I came across this post on Airbnb via the Collaborative Consumption email newsletter. This quote in particular struck me:

Airbnb should be a modern day case study for a new kind of 21st Century business–a company that creates immensely more value than it extracts from customers. They are adding value to their users’ lives in multiple dimensions all at the same time.

Business models like Airbnb’s are based on value that is co-created with customers. Airbnb creates “immensely more value” by providing the enabling platform for value to be generated, and is rewarded for its contribution to the community.

Michael’s post goes on to discuss the importance of a clear purpose as the foundation stone to build an organisation culture capable of disruptive innovation. I would go further to suggest that for a business like Airbnb, where there traditional models of value-exchange are blurred, that purpose needs to look beyond the financial bottom line – “adding value to their users’ lives in multiple dimensions” is a great way to express that sentiment.

In addition to a clear purpose, there is also a need for trust, a point that Peter Merholtz picks up in this recent post.

Netflix, Nordstrom, Southwest, Zappos, USAA — these are all companies renowned for great customer experience. And they provide remarkable latitude to both customers and employees, a latitude that suggests trust.

As Peter notes, such trust extends beyond employees, it also requires trust in customers — including not punishing the majority of your customers to avoid problems with the minority (Zappos’ liberal return policy, for example). Airbnb is, of course, also a great example of this kind of trust (as are ventures like Kiva and Zopa).

To my mind, these concepts — Purpose, Trust, Co-created value, Platform — represent keystones for socially innovative business.

Regular readers may recall that Zumio has a quarterly giving program where we donate 1% of net profit to organisations doing good within the community.  I just wanted to take a moment to mention who we’ve supported for the past two quarters.

Given the continued attacks on refugee rights that seem to flare up in response to electoral pressures, we decided to theme our giving for this past few months on initiatives that support refugees in our local community.

Asylum Seekers Centre NSW

The Asylum Seekers Centre supports Sydney-based (and in some cases regionally-based) refugees by “providing a welcoming environment and front-line support for community-based asylum seekers.”  The centre receives no government funding and relies on philanthropic support and public donations.  They recently ran an appeal highlighting a shortfall in funding due to a significant increase in the use of their services — so we are grateful of the opportunity to provide at least a little support to help them achieve their fundraising goal.

The Social Studio (Melbourne)

The Social Studio is “a dynamic space where clothing is created from the style and skills of the young refugee community.  Recycled and excess manufacturing materials are gathered from local industry and re-configured into original clothing.”

We loved the fact that the Studio combines so many positive benefits into one initiative — sustainable garment manufacture, refugee support, promotion of “social inclusion, community and vitality” through their mobile shopping carts — and we’re delighted we can be participating in their community in some small way.

Check out the site, consider donating, or if you’re in Melbourne, keep an eye out for their “pedal powered pop-up shops” to purchase some of the clothes produced by participants in the initiative…

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking (but clearly not a lot of blog writing!) about the idea of social innovation in a business context.  This ties into some previous thoughts I’ve posted about values and sustainability as a lens for innovation.

Two articles that I’ve come across recently expand on this concept.  The first is from Tim Draimin and focuses on shifting from Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Innovation.

In the article Tim references Michael Porter’s thoughts:

Michael Porter suggests that CSR has evolved.  He speaks about a concept he calls “shared value” or “corporate policies and practices that enhance the competitiveness of the company while simultaneously advancing economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates.”

The thinking goes that while traditional CSR programs are often viewed as an adjunct to the core business, something that happens “to the side”, the idea of CSI is that the benefit comes from the core business itself.  (While I do have reservations about the Corporate Social Innovation moniker, I do think the concept has merit.)

This is akin to what Adam Werbach outlines in his book Strategy for Sustainability when he talks about North Star goals and aligning sustainability goals with core business activity.  To my mind this also very much aligns with the concept of “betterness models” as put forward by Umair Haque.

I was reminded of this article (which I read quite a few weeks ago now) when I came across Dan Gray’s post on delivering short-term “quick wins” for sustainability within the context of a longer-term sustainability agenda.

In his post he says:

The authenticity of your commitment stems from the materiality of your actions – i.e. beyond the thin veneer of charitable giving, cause-related marketing etc., that commitment should be self-evident in the very products and services you provide, and the manner in which you conduct your daily business.

And goes on to quote Jonathon Porritt:

In an ideal world, all actions taken by a company to enhance its own commercial success should simultaneously generate benefits for society, over and above those that come directly through the use of that company’s products and services.

There are, of course, a number of cultural drivers that make consideration along these lines important for businesses moving forward, and I think they tie into the shift we’re also seeing in relation to social technologies (social networks etc.).  A quick summary of my current thinking is that people are seeking:

• Human connection: as organisations have grown in size and become more and more depersonalised, people are wanting more human interactions and personal response.
• Authenticity and transparency: from greenwashing to the GFC, the market’s trust has been eroded.  People are looking for organisations to say what they mean and mean what they say.
• Co-creation and collaboration: people are taking a more active role in developing the products and services that they use.  And if they don’t find what they’re looking for, they will often create it themselves.
• Environmental and social responsibility: global warming, looming limits to natural resource consumption, pollution and waste; respect for human dignity with fair wages and conditions — people want to support organisations that take these issues seriously, not just as something “to the side”.

Building a business (or service/product/brand) that resonates in this new “economy of meaning” requires a rethinking of an organisation’s role in more than “market” or financial terms.  But also, I think, a re-evaluation of an organisation’s relationship with customers/constituents, stakeholders, and the environment.

And I believe that it is in this rethinking that significant opportunities for innovation can be found.

This video, produced by Streetfilms, is a great introduction to the potential of open data in transit systems.

Just a quick note to mentioned I’ve posted the slides from my presentation today at the Enviro 2010 conference over at Slideshare. I’ve uploaded with associated notes as a document to provide a bit more context for each slide.

In the presentation I mention Clay Shirky’s concept of the “cognitive surplus” – for those that are interested, he provides a great introduction to this concept in his recent TED talk (embedded below for quick reference):

Next Wednesday is the opening of the Enviro 2010 conference at the Melbourne Exhibition and Conference Centre.

I’m presenting there Thursday in the 4:00pm – 5:30pm session, on the topic of Social Design for Sustainability. In the presentation I’ll be looking at online social networks, the underlying trends that they represent, the importance of these networks in moving towards sustainability, and how “social design” (design thinking) provides a great toolset for organisations wanting to benefit through engagement within the context of these trends.

It’s been an interesting process pulling together the presentation, which ties together a number of the threads I’ve explored previously here in the blog, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it all goes on Thursday.

It’s also perhaps serendipitous that the conference coincides with the State of Design festival which has the theme of “Change by Design”. Hopefully my contribution to the Enviro 2010 conference will provide a nice tie-in between the two events.

Just a quick note to mention that I’ll be participating in the panel at July’s IF Talks, on the topic of “Sustainable Future & Pure Living”:

Our environment is currently facing huge obstacles that have the potential to seriously disrupt our future and the future of our shared environment. Whilst there is speculation, the current apocalyptic predictions for our planet tend to paralyze people rather than motivate people to take action.

However this is changing and Australia is home to some of the world leaders in environmental, sustainable and pure living methodologies, practices and knowledge.

IF set out to find the innovators who seek to create a better future for humanity by improving our shared environment. Be it through design, business, collaboration or strategic thinking and action.

This IF talk is an enthusiastic and informed look and discussion around the future of pure living, why, how and more importantly, how business, corporations and organisations can and should be applying this type of thinking to modern companies in the immediate future.

The Eventbrite page for the event has more details about the event (and you can also purchase tickets there if you’re interested in attending). All profits from IF talks are donated to STREAT to help provide homeless youth with a pathway to full time employment.

While researching my report on design thinking and sustainability I finally had a chance to read some of Ezio Manzini’s papers on the topic. While I’d heard many good things about Ezio’s work (especially from Dave and Penny), I’d not had much of a chance to really dig into it.

The focus of the papers I read were on the concept of “enabling solutions” – that is designs that, rather than taking away problems, build people’s efficacy to solve the challenges they face, increasing their “resourcefulness” (to borrow a term from Emily Campbell’s RSA paper You know more than you think you do: Design as resourcefulness & self-reliance [PDF 356KB]).

While at the time I didn’t fully appreciate the relevance of these papers to my intended report, by the time I’d finished writing it I realised Manzini’s ideas had been very influential. Which is why I’m so excited to see that Ezio is speaking in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney next month in a tour co-organised by ASIX, TACSI, and the Centre for Social Impact.

In each state Ezio will be doing both a public forum: “Small, local, open, connected” and masterclass: “Next economy – enabling sustainable ways of living”. From the masterclass blurb:

Perhaps the world’s leading expert on sustainable design, Ezio Manzini sits at the interface between design, community and social innovation with a focus on scenario building toward solutions encompassing both environmental and social quality.

This masterclass will explore how the interplay between social and technical innovation is opening up brand new opportunities. How can we conceive and deliver “enabling solutions”? How can individuals, businesses, institutions, associations and communities collaborate in the framework of viable business models to support sustainable ways of living?

This masterclass is for policy-makers and practitioners who are interested in sustainability, social innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

I’d thoroughly recommend this tour/series to anyone interested in sustainability and/or social innovation – I’m sure it will be an engaging and inspiring set of sessions…

Posting has been light here the past few weeks, partly due to most of my writing energy being focused on my project report on Design thinking and sustainability (PDF 1.5MB), my first major assessment for the Master of Sustainable Practice postgraduate degree I’m currently undertaking at RMIT.

The summary of the report is:

Media coverage of the impact of ʻdesign thinkingʼ – also described as ʻhuman-centred designʼ or ʻservice designʼ, among other terms – on business and society seems to be on the increase, with much of the discussion focusing on its application to innovation practice.

Simultaneously, the need for business and public services to integrate socially and environmentally sustainable practices is becoming more urgent and important to address pressing issues such as climate change, resource scarcity, environmental degradation and growing social challenges and perceived deterioration of community.

This paper briefly explores the impacts of design on business before providing a working definition and overview of the key themes of design thinking. It then outlines commonly recognised environmentally-focused sustainable design principles and considers how design thinking could be applied in support of these.

Although a (non-exhaustive) review of specific examples of design thinking applied to environmentally sustainable objectives was undertaken in preparation of this paper, such examples are relatively few. As such, while specific examples are touched upon, the primary focus of the paper is on the potential application of design thinking in this context.

While academic in tone (it is a uni assessment after all) and relatively long (20+ pages), I thought it might be of interest to some readers of this blog given the topic/focus.

As is often the case with this sort of things there are elements I’d improve/extend if I had more time – particularly I’d like to provide more than just passing comment to the link between sustainability and innovation – but I do hope the result provokes some interesting and beneficial dialogue.

I’d also like to publicly thank the following folks for their support through inspiration, conversation, experience and pointers to examples and resources before and during the preparation of the paper:

• Penny Hagen
• Duncan Underwood, Dave Gravina and all the crew at Digital Eskimo
• Suze Ingram
• Natalie Rowland (from Redrollers)
• Rachel Botsman

Dan Pink, animated by the RSA, on what motivates us. Turns out meaning is better than money, and perhaps more surprisingly, that more money may actually result in worse performance.

Via the Nudge blog.