case, Ignita is providing weather forecasting at an affordable rate to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The simple improvements they can make with these predictions allows them to increase their crops and be more successful, reducing the food insecurity and troubles with farming that come balancing in between extreme rain and drought.
[5] Social Entrepreneurs are Tackling the Criminal Justice System
The stats are insane. In California, five times more is spent on incarceration than on education… and the rate of recidivism is 60%, mostly because of the lack of jobs for formerly incarcerated. Fortunately, social enterprises like The Last Mile, Hot Chicken Takeover and Honest Jobs are doing things to change this. We need more organizations creating opportunities to change this… we shouldn’t be a prison society.
[6] Changing Juvenile Reform
It looks like Los Angeles may sever the Juvenile Justice System from the Probation Department, in a move to treat rehabilitation of youth differently from their adult counterparts… adding in a trauma-informed approach, and shifting away from a mentality of punishment to one of reform.
In a city where probation officers are being criminally charged for their abusive tactics, it seems much more intuitive to try an approach that will give these youth the help they need to actually… live normal healthy, safe lives in society.