Social Responsibility - A Business Strategy?
Source: MBA Bullet Point, www.mbabulletpoint.com
February 1, 2000

For MBAs hoping to make the world a better place, here's your chance: The Haas Social Venture Business Plan Competition - open to all MBAs with a biz plan. Winners receive $10K thanks to support from Green Mountain Energy and The Men's Wearhouse. Submit your exec summary by Feb 14. Entrants are judged according to standard business metrics and on the social return on their investment.

We'll start a discussion with the first of a 2-part series on social responsibility. Below, Haas: Berkeley student Misha Cornes gives tips on how to have greener careers. In the next issue, two experts explain how cross-sector partnerships can align interests and benefit the common good.

Strategies for incorporating socially responsible practices:

• Find underutilized talent sources. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation educates unskilled, economically disadvantaged youth to become tomorrow's technologists. The idea: investing in training the underprivileged could pay off in the long-run.

• Tap into underserviced markets. Chicago's Shorebank Advisory Services found that one inner city neighborhood had 26% more spending power than the average neighborhood, but residents are forced to go elsewhere to make purchases because of the absence of local businesses.

• Save the world and your stock price in one go. A DuPont plant in NJ achieved $17M in net savings over 4 years by cutting CO2 emissions by 50% and reducing energy use per pound by 1/3. Lockheed built a day-lit, energy-efficient development-and-design facility that saves $300-400K a year. The new higher quality lighting created a better work environment, and helped to raise productivity by 15%.