GSIF09 SUMMARIES
Plenary 6: Branding for Social Change Friday, 2 October • Elim Chew • V.P. Sharma • John Feenie • Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri Moderated by • John Rehm The perceptions of brands and what branding is have changed dramatically over the last 25 years. While in the past nobody understood what branding was, regarding it as a piece of communication, a logo or a marketing gimmick, now organizations have to think seriously about what branding is about, as they have great power to effect change. Brands are powerful social, emotional connectors, which engage people because they feel a personal need to be involved in a cause. To be a real leader in making change in a certain area, one needs a real passion and a real knowledge of what you are trying to do. To make a brand last, it is best to find a need in a social sector, the corporate sector, or a confluence of the two where one’s cause can be best served. Social innovation allows governments, social organizations and corporate organizations to come together in the same space for a common cause. However, the social cause supported has to be linked to what a brand means in a particular business, because people will see through branding what is not genuine. So, one’s social cause has to have resonance or a link between the mindset of one’s brand and the social change one is trying to bring about. To build a dynamic communications program, one needs to work in a way where the organization is helped as well as society. One needs to look at where there is a need for society to be served, while being in line with the company’s needs. For example, a company dealing with sporting goods could sponsor a sports movement to get kids off computers and onto the streets to play sports, and a supermarket chain could cut its carbon footprint by using fewer paper bags. The important thing is to realize that in change there is still a lot of consistency. While some things change, others don’t. Thus, the position of a brand has to be synchronized with the minds of consumers as they change. For example, Pepsi likes to be associated with the younger crowd; hence it has launched a rock band competition to promote its brand. In the age of Facebook and Twitter, organizations are still in the early stages of learning how to deal with their impacts. However, these are tools for creating social change as they bring many different people from the public and private sectors together. It creates sustainability in social enterprise by raising capabilities of social entrepreneurs—letting others know what they are good at and how organizations can contribute to the cause while improving the image of their brands. To leverage on branding to ignite social change, entrepreneurs have to see if the brand is a good fit for the cause they are trying to promote. Most organizations do not think enough about their brands and fail to make it come to life by thinking holistically about what they are trying to do and their raison d'etre (why they exist). This will give them a way to solve the problems at hand. People are thinking of branding as something like going out there and communicating with as many as possible, but in the end one may compromise one’s goals and brand. Thus, having clarity about who one is in the world and delivering on it are more important. Most social entrepreneurs start small. This means they often don’t have a share of voice; hence the brand has to work harder for them. The starting point of the brand is what is it that one is trying to change. Understanding this will result in much better brands, much better emotional depth. It’s not just a piece of communication, a logo, or a message; it is a whole philosophy. There is now a rise of a different consumer that does not mind paying more for a brand as long as it supports a cause he or she believes in.
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GSIF09 SUMMARIES
Plenary 7: Taking the Helm for a Better World Saturday, 3 October • John Hope Bryant • Suhas Gopinath • Janice Hulse • Ting Choon Meng • Judith Low Moderated by • Penny Low Personal and corporate behavioral codes are important. Ethics and values are not something just to put on the websites; business leaders should believe in them because they have to be held accountable to stakeholders. The process of imbuing values in a company starts from its leaders, and it’s a commitment to a process. It’s not a top-down approach but rather, looking at oneself and one’s values first and foremost. From there, the grassroots will be influenced by the values that leaders hold true. Many people say that there is a conflict between being profitable and being socially accountable. But that is not the case if the company internalizes the values that it believes in, and its employees will start believing in them. Many people love things and use other people when they should love other people and use things instead. This is not a recession but a reset, a crisis of values. People get desperate and trade their values for the dollar. But profits are the only way to sustain a company, and so it is important to be profitable. Only when one focuses too much on it, will it be destructive to one’s company and its stakeholders. To measure the success of other non-financial aspects of a company, there could be an ethical economic index, where stakeholders give feedback to the company. Gather the stakeholders, start a conversation with them and keeping it going. The right way that we should advocate for corporations is: The company that gives is the company that flourishes. On the basic and personal levels, treat others as you want to be treated; keep promises. Find out what you’re good at, do it, and influence the people around you. It’s about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, e.g., giving dignity to someone else; taking a moment to acknowledge people; and celebrating both failures and successes. Cultivate a culture of giving at a young age; children should learn how to give till it hurts.
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GSIF09 SUMMARIES
Plenary 8: Catalysing Collaborative Innovations for a Better World Saturday, 3 October • Elim Chew • Adrian David Cheok • Lim Chu Chong • Judy Ho • Andrew Wilson Moderated by • Augustine Anthuvan To bring about the betterment of the world, there has to be active steps taken towards engaging corporations, influencing government policies and educating the masses. The skills and talents of engineers and scientists have to be tapped into as inventions have great impacts on the state of living. Especially in today’s world, technology acts as an enabling tool to connect people together on a global scale. With the Internet comes a huge rise in information. Now, there is a need to go onto the next level beyond just sharing information but sharing experiences, too. It is imperative, too, that we adopt the mentality of “head in the sky, feet in the mud”. Social entrepreneurs have to work closely with the communities and give them incentives to protect their own livelihoods. Banks also have a key role to play in collaboration, and DBS shared how it advises NGOs on how to take up loans as well as drawing on real case studies. Financial institutions must also be more inclusive, and one way of achieving is by looking into micro financing. NGOs also have to realize that their sector will have to operate like a free market to thrive. Competition is imperative. The valuation of research done by academics has to be reconsidered. Rather than being focused on merely academic papers to validate their research, think tanks have to also create inventions that can have larger impacts. Therefore, paradigm shifts need to happen as well as realignment of purpose. In addition, collaborations must be win-win situations. The panel concluded by highlighting how young people also play an instrumental role in making fundamental changes. As one panelist pointed out, “the crazier the ideas, the better” .Creativity must act as a bootstrap for the society.
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