I Am a Social Intrapreneur

When you’re looking for CSR work, there’s a very clear mantra that everyone repeats, day in and day out. It goes something like this:

“Real CSR jobs are few and far between. If you want to do CSR, go get a functional job within a big company and innovate from the inside out.”

In social change circles, this mantra could also be called social intrapreneurship. Unlike social entrepreneurship, where you're starting something completely new and distinct, social intrapreneurship is all about finding ways to innovate within the constraints of your current organization.

For instance, if you’re an operations social intrapreneur, you might be on the lookout for ways to streamline your supply chain so as to reduce environmental inefficiencies, but that doesn't mean that your job title has the word 'sustainability' in it. Similarly, if you’re a marketing social intrapreneur, you might find an opportunity to promote the green benefits of your product, even if it’s not an explicitly eco-friendly item. This, at its core, is what social intrapreneurship is all about.

I learned this “innovate from the inside out” mantra early in grad school, which means that while I was a student, social intrapreneurship was often on my mind and in my blog (check out some stories I wrote about Best Buy and eBay as well as a short video interview I gave about it!).

And because I modeled my opinion of social intrapreneurship on the stories I'd learned and written about, I also came to associate the topic with a few specific images and messages in my head: corporate boardrooms in big, boxy skyscrapers; bureaucrats in suits who prioritize profits over everything else; and yes, even pushing rocks up mountains with my bare hands! It might not sound like your idea of fun, but hey – let's just say that if you want to do CSR work, you quickly get used to the idea that your job one day might involve persuading some boulders to start rolling.

Because of these definitive ideas that I had about when and where social intrapreneurship could happen, when I started my job with OpenIDEO I essentially cast off my social intrapreneurship intentions. I mean, folks at IDEO don’t exactly wear suits, and they certainly don’t sit around in corporate boardrooms!

As I’ve settled in to my work and my team, though, what I’ve learned is that social intrapreneurship is actually an integral part of my day job. Without even realizing it, I’ve become a social intrapreneur.

Let's see if I can explain.

OpenIDEO is a social innovation startup within IDEO; that is, we're a new business incubating within the confines of an established organization (no matter how un-corporate it might be). Because of that, we face many of the same challenges our social intrapreneurship colleagues in more corporate settings deal with every day:

1. Cutting back the number of cooks in the kitchen: As a new initiative, we look for guidance from all corners of the organization, not to mention outside of IDEO too. The good news is that everyone has an opinion, and the bad news is that everyone has an opinion! How do we sift through these differing intentions and use them to make smart choices?
2. Being bold and realistic: This especially comes into play when we try to balance our potential to grow with our limited capacity and bandwidth as a small team. How do we pursue leads, push ourselves to develop, and be brave and bold – without burning out?
3. Solidifying “the OpenIDEO Way": Part of what makes OpenIDEO so fun and unique is that mostly everything we're doing is new and uncharted (after all, we’ve been live for less than year!). Eventually, though, you start realizing you’re reinventing the wheel every time you get asked to do something slightly different. Is there a way to stay flexible and open to new opportunities while also developing some standard processes that will help us scale and replicate?
4. Doing well and doing good: It’s the oldest cliché in the book, but it certainly applies to what we’re working on too. While we are out for social impact, we’re no good to anyone if we don’t make money. How might we find ways to prove our business model and impact our world at the same time?

Ultimately, as a new offering within an established company, we operate very similarly to all the other social intrapreneurs out there trying to create change within their own organizations.  Whether you’re a small CSR team, or a single person with a passion for sustainability or philanthropy, the work of a social intrepreneur isn’t easy. With that said, I can also state with 100% confidence that it’s a lot more fun than pushing rocks uphill!

How are you applying social intrapreneurship within your own organization? What tips, tricks or guidance would you want to share with me and others? I'd love to hear from you.

Moving Sustainably

Things have been a little light on The Changebase recently, as I’ve traded my school books and CSR projects for cardboard boxes and packing tape.

Yep, the Jablows are leaving Boston and heading back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where we’ll both be based while we look for jobs and get settled again on the West Coast.

As my husband Dan and I prepare to pack up our apartment, we’re trying to be as discerning as possible with what we keep and ship back West. If it hasn’t been worn, used or enjoyed in the last few months, we’re getting rid of it.

This has been a tough challenge to give ourselves (and not just because it means parting with my “favorite” clothes that I, ahem, never wear anymore).

No, it’s been tough because it’s hard to know how best to dispose of everything we no longer want.

As cliché as it might sound, I care about protecting our environment. I fret over trees being cut down to make my notebook paper; I’m vigilant about turning off my lights when not in use; and when it comes to this move, I worry that every single scrap I throw out is going to end up in a landfill (or worse, someplace like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch).

What’s amazing is just how much stuff we seem to have collected – not just since we moved to Boston two years ago, but since who knows when! The amount of paper, trinkets, clothing and other items we’ve managed to accumulate is staggering.

In an effort to be responsible movers, we’ve taken a proactive approach to ensuring that as little as possible actually ends up as trash. Here’s how:

First, we were lucky to have access to basement storage where we could save all of our cardboard boxes from our last move. So, no new boxes – which is great.

Next, when it comes to determining what goes in those boxes, we sorted everything into three categories: “Keep, Donate, or Sell.”

For donations, our main go-to is the Goodwill. As you probably know, all new or gently used items donated to Goodwill are sold in their retail stores to support community initiatives that help people in need.

Beyond Goodwill, Dan and I recently discovered Buffalo Exchange as another place to donate and sell our clothes. We brought in a bunch of stuff to our local Buffalo Exchange the other day – some of it got bought by the store (which earned us a store credit and some cash) but most of it got donated, in this case to a local epilepsy society. The coolest part? When we used our store credit but said no to a plastic bag for our new items, the store gave us 5c to donate to a local charity of our choosing. Might not seem like a whole lot, but it turns out this “Tokens for Bags” program has led to almost $358,000 donated to local nonprofits since 1994 and saved 7.2 million plastic bags. And it definitely left us feeling the warm fuzzies.

For other donated items beyond clothes and accessories, we’re just starting to try out Freecycle. Started in 2003 in Arizona, Freecycle keeps everyday items out of landfills and puts them into the hands of happy freecyclers. Simply sign up for your local chapter, browse current listings to see what people are giving away, or put up an ad for something you no longer want. In just one day, I’ve seen postings for TVs, tennis rackets, baby toys, even couches! By their estimates, the Freecycle program is keeping 500 tons a day out of landfills.

Besides donations, we’re making good use of for-sale sites like Craigslist and eBay for our furniture, electronics, and other household goods. After all, why not make a little money to pay for our upcoming cross country road trip?

While we’re trying to be smart about finding new homes for our things here in Boston, I still deal with a nagging uneasiness around what happens when we get to California. Selling our couch in Boston means it won’t go to a landfill, but eventually we will need something to sit on in our new apartment out West. Which leaves me wondering:

How can we not only responsibly dispose of things now, but also responsibly consume in the future?

I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that question because, in many ways, consumption is a necessary evil. We all need beds to sleep on, clothes to wear, and food to eat. That said, how much more do we need?

At the end of the day, I do think it’s about being conscious with our purchases and not just blindly handing over our credit cards. It’s about understanding our options for buying new versus used, and making use of sites like Freecycle or eBay to help us find hidden gems.

Ultimately, it’s about prioritizing what we really need over what we really want.

This doesn’t have to mean sacrificing our comfort for the sake of sustainability. But it does mean putting in a little extra effort and research to make smarter purchase decisions.

I’m very aware of the irony of donating or selling everything now, only to go out and buy it again later. And yes, some of that may happen. But I’m also going to do my best to be more of a conscious consumer going forward and make smarter, more responsible choices.

I encourage you to take a look around your home or apartment sometime and ask yourself: how much of your stuff is really necessary? Maybe it’s time for a little spring cleaning?

Social Intrapreneurship at Work

“How many of you would call yourself a social intrapreneur?” This was the question that Mark Feldman, managing director of Cause Consulting posed to the fifty attendees at this morning’s Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Conference breakout session, “The Business of Corporate Citizenship: Creating New Social Ventures within Your Company.”

A quick glance around the room showed only a handful would give themselves this title.

Yet, as Mark and his panelists, Amy Skeeters-Behrens (head of Global Citizenship Marketing, eBay) and Nancy Mahon (executive director, MAC AIDS Fund), made it clear to all attendees, anyone considering creating a “social corporate enterprise” within their company is exactly that. Perhaps, Mark suggested, after this session, “you’ll consider yourselves a little bit differently.”

But first: what is a social intrapreneur? According to Amy, a social intrapreneur focuses on “building and developing new ventures within a company, designed to generate large-scale social impact”.

For eBay, this means creating a wide array of ventures – from the eBay Green Team to World of Good by eBay – that enable their buyers, sellers, employees and larger community connect to causes they care about. At MAC AIDS Fund, social intrapreneurship takes the form of the MAC Viva Glam line of lipsticks and lip glosses whose sales support HIV/AIDS initiatives globally.

Throughout the panel I was struck by a handful of ideas and themes that kept cropping up – what I’d call best practices for any social intrapreneur:

Alignment of core competencies and the social venture you’re creating: As Amy stressed, and Nancy reiterated, building these social venture opportunities means taking a long, hard look at what your company does well – and what it might not be as good at. Not only does this ensure your venture will be aligned with what you do best, but it forces you to partner with authentic, credible leaders in the space you want to play in. In eBay’s case, they are great at building shopper marketplaces and providing a trusted space to transact, but they’re not as knowledgeable or skilled in other crucial areas that were necessary to build World of Good. This led them to partner with social entrepreneurs and industry leaders to help build their model – and their credibility.

Creation of a point of view for your venture: Nancy repeatedly brought up the idea that the Viva Glam line of products has been successful because it represents a connection to a singular point of view (HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and support). The great thing about having a CSR point of view, rather than simply a portfolio of smaller causes grouped together, is that this can clearly support the business’s point of view and brand meanings.

CSR needs to be about making money: Both panelists agreed that “profit isn’t a dirty word” and that “you can make money and do good in the world.” This idea is especially crucial for developing the business case for CSR – until you come to terms with the fact that CSR must directly tie to financial outcomes, you won’t be able to create and identify the data you need in order to make a compelling business case for your work.

In all it was a terrific first breakout session, with great ideas and inspiration flowing throughout the room. I can’t wait to see how the next session goes!

Ashley's Note: This is the first of three posts I wrote as a featured blogger for The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship's 2010 Annual Conference. Click these links to learn more about the conference, check out the session description, and to read all the blog posts from the event.

Creating Change from Within

I've often spoken on The Changebase about social entrepreneurs who've chosen to radically reinvent how business creates social change in our communities and around the world. Organizations like Kiva (microfinance), Carrotmob (conscious consumerism), and Frontline SMS (information access through technology) have literally re-drawn the lines when it comes to creating sustainable, empowered and effective change through grass-roots social entrepreneurship.

While the importance of these examples can't be overstated, if we only focus on social entrepreneurs we actually miss an entire population of changemakers who want to have an impact but can’t quit their day jobs.

What can these people do to create change in their communities and their environment, without reinventing the wheel?

Enter social intrapreneurship – a new movement centered around creating progress internally at existing organizations.

Ok, so this is an interesting concept, you might say. But what does this look like in practice?

From what I hear, it’s all about baby steps - that is, starting small and growing big. Maybe it’s just me but it seems everywhere I turn I hear stories of employees who mobilized themselves and insisted on small initial changes like improved recycling at their corporate office, company incentives for using public transportation, or time off to volunteer in the community. And from there the social intrapreneurship momentum just grew. 

Another example: I recently had the chance to speak with someone in global citizenship at eBay, and I asked her what she thought made the company’s green efforts so successful. While she agreed with me that senior leadership buy-in is important, she pointed first to eBay’s employees as the single biggest driving force in creating change in the company.

It just so happens that much of their CSR efforts actually got started by a group of forty employees who came together to talk about little ways they could “green” the company – and from there it just snowballed. Now, more than 2000 employees in 23 countries are part of eBay’s Green Team – talk about a perfect example of real-life social intrapreneurship!

As a growing wave of MBA students (myself included) begins to dip their toes into the job hunt water, I find eBay’s story of creating change from within particularly inspiring. I know I want to work in CSR and sustainability, but I also know that these jobs are often really hard to find. If eBay's social intrapreneurship story tells us anything, it's that making change isn’t just about your job title or even your job function. No matter where any of us lands after graduation, we can each be changemakers in our organizations. And all it takes are some baby steps.

And that goes for all of you non-MBA students too!

It turns out that this isn't the first time I've extolled the virtues of social intrapreneurship. In fact, I was recently interviewed by my school, Boston University School of Management, as part of a promotional video meant to show prospective applicants how MBAs use their degrees to create change. Since I talk about social intrapreneurship in the clip, I thought I'd include it.

First up is BU Finance professor Yrjo Koskinan, then my classmate Susie Keane, and then me (I’m roughly two minutes and thirty seconds into the video).

Enjoy my 15 minutes of fame! 

And going forward, ask yourself: how can I be a social intrapreneur and create change from within my own organization, school, or community?