Partnerships for Co-creating

Businesses
S K Tapasvi
MDI Gurgaon
1/12/2010
 Emerging Trends
• Shrinking of government from public services and
welfare objectives of the state
• Emergence of trans-boundary issues/problems like,
climate change, AIDS, globalization of work and
resources, terrorism
• Civil Society groups/NGOs at local, regional,
national and global levels are exerting increasing
pressure on governments and corporations for
addressing these problems.
• There are increasing cases of collaborations across
public, private and civil society sectors for
fulfillment of mutual objectives.
 Social Concerns & Businesses
• Civil society groups have influenced businesses
in areas such as, chemical regulation, oil spill
liability, air emissions, liquid waste,
pharmaceutical and food standards, child
labour, and employment discrimination.
• Companies are investing in developing expertise
to cope with civil society pressures
• Integrating social concerns into core
organizational functions through innovation
(moving away from ‘functional trap’)
 Corporate Sector and Civil Society
Convergence
• Three Stages
– Companies and NGOs work together to influence
each other. Some companies and NGOs execute
social responsibility projects together.
– Some companies get into bottom-of-the pyramid
segments and niche markets while NGOs set up social
ventures into those markets.
– Companies and NGOs enter into co-creation business
relationships which entails the development of
business models in which companies become a key
part of NGO’s capacity to deliver value and vice versa.
Partnerships & Management of Collaboration
• Co-creating markets through innovative business
models
• Task-oriented relationship rather than ideology or
policy-driven dialogue as the mode of collaboration
• Align global standards with local capacity to create
value
• Not an adversarial relationship
• Increasing legitimacy through 3-P dimensions
• Collaborative advocacy of policy issues and
developing co-regulatory schemes.
 What you can do?
• Create an environment where people are
conscientious about what they are doing and
take pride in that.
– This is all about creating a vision of a company that
delivers a triple bottom line, that is
• Economically sound
• Environmentally sound
• Socially just
– This is a new vision of sustainability of organizations
 Please think & reflect!!!
• What is the legacy that we are leaving behind?
• When we are no longer on this earth, what is
it that people will remember you for?
• What would you like them to remember you
for?
• How are you going to approach your job and
your life so that you are creating a legacy you
can be proud of?
 How to enlist others?
• We must improve our capacities to act on two
essentials:
– Appeal to common ideals
– Animate the vision
• Successfully engaging in these two essentials can lead
to:
– Higher levels of job satisfaction
– Motivation
– Commitment
– Loyalty
– Team spirit
– Productivity and profitability
 Appeal to Common Ideals
• Visions are about ideal – hopes, dreams, and
aspirations
• Ideals reveal our higher order value preferences
• They are statements of the idealized purpose that we
hope all our practical actions will enable us to attain.
• By focusing on the ideal, we gain a sense of meaning
and purpose from what we undertake.
• When you communicate vision(s), talk to people
about how they are going to make a difference, how
they are going to have positive impact.
 Cont…
• Connect to what is meaningful to others in
shaping shared visions. (do not impose)
• Take pride in being unique (differentiate)
• Align your dreams with the people’s dreams
(communicate positive images)

TO ENLIST OTHERS, LEADERS NEED TO BRING

THE VISION TO LIFE
 How to animate the vision?
• Your enthusiasm and expressiveness are
strong skills in your efforts to generate
commitment in your constituents (being
inspirational)
– Use symbolic language (stories, anecdotes,
picture, quotations, slogans)
• Planting seeds is more effective than pulling weeds
• Money does not grow on decision trees
– Make images of future (visualize the possibilities)
 Cont…
• Practice positive communication
– Look at the bright side (strength-based reality)
• Speak from the heart
– Being true to oneself and others
– Vision can never be animated if you don’t believe
in what you are saying
 For thought and action!!!
• Three action steps you can take:
– Record your shared vision
• What is your ideal work community
• What is unique about your hopes, dreams and
aspiration
• How does the future shape of vision look like
• What images come to your mind
• How does this vision serve the common good?
 Cont…
– Breath life into your vision
• Evoke strong positive emotions
• Make intangible values into tangible by using richness of
language (symbolic use of stories, for example)
– Expand your communication and Expressiveness
Skills
• Expressing a vision is the most difficult of all skills as it
has a connection with your inner self which we do not
want to project to others as a natural tendency
• So, task and relationship oriented expressiveness is a
necessary skill for HR professionals.