Words: jane Simms Illustration: Paul Thurlby

Social intrapreneurs, who launch large-scale community projects from inside bigbusinesses, are being hailed as the newwave in CSR, But practical economic andcultural obstacles stand in their path

Innovation'snewfrontier

ib Bulloch was working as a manager in Accenture's strategy con-sulting practice back in 1999 when he experienced what he de-scribes as his "crucible moment". "I came across an article in theFinancial Times saying that VSO were looking for individuals withbusiness skills to volunteer in developing countries," he recalls. "Ihad thought that development [work] was only for doctors, nursesand teachers, not businesspeople like me."

Bulloch had been working for Accenture for a number of years,enjoyed the job and was on track for promotion. "But I wanted a bit ofmeaning in my life." He got it very quickly. Within a week, he hadorganised a year-long secondment to a VSO enterprise developmentproject in Macedonia. He swapped London's high-pressure businessenvironment for learning a new alphabet and singing Macedonianfolk songs with his host family. But rather than getting the need formeaning out of his system, the experience prompted him to thinkabout how Accenture could replicate the help he was providing on an"industrial" scale and bring consultancy services to areas of the worldand types ofbusinesses that had historically been denied them.

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LEADERSHIP

The result was Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP),launched in 2003 to offer high-quality business and technologyconsultancy to NGOs and donor organisations at an affordableprice. Current projects include supporting an international, cbild-focused NGO to improve its financial reporting and businessplanning; helping another major intemai:ional NGO improve itssupply chain management; and helping to tr.ansfer the knowledge andbest practice of another NGO's microfin;mce programme acrossseveral African countries.

But ADP is not about charity or philanttiropy. Initially conceivedas a talent recruitment and development tool—high flyers take a 50per cent cut in their salary to do a six-month secondment, whichBuUoch describes as "a mini-MBA"—it makes business sense.

"There is a demonstrable effeet on our recruitment andretention, but ADP is having a positive effect on our brand and ourreputation, too. We are also gaining useful first-hand experience of theemerging markets where our clients are going. We don't aim to

"IIUTRAPREIMEURS AREMAVERICKS AIUD THEREFOREREPRESENT A RELATIVELY SMALLSLICE OF THE BUSINESSPOPULATIOIM. SO THEY WILLALWAYS BE IIM THE STATISTICALBACKGROUND NOISE"

make a profit, but all these things are helping us move towards aposition ofbeing cost-neutral."

The success of ADP is the result of BuUoch turning thetraditional business model on its head, making a strong businesscase and winning senior sponsorship and colleagues' support.

Bulloch exemplifies what sustainable development consultancySustainAbility has identified as a new breed of "social intrapre-neurs". The corporate equivalent of social entrepreneurs—peoplewho set up businesses specifically to benefit a social orenvironmental cause—they develop innovative solutions to majorsocial and environmental problems from inside tbe business. Aswell as having a keen entrepreneurial bent and a strong socialconscience, tbey are company "players", their networks andpolitical savvy matched by tact, teamwork, persuasion and patience.They bring projects to life through skilful manipulation ofthe latestintellectual and financial capital within their organisations.

A new guide. The Social Intrapreneur: A Field Cuide for CorporateChange-makers, co-produced by SustainAbility, innovation anddesign consultancy IDEO, insurer Allian:i and tbe Skoll Founda-tion, showcases the wide range of work being done by a variety of

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LEADERSHIP

"CORPORATERESPOniSIBÍLlTYIS LARGELY ABOUTRISK MANAGEIVIEniT.WHILE SOCIALIIMTRAPRENEURSHIPIS ABOUTRISK TAKING"

social intrapreneurs in multinational corporations. The commoncharacteristic linking all of them is a passion for driving socialchange through business in a way that generates long-term valuefor both their companies and communities.

The examples include Dan Vermeer, who, until recently, worked atCoca-Cola on water sustainability and other environmentalchallenges; Orlando Ayala at Microsoft, who is helping to deliverrelevant, accessible and affi rdable technology solutions to what he calls"the next five billion" people around the world; Santiago Gowland, whois driving sustainability thinking across Unilever's brands; andKerryn Schrank, who, until recently, headed BP's "targetneutral"campaign to encourage drivers to reduce petrol use.

But there are brakes on the development of social intrapreneur-ship. For a start, social innovators (unsurprisingly, given the qualitiesrequired) are a rare breed. What's more, they're difficult to spot: theycan be anywhere in the corporation; there's no set route to socialintrapreneurship.

By contrast. Bob Annibale, who launched Citi's global microfi-nance initiative, came to social intrapreneurship via 20 years capitalmarkets' experience in Europe, Middle East and Africa, culminatingin the role of senior treasury risk officer for Citigroup.

"I never thought of myself as a social intrapreneur and that's nothow I label what we do," says Annibale. "It is about disruptive innovationand changing the paradigm of a defined landscape. I don't useemotive language: I don't talk about 'beneficiaries' but aboutserving the needs of a new client sector."

Nick Hughes, meanwhile, who pioneered a mobile payment ofièringfor Vodafone customers in Kenya and Afghanistan, has been interestedin sustainable development since he trained as an environmentalscientist. His interest was fostered at BP where he was involved inLord Browne's pioneering corporate emissions tradingprogramme, and he joined the corporate affairs department atVodafone in 2001 specifically to think about ways of using mobileproducts and services to effect social change.

But although the result^—the M-PESA—was conceived in corpo-rate affairs, Hughes moved it into "the factory" of the marketingdepartment to launch it. "It needed to be in the engine room ofthecompany, and we subsequently moved it into global businessdevelopment, where it now sits as a separate business unit with its ownrevenue target, profit and loss account and so on,"he says.

Hughes, like Annibale and Bulloch, was very keen that the newventure should sit neither at the "philanthropic" and the corporateresponsibility end ofthe business nor the main business activityend, but should straddle the two. This points to another potential

Characteristics of aSocial IntrapreneurThey are integrators, problem solven and facilitators

They are both tactical and strategic, independent and goadteam ptayers, far-sighted and practical, driven but patient

They are poUticalty sawy and tactful and utilisewide networks of contacts at all levels withinthe organisation

They build and inspire teams across differentcorporate divisions

They communicate social entrepreneuirship incompelling business terms

They successfuUy navigate corporate culture, strategyand processes

They are more ambitious for social change than .for personal wealth or advancement

They are willing and able to take risks, inciuding movingacross and between organisations and sectors in orderto realise their vision

They readily adapt to new circumstances andregularly scan the horizon for new ways to solvesocietal challenges

They operate at the interface between business valuecreation and societal value creation

Source: The Social intiapraneur A field guide for corpcrace changemak/ersIpubll5hed by SustainAbillcy. IDEO, the Bholl Foundation ana Allianz!

October 2008 Directar.co.uli

problem for social intrapreneurship: it is an innovative model thatmany top managers struggle to come to terms with; unlike manyCSR programmes, which can be compliance-driven, it's oftenregarded as "pro-active" and more authentic.

"Corporate responsibility is largely about risk management,while social intrapreneurship is about risk taking," says Bulloch."ADP is a bit of a guerrilla movement within Accenture because itwas dreamt up by a group of individuals who wanted to do some-thing different rather than being imposed from tbe top down."

Bullocb has contributed close to half a million dollars in grosssalary over the past six years to the venture, with others in the ADPmanagement team making similar financial commitments. "It's al-most like a 'social management buyout' of part of tbe business,"he says.

The business case for social innovation has to be watertight,particularly in today's difficult economic conditions. Says Hughes: "Itis too easy to go back to 'business as usual'. You need tbe support of top-level champions to mitigate against tbat"

Former cbief executive Arun Sarin was a big supporter of whatHughes was trying to do, as was former Accenture chairman VemonEllis of Bulloch's venture. "The new chief executive of our consul-tancy business is also a big fan, and bis role now is to take the wrapsoffADP and let us take it to a new level in Accenture," says Bullocb.

"SOCIALINTRAPRENEURSHIPIS ABOUT DISRUPTIVEiniiUOVATION ANDCHANGING THEPARADIGM OF ADEFINED LANDSCAPE"

Yet, ironically, too much management attention in the early dayscan snuff out these sorts of social innovations, and both Bullocband Hughes talk about the importance of"air cover" to getting theirventures off the ground.

Bulloch explains: "Most big businesses are risk-averse andfocused on delivering quarterly results and protecting tbeir brand. Also,most of our policies and procedures are set up for large multi-milliondollar client deals, outsourcing arrangements and so on. So we wereflying in the face of all tbat is big, safe, commercial, developed and soon. ADP needed to break policies and rules at least once a week or wewouldn't bave been doing ourjob right."

And Hughes got his venture off the ground by tapping into socialinvestment funding. "We were launching 3G at tbe time, so I knew itwould be difficult to get internal funding—and even if we did, itwould be difficult to meet our usual steep return-on-investmentcriteria. Getting this seed funding allowed us to step outside thebusiness and get on with developing and piloting tbe concept in a veryquiet way before we brought back a firm proposition and a strongbusiness case."

So what's the future for social intra preneur ship? John Elldngton,founder and chief entrepreneur at SustainAbihty, believes companiesshould try to give employees space and permission to think about social

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LEADERSHIP

innovations, and then mentor, coach and support the most promis-ing intrapreneurs and initiatives. "They might need to select projectswith the coldness of a venture capitalist and build a portfolio ofprojects with different levels of risk, accepting that some of themare bound to fail," he says.

But he is also realistic. "Intrapreneurs are mavericks and thereforerepresent a relatively small slice of the business population. So theywill always be in the statistical background noise." And bigbusinesses are not, he says, going to start becoming less risk-averse anytime soon.

He thinks the biggest value social intrapreneurs can bring lies intheir potential to link up with social entrepreneurs. He says socialintrapreneurs could be a crucial gateway into major businessesinterested in addressing tbe challenges the entrepreneurs are tack-ling. There seems to be a will to co-operate from both sides. Bullochsays; "Companies need to identify their own internal talent andinnovators and mavericks, but they could also encourage innova-tion ñroin the outside in. If we can get big organisations to movejustone per cent, that could have a huge effect"

And Reed Paget, founder and managing director of social enterpriseBelu Water, says: "The more enlightened people there are whorecognise that the planet needs better management, the better.

Some companies do things better because they are fteet of foot andresponsive, while others achieve through the magnitude of theresources they have at their disposal. They can be verycomplementary."

Belu Water, the UK's first carbon-neutral bottled water, divertsall its profits into funding clean water projects around the world. Itscorn-based bottle is biodegradable and compostable. "We are notbig enough to have invested the hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of investment it needed to develop that," says Paget. "It wasdone by a giant corporation. There is lots of si:ope for social enterprisesand big businesses to work together to further the same agenda."

Mark Goyder, director of business-led think tank Tomorrow'sCompany, believes social intrapreneurship is a potentially impor-tant player in a new landscape where the barriers between the private,public and third sectors are being broken down. "We are movingaway from the old reductionist idea that there is commerce on one sideand doing good on the other," he says. "Companies shouldn't becriticised for trying to make money out of being responsible.Indeed, it is the best way of making their social innovations andtheir own businesses sustainable. Development leads to moresustainable communities and more sustainable businesses and soon and so on. It's a virtuous circle." •

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