Here's how business can be a platform for social change

A change-maker is someone who takes creative action to solve social problems for the good of all.

Changemakers can operate within communities or corporations. In the light of the pandemic, it is increasingly clear that corporate longevity is intrinsically tied to how a business addresses environmental and social challenges for all of its stakeholders. A central piece of this is how a corporation empowers its people and communities.

Creating a culture of changemakers is at the heart of human empowerment - and business success.

When this platform joins hands with a movement, human potential is unleashed in a way that empowers both employees and community members.

Social enterprises, in particular, have intimate knowledge of communities and are at the forefront of cutting-edge solutions to environmental and social challenges. The pandemic was a precipitating event that focused attention on partnerships between corporations and social enterprises, with communities at the centre.

Imagine the power of even greater collaboration between leading corporations who are committed to social impact and front-line entrepreneurs; business acumen and resources meeting community intimacy and passion.

Corporations, in general, need to get a clearer picture of what social entrepreneurs and their organizations need, based on their location or market, area of impact, and health of their business as a result of the pandemic. Some may be ready to partner, co-innovate and develop new solutions to thrive, while others can barely meet resource needs to survive. This work requires that corporations open up a dialogue focused on mutual discovery to reach communities and the entrepreneurs within them. If there is one point this pandemic has made clear, it is that all our futures are intertwined globally.

As an example of swift mobilization to tackle a critical societal need, once COVID-19 hit, Salesforce launched Work.com to help businesses, governments and non-profits or social sector organizations reopen safely.

It also joined the COVID-19 Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, with Salesforce.org seeing a surge in Power of Us Hub applications and pro bono requests.

Specifically, achieving this common ground or a space to be empathetic and learn together, necessitates more touch points between communities and corporations, such as Salesforce.org - Impact Labs - which provides a way to co-design tech solutions with non-profits, or the community.

There is even scope to help governments and healthcare organizations more safely and efficiently manage vaccine programmes at scale - illustrated by the recently announced Work.com for Vaccines initiative.

Ashoka launched Changemakers United, a global effort to support the social-entrepreneur community of Ashoka Fellows, which is a group on the front lines solving some of the greatest challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashoka Fellows, David Cuartielles and César García, both open-source innovators, curated the Coronavirus Makers Forum as the pandemic was getting worse. More than 20,000 makers coordinated efforts to build masks, and produce respirators and cabins for hospitals.

Anshu Gupta, of the NGO Goonj, was at the forefront of dealing with one of the largest humanitarian crises in India emerging from the shutdown procedures. Ashoka Fellows are often the first responders to the pressing needs of the citizen sector in complex global health crises such as the virus.

Ashoka’s work over 10 years with pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim in the Making More Health initiative highlights the value of their Corporate Changemakers programme. This is now extending to other pioneers in the private sector - but there is more of this kind of work to be done.

The COVID Social Enterprise Action Agenda provides five recommendations for corporations to take action to support social entrepreneurs:

1. Honour existing relationships

2. Forge new partnerships

3. Facilitate capital connections

4. Invest in capacity-building

5. Deepen and widen your impact

This all begins with building a change-maker culture that is focused on innovation for the good of all parts of society. It is about more clearly defining a common social-good agenda, and corporations engaging as active stakeholders in society.

This involves investing in, engaging and supporting social entrepreneurs who are actively innovating for the good of society; and together identifying new ways to make change-making culture a norm across the private and public sectors.

Social entrepreneurs are often tackling unique problems and have game-changing solutions to serving communities. They see the patterns in the field and often innovate to create solutions that empower society to solve issues. This brings a new perspective into corporations, and unleashes new innovation pathways and thinking.

Change-making culture is rooted in mastering four abilities or skills: cognitive empathy, new leadership skills, sophisticated team working and creative problem-solving. In a world of rapid change, complexity and uncertainty as the pandemic has shown us – change-making truly becomes a new literacy and dexterity for all stakeholders in the world: citizens, young people, employees, companies and organizations.

It is increasingly clear that business performance depends on how well various stakeholders are served, including communities.

This shared journey in turn, unleashes skills of the future and empowers humans across the board. A new engagement model and these relationships are vital to reach a "New Normal" – creating a more equitable, sustainable and just world for all.

This model requires a mindset shift where corporations and social entrepreneurs alike are thinking like changemakers and creating systems together, while attracting more capital to the most pressing challenges in society.