Social Innovation, Inc. - by Jason Saul (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Could Wal-Mart offer a better solution to healthcare than Medicaid? Could GE help reduce global warming faster than the Kyoto protocol?

Social Innovation, Inc. declares a new era where companies profit from social change. Leading corporations like GE, Wellpoint, Travelers and Wal-Mart are transforming social responsibility into social innovation and revolutionizing the way we think about the role of business in society. Based on four years of measuring the social strategies of America's leading corporations, Jason Saul lays out the five strategies for social innovation and offers a practical roadmap for how to get started.

• Explains the fundamental shift in the role of business in society, from social contract to social capital market
• Identifies the 5 social innovation strategies: submarket products and services, social points of entry, pipeline talent, reverse lobbying, and emotive customer bonding
• Offers step-by-step guidance for creating economic value through positive social change

Social Innovation, Inc. is about making social change work for the business, and in turn staying relevant in the new economy.

From the Back Cover

Could Walmart possibly offer a better solution to healthcare than Medicaid?

Could GE help reduce global warming faster than the Kyoto protocol?

Could Starbucks do more to stabilize the economy in Rwanda than U.S. AID?

Social Innovation, Inc. declares a new era, one in which companies profit from driving social change. Leading corporations like GE, Wellpoint, Travelers, and Walmart are transforming social responsibility into social innovation and revolutionizing the way we think about the role of business in society. Their breakthrough strategies are producing unprecedented business results by solving social problems. To seize these burgeoning opportunities, Jason Saul, founder of Mission Measurement, shows companies exactly how to develop a new generation of business strategies.

Social innovation differs from traditional corporate philanthropy and social responsibility in four fundamental ways. Social innovations 1) are primarily designed to produce business value, 2) leverage the machinery of the business to solve social problems, 3) are scalable and sustainable, and 4) often address market failures. Based on four years of research measuring the social strategies of some of America's leading corporations, including Kraft, Starbucks, and Levi Strauss, this book reveals the five successful paths to social innovation:

• Create revenues through submarket products and services
• Enter new markets through backdoor channels
• Build emotional bonds with customers
• Develop new pipelines for talent
• Influence policy through reverse lobbying

Social Innovation, Inc. is about making social change work for the business, and in turn, staying relevant in the new economy. With compelling case studies, fresh thinking, and step-by-step guidance, Social Innovation, Inc. shows exactly how to create--and sustain--economic value through positive social change.

About the Author

JASON SAUL is one of the nation's leading experts on measuring social impact. He is a Lecturer of Social Enterprise at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and the CEO of Mission Measurement LLC, a strategy consulting firm that helps corporations, nonprofits, and the public sector measure and improve social impact.

For more information, please visit www.missionmeasurement.com