Social Agenda

Senior Management Quotes on Sustainability

2010-05-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

Quotes are taken from MIT Sloan Management Review Special Report on "The Business of Sustainability"

“I think that the days of, ‘Hey, boss, just tell me what to do and I’ll get it
done,’ that’s not the future. The future is about ‘let’s fi gure out how to
take the world in a diff erent direction and let’s all go there together.’”

Steve Fludder
vice president, ecoimagination, GE

"I think that the world has reached a tipping point now. We’re beyond
the debates over whether [addressing sustainability] is something that
needs to be done or not—it’s now mostly about how do we do it. And
from an ecomagination perspective, it’s not about altruism, it’s about
creating value."

Steve Fludder
vice president, ecomagination, GE

"The essence of environmental strategy is to make it an issue for your
competitor—not for your own company—...because you’ve already
made sustainability an integral part of your business."

Amory Lovins
chairman and chief scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute

OPTIMISATION not MAXIMISATION

2010-01-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

What on earth means responsible investment? I was at a workshop last week at Istanbul Stock Exchange to find out. Apparently it is a framework that helps investors to consider Environmental, Social and Corporate Government (ESG) performance of their portfolio. Get more information about the initiative at their website

Is that necessary? Believe it or not, it was not clear for even some of the panellists. 2 of the executives from Asset Management companies were so ignorant to the subject that I did not understand why they were invited. They kept talking about "their mission being maximizing the profit for their investors and how important government`s role blah blah blah".

To be fair, the market mechanism in Turkey is not deep enough to create pressure on those firms to have a serious CSR agenda and due to low credit ratings of the country, pension funds can not invest largely in Istanbul Stock Exchange. And yes, pension funds are the most conscious investors because they invest in the long-term value and environmental, social and corporate governance performance is more important in the long-term.

But still, if you think you don`t have anything to do about ESG performance of the companies, why do you bother and spend your afternoon at the workshop rather than staying at your office and maximising profits for your customers? Thank God, someone from the audience responded in a clever way. He said "it is a lie that you should MAXIMIZE your profit; instead you should OPTIMISE your profit. 300 years ago you could make tons of money using slaves, but at some point you could not any more. It is the same logic, you have to consider ethical performance of the companies you invest in, otherwise you will hit the wall at some point".

I thought, it is certain that we make progress; after all this was the first Responsible Investing workshop for asset management companies in Istanbul. The part that I am not certain is whether or not the progress is fast enough for our world and humanity...

Good-Bye to Nike (for now)

2009-11-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

Nike is the place I feel that I have grown-up.

There is so much inside of me that is related to that great place and wonderful people working here....

After 7,5 years I am leaving Nike and relocating back to Turkey...

I am happy because I am back to one place in the world that I call home: Istanbul...

I am also sad because it is time to say good-bye to Nike and all the great people here...

I will take all the good things that I learnt, all the fun that I had and all the great frinedships that I lived with me.

Hopefully, I will let you know soon what is next for me and I am committed to keeping this blog alive. You will hear from me soon.

Are They Really Homeless? Player Stories from Homeless World Cup

2009-09-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

When I tell about Homeless World Cup to my friends, the first question I get is "Are they really Homeless?". No, they are well-paid mid level managers that happen to pretend to be homeless!!!

I know it is hard to register for the first time that there is a World Cup for homeless people and they are travelling from all over the world to participate and they have football boots and jerseys etc. But that's the magic of HWC really, making those things happen with the support of sponsors.

In most of the countries, there are shelters that are trying to keep Homeless people safe and giving them basic needs like a bed to sleep, a shower and a cup of soup. Homeless World Cup works with those organizations to establish football trainings for those homeless people, which is a great tool to give them skills like team-play, discipline and acceptance for other cultures. Maybe the players we see in the tournament are not the ones that are in the worst conditions but they are the ones who are trying to get their lives back. That's why they are here and making the effort

Watch this short but impressive movie from Homeless World Cup to get to know the players better.

Homeless World Cup, MILAN 2009 - The Players from Jan-Paul Bednarz on Vimeo.

A Ball Can Change the World

2009-09-12T02:39:00.000-07:00

I am in Milan this weekend. Not because I am dying for sunshine or I need to shop on the high street but because I want to see with my own eyes "how a ball can change the world".

Homeless World Cup 2009 is being held at beautiful Sempione Park in Milan. A World Cup for homeless people? Yes you can believe your eyes, homeless people can play football and good football too. Every game here is a great showcase of love, passion, dignity and fair play.

Eight years ago, Mel Young, who is one of the most inspiring but yet modest persons I have ever met, started that organization, which seemed to be nothing more than a crazy idea at the time. UEFA and Nike backed him right from the beginning and since the begining Homeless World Cup is increasing the awareness of Homelessness globally and giving thousands of homeless people in the world a hope and motivation for a better life. There are so many success stories that you can read about how HWC changed lifes of individuals on official website.

You can also watch the local correspondent Buddy reporting from Milan and giving some great insights about the tournament and players. This weekend we are going to watch quarterfinals, semis and the big final. I will try to write a few more posts about the tournament during the weekend.

The Future of Corporate Social Responsibility

2009-09-04T03:25:00.000-07:00

The concept of responsibility to society in business has a long history in contrast to the general opinion. Corporate Social Responsibility is the name of the concept in the modern era that has emerged in the '70s and '80s in the community as a result of rising environmental awareness. With the rise of concerns towards globalization at the end of 90’s, the expectations of the civil society from multinational corporations have increased. The corporate sector addressed those concerns by implementing 'Corporate Social Responsibility' strategies.

In light of this assessment, the most important factor that will determine the future of CSR is the level of the expectations of consumers and civil society as well as the level of incentives for companies at the marketplace. Personally I do not see any reason why these expectations should decline. On the contrary, expectations of social responsibility and corporate investment in these areas are increasing despite we are going through one of history's greatest economic crisis. In addition, enormous pressure on limited resources of the earth caused by growing population and increase in consumption, global health issues and pandemics, the pace of technology transfer to developing countries will be other factors that will determine the future of CSR.

I anticipate two trends related to the future of CSR. First, the weight of CSR strategies is likely to increase rapidly in the developing countries like Turkey, India, Brazil and China. If you look at the history of CSR in those countries, you will see the main driver has been the demands of international business partners. As a result, in these countries the executions have been eclectic and fragmented as opposed to being strategic. In the future demands of foreign customers in these countries will be supported by increasing pressure of civil society and consumers in these countries and that will trigger a movement of integrating CSR practices into the overall business strategy. These countries that have not yet completed their economic development will have different opportunities than already developed countries. As an example, China set a target of providing 15% of energy needs from renewable sources by 2015.

The other development that I anticipate is that, CSR strategies will be seen as a source of innovation and growth and will not be limited to a tool for reputation and risk management or increasing efficiency. In practice that means a switch from the mentality of “writing a cheque” to investing in hybrid business models that combines social and business return. To give an example in the area of environmental sustainability, there will be a shift towards truly integrating the cost of the natural resources and the environmental impact of the production in the cost sheets of products. In such a world, the current business modals will be challenged and only the ones who can adapt will survive.

European Union and Corporate Social Responsibility

2009-08-21T07:40:00.001-07:00

Association of Corporate Social Responsibility (Kurumsal Sosyal Sorumluluk Dernegi) in Turkey aims to develop awareness of social responsibility both at local and national level to achieve sustainable development and social justice. They did an interview with me for the July issue of their monthly Bulletin. This month's theme is Corporate Social Responsibility and the European Union. I decided to post the questions and answers on my blog as separate entries.

Question: Do you find European Union's perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility sufficient?

You can approach this question from different angles considering European Union is consisted of different countries and very different political tendencies. Implementation level of CSR in each region can vary. UK’s private sector leadership on this issue is very clear. CSR strategies of many large and small companies are integrated with business strategies of companies as much as possible. The biggest reason is the high expectations of UK consumers on this issue. Corporations in other large countries are also implementing important strategies in CSR but those have not been integrated into the overall strategy of the corporations as in the UK. I think European Union is the world leader in terms of implementing legislations to encourage corporations and support CSR implementation. European Commission responsible for Industry and Competition has done extensive work in this area. For example, 2006 dated recommendation report aims to make Europe a center of attraction for CSR. In addition, targets for reduction of environmental impact and release of carbon emissions are quite ambitious. Those targets increase legal obligations of corporations and encourage them to make voluntary investments beyond the legal requirements as well.

The European Union is in the forefront of CSR regarding the reduction of environmental impact of economic activity and issues such as the production of environmentally friendly products. There are good examples of social projects of course, but in general, European countries have very high tax rates and the social state tradition is very strong. This makes people and corporations think that supporting people who are in need is the duty of the state. As a reflection of this in Europe most of the social projects are designed for helping less developed countries in Africa or Latin America. It is also a fact that there is increase of projects within European countries in recent years aiming the social integration of migrant population.

Engaging Consumers in Cause Marketing

2009-06-23T08:54:00.001-07:00

Professor Eikenberry has started a very engaging discussion on "Cause Marketing" with her article “The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing” Although giving a very skeptic point of view; Professor Eikenberry's article has been nothing but very beneficial for "Cause Marketing". The discussion continued on Selfish Giving with many thoughtful comments from people.

The point that I want to discuss about Professor Eikenberry’s article is her argument around cause marketing making consumers passive and individualizing solutions to collective problems. She argues that by consuming products that are related to cause marketing, consumers fall into the trap of thinking they have contributed to the cause and they are less likely to participate in any other action (raising funds, awareness or volunteering).

I do not believe Cause Marketing should be the only way that a company responds to environmental and social causes, but it can very well be a part of the portfolio. Cause marketing initiatives does not have to be limited to purchase behavior either. Cause marketing for me is a brand differentiation opportunity and has to be managed and resourced by marketing teams (with consultancy from CSR department)

Prof. Eikenberry is pointing out the consumer point of view and the risk of consumers feeling good just by shopping but not getting involved in other actions. Perhaps she is right; cause marketing has that kind of side-effect. But this side-effect should not prevent us insisting on the cure and even making it a better cure.

I think this risk is equally an opportunity for the companies and for the charitable organizations. Cause marketing campaigns have potential to be created in a way that allows companies and charities keeping the connection to the consumer even after the purchase and helping them take action on behalf of the cause -obviously with not all of them but with the ones who would make the extra efforts- Marketing teams are getting very experienced on keeping the on-going interaction with the consumers so why could not they do it for the cause marketing campaigns. This is easier than ever with the increasing importance of digital social networks in consumers lifes and non-profit organizations are getting experts of leveraging those platforms.

This long-term engagement is only possible if Cause Marketing initiative is a perfect fit for company’s long term marketing and CSR strategy. Only then it is possible to create a community that cares and gets mobilized for the cause and keeps the connection to the brand.

We will see bad and good examples of cause marketing going forward, some of them will have side effects and will do more harm than good but eventually the good examples will beat the bad ones.

Corporate America Is Interested in Africa.

2009-05-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

This study by Baird’s Communications Management Consultants (Baird’s CMC) in partnership with the Africa Business Initiative of the US Chamber of Commerce is brought to my attention recently. It is a pretty detailed research on how big corporations in the USA see Africa. You can get the report from www.usafricainvestment.com

It is interesting to see that Senior Officers in the corporations are clearly interested in Africa as a potential market but they are not convinced yet about a big investment in the continent. Africa clearly is the biggest opportunity for "Bottom of The Pyramid" business model and Corporate America sees that but still concerned about "chaos and unrest", "lack of rule of law", "business infrastructure" and issues like that.

It is great to see that the corporations are watching Africa closely and it is understandable that they are hesitant about the risks; however this tells me that when they think about an investment in Africa, they still think in the boundaries of business as usual. I think there is a need for a big mentality change at that point. Corporate America has to understand that their next 1 billion consumers (including other emerging markets) will not look like their first 1 billion consumers. They need to adapt a fresh look, a different business strategy, an innovative approach to the marketplace that could be relevant under those extraordinary circumstance if they are willing to harness the Bottom of The Pyramid markets. It is not easy but the companies who can innovate in this marketplace will have a huge opportunity in the future.

Thanks to Baird’s Communications Management Consultants for brining this into my attention.

Aykan Gulten

Cause Marketing (2)- What do you need to make it work?

2009-05-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

Since 2004, Yellow Livestrong Bracelet is the symbol of overcoming huge difficulties by determination and working hard. After 5 years of its launch, you can still see many people wearing bracelets including highly influential sportspeople, celebrities and even politicians. Many other campaigns followed the footsteps of Livestrong yet none of them came close to its success. The campaign started with a goal of selling 5 million bracelets and look where we are now at the sales figures; more than 70 million!!!!

Livestrong is a case that gives you the basic formula to a succesful cause marketing initiative. An influential figure (a hero in this case I must say) with a strong personal attachment to the cause, a product that works and a transparent and simple money transfer mechanism. What that could mean for you and for your organization?

Influential figure: This figure could be a person or an institution or a football team. The point is you need to give a reference point to your consumers to connect to the cause.

Product:: It is all about product. Yellow bracelets of Livestrong campaign that gives 100% of the income to the foundation is a rare case. Do not forget, Nike spent millions of dollars for the product and the marketing of the campaign and did not get any financial return but got a huge return for the brand and they created an amazing connection to millions of people. In normal cases, you would consider a campaign that gives a portion of the proceeds to the cause. In any case; The Product has to work. Consumers would not accomodate any low-quality product just because it is related to a cause. Even the products that you would think you do not need -as the yellow bracelets- has a crucial functionality to satify consumers such as showing that you are a member of Livestrong tribe. (It is all about tribes as Seth Godin says)

Simple and Transparent Mechanism: It is crucial to be clear about what you are giving back whether it is a portion of the proceeds or a fixed amount. Ensure that the funding mechanism is transparent your partner in the campaign is a credible organization.

In the next post, I will discuss the impact of cause marketing initiatives and compare it with the alternative ways of raising funds.

Aykan Gulten

Cause Marketing: Solution or Illusion?(part 1)

2009-04-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

$130,000,000 is the amount of funds created by the purchase of (RED) product for Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Now, this is impressive result.

Is Bono right after all? Is shopping politics? Is shopping answer to the world's biggest problems? (RED) campaign, arguably the biggest cause marketing campaign to date has received endorsements from corporate sector and celebreties but it was not all kudos to Bono; there were also considerable amount of backlash too. Some of them took it further and created an anti-RED campaign. The point of view was that Shopping is not the solution, and people should but less (crap) to give more.

But what is the reality? Can Corporations be allies in the fight against world's worst problems. Never forget for a a second that companies are into that in order to build their brands at least to dimensionalize their brands using social causes. Personally I am not against that as long as it is done sincerely and in the right way. Let me put it this way; I am a big fan of strategical approach to Corporate Social Responsibility. What I mean by that is:

Companies should strategically choose which social issues to address. To give an example; If you are strictly a brand for men and if you are positioning your brand in somehow sexist agenda, do not pretend like you care about issues around women. People would only laugh at you.
Choose a social issue that is affected by your company's activities. If you are a high-tech company, do not get involved in Breast Cancer campaigns; do something around accessibility to technology. (It is good for your business in the long-term too)
Walk the Talk: If you are in fast-food business and if you care about your consumers, do not only throw money to "Anti-obesity campaigns" go ahead and look at your product; offer healtier alternatives, try to make your product healtier (using different ingridients), do not force people to buy more just for extra 50 cents.
Choose an issue that your consumers care: If your target consumer is teenagers, find an issue that would resonate better; do not go to them with the products or the issues their parents would care for.

The list can certainly be longer but the point is first rule of a succesful cause marketing campaign is being honest and sincere.

I will continue to discuss Cause Marketing in the next posts giving some insights from my personal experience.

Aykan Gulten

Do Youth Hear You?

2009-02-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

mobileYouth.org I am...not interested in mobile marketing

View more presentations from Graham Brown. (tags: cell student)

Boxgirls: Courage Wins! | Sport For Change

2009-01-23T03:09:00.001-08:00

I posted about Women's Gamechangers Competition before. It is great to go through the entries and see the innovative programs that have entered the competition. The community is growing. As of now, there are 139 projects from 32 different countries.

This is one of the great ones: Boxing Girls. Program teaches vulnarable girls to be strong, to train hard in discipline but not only that, it teaches also computer skills and other life-skills. Follow the link and see yourself. It is unbelievable but there are 101 comments under the entry

Boxgirls: Courage Wins! | Sport For Change

Posted using ShareThis

Unilever's Hard Choice; Real Beauty or Axe Effect?

2009-01-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

Almost 2 years ago, Unilever's Dove launched "Real Beauty Campaign" where they used normal women in their ads as opposed to super models and super photoshop tricks.

Dove supported that commercial campaign with a social responsibility program: Dove Self-Esteem Fund. Program aims to reach-out to 5 million young women until 2010 to help free the next generation from self-limiting beauty stereotypes. Now, this was an excellent example of positionnig from both "brand connection" and "social responsibility" point of views. They were uniqe and different from competition by the story they told their consumers. Dove was very sincere in their move, what about Unilever?

Around the same time, another brand of Unilever was busy by their campaign: The Axe Effect
The main message of that campaign is for young man: "Use Axe and women will be your slaves". Women images in the ads were 180 degrees opposite of what was idealized in Dove's campaign and they grew the stereotypes that "Self-Esteem Fund is aiming to kill. Of course Dove's (and Unilever's) sincerity was questioned and many people perceived Dove's campaign as a tactical marketing initiative rather than a sign of truly integrated social values.

I understand the complexity of the situation that Unilever is in with 2 different brands with different target audience and brand positioning, nevertheless in the long run sticking with corporate values, transparency and consistency are far more important than shorter term tactical campaigns. I do not expect Axe to stand for Dove's Real Beauty Campaign but the current situation is far more conflicting diminishes the value of one of the great examples of integrated Social Responsibility and Marketing campaigns

Women Gamechangers Beat the Biology

2009-01-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Nike and Ashoka join forces to beat inequalities against Women in Sport. Community is coming together and discussing potential solutions. Join the community at www.nikewomen.com/gamechangers

There is a new video launched questioning the sterotypes in a funny and clever way:

KIVA and Micro-Financing

2009-01-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

I am a big fan of KIVA and micro-financing. It is most sustainable way of social development as far as I can tell. With very small savings of people in the developed world, it enables under-priviliaged people becoming entrepreneurs in the developing world. This does not only impact life of the entrepreneurs but also their communities by creating a multiplier effect

KIVA, as a platform is easy, transparent (even about the credits that so not return) and they are good at marketing themselves. Here is a nice video explaining how it works:

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

MES More Than Football

2008-12-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

One more time Football is not only Football. Nike UNHCR and FC Barcelona launches MES initiatives that brings education and sport to refugees and under-privilaged youth. As a part of the campaign Nike launches MES product line and all the net proceeds from MES product line is going to fund projects FCB Foundation and UNHCR (United Nations High Comissioner of Refugees).

You can buy MES products, donate money, spread the message and be part of the community: http://www.mesfootball.org/

Connecting with consumers on CSR can bring new market opportunities say IBM Execs

2008-07-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

http://thecro.com/node/730

This is no surprising to see. Rising power of Consumer, establishing corporate social responsibility values, create a new level of differentiation by linking them with core product and services, be transparent, and finally engage consumers and advocates within your journey. Very similar to what we have been discussing within Nike Corporate responsibility. It looks like there are other big organisations following the same strategy.

2008-07-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

That's a very cool idea of using soda bottles. No further process is needed other than a adding a label. Recycling is great but this is once again where re-using beats recycling. Downside of recycling the energy you have to put into the process. In a energy and carbon intensive world, you will be challanged by that.
http://tinyurl.com/58d4fl

Go Sisters Go

2008-07-04T02:14:00.001-07:00

I work with Go Sisters through my job and they a good partner and doing a great job

Youth Mobilization

2008-06-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

Check www.youthnosise.com
They do a great job in mobilizing youth around social issues. It is a social networking platform for youth under 27

how mass collaboration changes everything (Dan Tapscott's presentation)

2008-06-05T00:37:00.001-07:00

Disruptive Innovation for Social Change

2008-04-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

I read an article from Harvard Business Review and by Christensen, Baumann, Ruggles and Sadtler. It was interesting look at the concept of Innovation for Social Change. The paper defined the Catalytic Innovations as innovations that;

create systemic social change through scaling
serve a need which is either over-served (with too much complesx solutions) or underserved
offer services or products that are simplier, less costly but good enough
generate resources different ways than market competitors (such as donations, grants, volunteer man-power...)
are being often ignored or sometimes encouraged by existing players for whom the business model is unprofitable

The key take-away for me the suggestion that tax classification -for profit versus nonprofit- is not a useful criteria for identifying catalytic innovators. That's new way of thinking for social change agents; for profit organisations might be a big contributor to social change. John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan's last book "The Power of Unreasonable People" suggests similar and describes 3 different types of Social Business

Leveraged nonprofit ventures
Mixed nonprofit ventures
Social business ventures

I am still reading the book when I finish it, I will make a comprehensive entry about it

Social innovation: Good for you, good for me

2008-04-18T01:28:00.000-07:00

Check this article of Ethicalcorp: http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?contentid=5823
I liked the article, Social innovation has great potential and people are beginning to realise that.

Mass Collaboration and Sustainable Development Partnerships

2008-03-20T05:44:00.000-07:00

How and in what ways can sustainable development partnerships can benefit from mass collaboration at different stages of partnership cycle?

In the last few years, as a result of digital revolution, we have access to tools that are changing the meaning of collaboration and re-defining it by taking it to an astronomical scale, making it more open, more global and less hierarchical. The new version of collaboration, which is called Mass Collaboration, is altering how corporations make business, how individuals live their lives and how societies act towards the social issues they face.

Visionary organizations from private, government or civil sectors are looking into ways of adapting themselves to the new era by being open, acting globally, encouraging peer to peer communication and sharing. It is for the benefit of sustainable development partnerships to adapt themselves to the new era and to continuously seek for the methods of harnessing the power of mass collaboration.

Crowdsourcing, Direct Participation and Resource&Fundraising are three main channels of mass collaboration to the sustainable development partnerships. Collective power of different stakeholders such as Social Entrepreneurs and Enthusiasts, Beneficiary Communities, Employees and Consumers can be brought into the partnership through those channels.
Partnerships for sustainable development have potential access to massive intellectual and material resources if they can create the right collaboration platforms.

Internal and external brokers will play a significant role on finding creative ways to harness the power of mass collaboration. Those platforms might take different forms depending on the phase of the partnership, our target group and what type of contribution we are looking for. Nevertheless, the basic principals are the same and it takes a little bit of creativity and effort to design tools for mass collaboration in sustainable development partnerships.

The winners in the Nike Sports fort a Better World Competition have been announced.

2008-03-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

The winners are Grassroot Soccer from S. Africa, Sport4Kids from United States and Sports and social transformation via mobile phones from Brazil. All of them are great programs. The program from Brazil is amazing. Now, this is really Innovation For A Better World. It reminds me actually how much we have that we do not use. They used technology and power of on-line community to enable youth using what is already out there.