WASHINGTON, DC - August 19, 2013 — This week on BIZ + SOCIAL, we bring you the best from the New Global Citizen, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Harvard Business Review, and more.

GLOBAL PRO BONO

IBM, USAID and CDC Development Solutions Spearhead a New Approach to Public-Private Partnership

With a growing proportion of Ghana’s GDP devoted to health care, and with the cost associated with the delivery of medicines and other health services on the rise, The Ghanaian Ministry of Health had a problem. Actually, a few: Supply of suitable quality medical products is limited, a deficit that is amplified by uneven planning and coordination across the Ministry. This, paired with a lack of sufficient visibility and insight into medical data, led to frequent misalignment of health objectives and incentives. Together, these challenges made it difficult for the Ministry to provide for the healthcare needs of Ghana’s citizens. Working with USAID, the Ministry agreed it was time to set a new course and tackle its challenges head-on. To revamp key health care services, the Ministry turned to an international team of skilled corporate volunteers from IBM for assistance in forging its new path to the future. Read More…

IMPACT & INNOVATION

When Good Is Not Good Enough

Many of the fastest-growing nonprofit organizations begin with well-intentioned interventions and relatively naive ideas about the magnitude and complexity of the problems they aim to solve. Share Our Strength and KaBOOM! are no exception. By some measures our organizations were successful US nonprofits—growing rapidly, engaging numerous partners, and improving the lives of tens of millions of children. Yet all the while, the problems we were tackling—hunger and the lack of opportunities to play—were getting worse and even accelerating in recent years as the economy took a downturn. More than 16 million kids in America now live in poverty, up from 11.6 million in 2000. For Share Our Strength, we knew the grants we were providing to feed hungry people were benefiting the recipients, but we confronted the hard truth that one in five American children struggles with hunger. Similarly, for KaBOOM!, we witnessed how children who played on our playgrounds benefited physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally, but we faced the fact that one in three children is obese or overweight, and one in five suffers from a mental illness, with rates of depression higher than ever before. The list goes on.  Read More…

 LEADERSHIP

Smart Leaders Have Protégés

Just how important protégés are to a powerful person was made clear to me by this question, told to me by a Fortune 100 CEO. When choosing his direct reports, he asks: “How many blazing talents have you developed over the years and put in top positions across the company, so that if I asked you to pull off a deal that involved liaising across seven geographies and five functions, you’d have the bench strength — the people who ‘owe you one’ — to get it done?” In earlier research, CTI measured the “sponsor effect,” the quantifiable boost to pay, promotion, career satisfaction, and retention that sponsorship endows on protégés. It turns out that there’s also a “protégé effect” leveraging career traction for leaders. Read More…

 

CITIZEN DIPLOMACY

Diplomacy in a Digitally Infused World

Walk the streets of any big city today, anywhere in the world, and it is impossible to miss the impact of digital communication technology on nearly every aspect of our daily lives. It impacts the way we communicate, socialize, travel, are entertained, buy products and services, and even find our life partners. But, what about diplomacy, that famously nuanced, human talent that is so deeply rooted in a face-to-face, personal connection? How has digital changed the diplomacy game? To understand the imprint digital has made on diplomacy, we first need to understand the psychology of digital natives. It is a human nature to try and make a difference in the world around us; to seek something more. Media, particularly digital media, offers a level of transparency and direct access that gives political activists, thought leaders and influencers the ability to force political change. Just as social media has removed the power of traditional reporters to serve as the primary connectors between news-making principals and the public, it has also diminished the power of traditional political gatekeepers. Read more…

ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT

Jessica Custer: Social Business Drives Opportunity, Growth in India and Other Emerging Markets 

It all started with a toilet—this one to be specific. That, and a desperate craving for adventure. The first time that I saw this life-changing montage of toilets was in 2007. I stood deep in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, as far as I had yet been from the comfort of familiarity, gazing out across the river at thousands of floating shacks. I had been looking for a little adventure and as a student of international business, I elected for a study abroad tour of Latin America. I envisioned delectable samplings of Mexican flavor, awe-inspiring moments while exploring the ruins of ancient cultures, gorgeous landscapes (and beaches!), good rum, and energizing Latino beats blasted from night clubs that pulsed on until the sun came up. I found those things. And I found something else, something less expected. Read More…