Unusual Talks

Almost 50% of Colombia’s rural population still live in poverty and have no chance to build up assets – such as land ownership, technical support or irrigation. Putting thriving communities at the heart of its strategy, McCain decided to launch the social business Campo Vivo to tackle this issue.

Since 40 years The Body Shop acts as a perfect example to prove that higher spendings on a sustainable supply chain can make a perfect and impactful business case. What started with a store is Brighton is now a sustainable global cosmetics company. They leverage their supply chain to fight poverty and safe resources by working together with social businesses like Plastics for Change. Plastics for Change acts in highly polluted areas where it collects and recycles plastics providing clean material to their partners. The Body Shop and Plastics for Change collaborate to provide recycled packaging to their customers.

This fragile state of the globalized economy makes it painfully obvious that our value chains may need a revision. A Capgemini Supply Chain Survey amongst 1,000 companies has revealed that two thirds of all organizations will rethink their supply chain strategy post-COVID. What if we actually created positive impact through procurement? What if companies had the chance to work with impact-first organizations – social businesses – to use their procurement spend in order to scale social and environmental impact? Inspiring civic sector organizations have engaged in “social procurement” – the practice of companies buying products or services from social businesses. Companies such as SAP, Zurich, IKEA, Unilever or EY have created social procurement practices and concrete commitments. Our latest research and that of our peer organization Acumen highlights pathways to social procurement

Today, we bring you an inspiring story about an extraordinary woman, Gisela Sanchez. Having experienced poverty herself growing up, she understood the realities of families at the base of the pyramid. With hard work and a beautiful mind, she rose up the ranks at FIFCO, a leading mid-cap company in Costa Rica. And when she heard about the concept of social business, she hunted down our co-founder Muhammad Yunus to convince him to build a social businesses together with her company. What started seven years ago, is now a sustainable business that serves the underprivileged with affordable, fortified food. In many ways, malnutrition is a key contributor to poverty. Globally, 149 million children under 5 are estimated to be stunted (too short for their age) and 45 million are estimated to be too thin for their height. Malnutrition leads to severe deficiencies in a child’s ability to learn, leading to lower education, little income opportunities and thus a spiral of poverty. And ultimately, 45% of deaths among children under 5 are linked to undernutrition.

Ruchika Singhal is the Vice President of Global Access at Medtronic and heads Medtronic Labs – a social business for healthcare access. Millions of people can't afford the healthcare they need. As a result, they suffer from low incomes, lack of education opportunities and low quality of life. Medtronic - the world's biggest medical device supplier - addresses these challenges through innovative healthcare access solutions in Asia and Africa. In order to achieve their goals they work closely together with governments, NGOs and others. Tune in to learn more about the challenges they overcame in building up their social business and the various initiatives Ruchika has helped launch.

The COVID crisis has made it painfully clear that we need equitable access to healthcare. We get a chance to talk with Cristina Campos and Lutz Hegemann at Novartis, who lead Novartis' access activities, including Novartis' social business activities. Millions of underpriviledged people have been benefitted from their initiatives. Listen into their journey and lessons learned.

Access to finance as a tool for poverty alleviation? Salah Goss talks about her mission to bring financial services to the African continent - and drive change and positive outcomes at Mastercard. She is a financial inclusion expert specializing in digital solutions. She is Senior Vice President for Social Impact at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. She was also Head of the Mastercard Lab for Financial Inclusion in Nairobi where she oversaw technology innovation and product development focused on developing markets. Salah has contributed to multiple patents, representing her contribution to the development of innovative digital solutions.

Garance Wattez-Richard is leading AXA‘s Emerging Customers division, tackling social issues amongst BOP customers through insurance solutions with a sustainable business model. In this episode, Garance outlines how the unit is positioned at the insurance giant. You’ll also hear from Maggie de Pree, CEO and Founder of the League of Intrapreneurs. She highlights the role of intrapreneurship in achieving climate and social goals.

How can we drive social value in a large company? Which role do incentive structures play in supporting social innovation? And is ESG helpful in driving positive impact? Listen to Jasjit Singh, Professor of Strategy at INSEAD and Jessie Coats, EY Global Impact Entrepreneurship Leader. The conversation is moderated by Katell Le Goulven, Executive Director at the Hofmann Institute for Society at INSEAD.

Learn more about Jasjit’s Work here.

Check out the many interesting perspectives that Jessie published through EY here.

And learn more about the work of the Hofmann Global Institute for Business & Society at INSEAD here.

"Let us conduct our businesses with both the heart and the head" – Antoine Riboud, Danone CEO 1972

Antoine Riboud's speech in Marseille came just two years after Milton Friedman's "Shareholder Value Doctrine" article. Riboud's words were in stark contrast to Milton's focus on shareholder value maximization and asked companies, Danone first and foremost, to serve all its stakeholders. Especially in the twenty years from 2001 to 2021, Danone has shown an incredible trajectory towards a purpose-driven company, culminating in the B Corp certification and becoming France' first "Enterprise á Mission". 

But in 2021, its CEO, Emmanuel Faber, was pushed out of office by activist investor Bluebell Capital. In this episode, he speaks about this journey and the campaign against him.