Innovation and the role of CSR
We believe that charities can be innovation partners for business, bringing untapped social insight to the development of products and services. In this article on 2degrees Jan explains more.
Research & development, market insight, customer service, innovation – how often are these on the ‘to do’ lists of most CSR managers?
The answer, in my opinion, is not often enough.
But why should they be? There are whole departments for these kinds of things, aren’t there? Yes, but they might struggle to gain the insight that a well-placed Sustainability, CR or Community Investment Manager has on the realities of the marketplace. These are the people who are often more in touch with external issues – and opportunities – than many a management colleague. But what’s that got to do with innovation? A loose description of innovation is that it’s a combination of being creative, taking risks and implementing something new. I believe that a huge amount of the creativity needed for innovation can come from the untapped expertise and insight held by charities. Here’s what I mean…