Today, 91% of the global population wants to see businesses do more than make a profit. Organisations need to be sensitive to alterations in the social fabric of their immediate environments and networks, remaining abreast of changes in social institutions, behaviours or relations.
The future belongs to organisations that leverage a world of connected platforms working to solve society’s most pressing challenges – effectively and as fast as possible. We are at the dawn of what some are calling the 'Network revolution: Creating value through platforms, people and technology'.
One of the concepts that stand out is that of social change as a platform (SCaaP).
The pluralism of social change, or at least the considered effort to such a goal, co-existing with advanced technologies is not an anti-commercial or anti-intellectual point of view.
On the contrary, it presents the business and its digital and physical customers' sustainability in a tangible value form. It is the antithesis of that cold-hearted capitalism that defined the early days of the industrial revolution. It is the emergence of a digitised civil society working hand in hand with government and business, with a focus on collaborative contributions. It is CSI 2.0, stripped down, reimagined and reconfigured to be a formidable tool in the arsenal of the discerning organisation.
The channel has to once again take the reins on promoting a value proposition the market doesn’t know it needs, yet. Constrained by legacy modes of operations, governance and physical reach, the non-profit sector needs partners that can move them to interaction models based on scaling relationships.
The fact is, thanks to the virtual landscape, grassroots movements can, in theory, occur on a global scale, with a collective or a community of engaged, involved and invested participants administering these movements.
SCaaP places technology in service of a cause at the centre, instead of the institutions. For example, the worthy cause of International Breast Cancer Awareness Month has hundreds of thousands of expressions, all speaking in acutely original ways to very specific audiences.
Technology allowed that, and now knowing what is possible, we can use forward-facing technologies to affect change. Social media, mobile, big data, AI and machine learning are potential social ‘change-makers’ and, in partnership with large and growing virtual networks, can dramatically improve every part of society.
Exploiting new digital technologies, and extending their derived value to focus on how organisations think about advancing a collective core mission, will be the new norm.
There is a massive opportunity for organisations to align their profit imperative with international grassroots movements or social issues most pertinent to their customers. Use your network (pun intended) to solve societal pain points that are the message at the heart of SCaaP.
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