Ideas from the ground up to the clouds …

Vanguard companies attempt to shorten the loop between society and solutions, but they also face the issue of deploying solutions widely – the diffusion of innovations. Close connections from the outset between developers and users are one clear facilitator. IBM researchers develop prototypes and improve on them through frequent communications with users or even location in customer facilities, as happened in the Philadelphia.

A second way to facilitate diffusion is to pick a demonstration site carefully and offer proof of concept by showing the innovation in use. This is what IBM did with the World Community Grid.  They took ideas from the ground and brought them up to the clouds … Read more in this SuperCorp excerpt.

Tech Tools Can Help Following Natural Disasters

Not just money but IT tools can help provide earthquake relief. Look at the Tsunami SuperCorp-IBM-DisasterRelief example. Short excerpt from new book, SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good.

Council of the Americas PodCast – SuperCorp

Audio: SuperCorp Book Launch.

How to Go from Small to Super?

Small business is by far the leading job creator, and entrepreneurship the leading engine of American economic renewal. As unemployment swells, small business prowess is needed more than ever. But can a small company be a SuperCorp, like progressive larger companies such as IBM and Procter & Gamble?

Undoubtedly some smaller companies can leap tall hurdles in a single bound — or, in Google’s case, leap from zero dollars to billions in less than ten years. Although flying that high is rare, small companies can gain power through strategic social responsibility, whether their products are chocolate chips or computer chips. Among my candidates for SuperCorp of the Future is a Boston residential real estate developer with 60 employees and big growth ambitions. The founder is firmly committed to end-to-end responsibility for his subcontractors’ work, their vendors’ quality, and his tenants’ amenities. He values community service, green building technology, and workplace happiness. He thinks this is why his company remained profitable during the worst real estate crisis in decades.

This isn’t idealism; it’s Organization 2.0, a practical response to 21st century economic and social demands. Consider four ways any enterprise can create innovation, profits, growth, and social good in the same small package. More at HarvardBusiness.org

What is the future of CSR? Meld, thrive, or disapper?

Will corporate social responsibility meld with corporate business strategy? Participants at the 2009 Business for Social Responsibility suggest yes.  What are your thoughts? Will CSR thrive or disappear?