“A Social Enterprise is an organisation whose mission combines revenue growth and profitmaking with the need to respect and support its environment and stakeholder network.” It includes listening to, investing in, and actively managing the trends that are shaping today’s world. “It is an organisation that shoulders its responsibility to be a good citizen (both inside and outside the organisation), serving as a role model for its peers and promoting a high degree of collaboration at every level of the organisation.” (“The Rise of the Social Enterprise” by Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2018.)
Businesses today are entering a whole new model for Management; one which considers the business more as an "institution" integrated into the social framework of society. A “network organisation” model means an organisation more dedicated to educating personnel as well as executives to become good citizens on a more responsible, cultural, sustainable, caring approach.
This research reveals that there is an urgent need to create a new concept around 21st Century careers; above all, it focuses on topics like employee’s well-being, the issue on longevity in the workforce, “social” in a truly external sense. “Being a “Social Enterprise” means focusing on the human capital agenda rather than on revenue and profit.” (Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin & Associates, (now part of Deloitte known as Bersin by Deloitte, April 3, 2018.)
More than ever, businesses must recognise the enormous impact stakeholders have, affecting the company's brand, growth, and profitability.
“The biggest challenge we found in this research is that C-suite executives are not operating or organising effectively to deal with this new world. What this research found was that a new model, which we call the “Symphonic C-Suite,” is key, and companies should take on these issues as a team, creating a model we call “teams leading teams,” instead of the silo-functional ownership we see in the C-Suite today.” Josh Bersin stated.
This new proposal blends all divisions of an organisation to look at the impact of different factors and its consequences, relating its effects particularly in the company's footprint on the outside.
Customers now do business with local companies, companies that do good things in the community, and corporations which do the right things for the society. It goes far beyond "corporate responsibility" into really being a good citizen and redefining value propositions in this way. Moreover, "it means doing a much better job of managing data, an issue that has become "front page" around the world," Bersin commented.
Josh Bersin presents a focal point of the ten trends, in which this transformation is based, each one worth to further analysis, hereafter, enlisted in order of urgency by Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2018 study.
1. Each workforce ecosystem should be managed beyond the enterprise.
2. New rewards: personalised, agile and considering the whole person.
3. A Social Enterprise must offer new pathways from careers to experiences.
4. The Longevity benefits.
5. Citizenship and social impact.
6. Well-being is a responsibility, as well as a strategy.
7. AI, Robotics, and Automation put the human at stake.
8. The hyper-connected workplace to bringing hyper-productivity as well.
9. The use of customer data seen as an opportunity and a risk as well.
10. The commitment of employees and the whole company need to have to get involved in their firm, community and environment
CONCLUSIONS: what we learnt from this report is that human-social matters are at the top of all this transformation, emphasising the need to find a mission, trust, and value in our enterprises. Life in this world of impressive economic growth and technology advancements is creating a misrepresentation of it. Income inequality, exalted nationalism, and discrepancies relate to diversity, inclusion, fairness, and equity at work, are matters still to be addressed urgently. Business leaders must deal with them in an integrated and strategic way. The culture implied in a Social Enterprise can be the difference.
Dave Food
Subscribe to our emails & exclusive free content.
