MODULE 4 - Co-Creation Part I: Leveraging Shared Value

A single business, government or social sector entity is simply not equipped to tackle today’s complex world challenges alone, finding the solutions requires a diversity of perspective, approach, and capability.  Co-creation is a collaborative process where players from across different sectors – such as companies, social sector organizations, financial institutions, or government bodies – come together to co-design and co-implement new or improved products and services that address essential needs of underserved populations. In this module, you will explore co-creation between corporate employees and social entrepreneurs and apply your learning by helping to give constructive feedback to early-stage co-creation ideas.

1) Consider: What Corporates & Nonprofits Gain

Throughout the course, we will look at how and why all organizations benefit from becoming more intrapreneurial. Some of the most powerful gains are made when for-profit companies and mission-driven individuals or organizations are able to co-create social intrapreneurial initiatives together.

In this Harvard Business Review article,“A New Alliance for Global Change”, Ashoka founder Bill Drayton and Valeria Budinich explore the “win-win-win” proposition of profits, knowledge, and talent within public-private partnerships.

Read: A New Alliance for Global Change

2) Co-Creation Activity

In Modules 4 and 5, apply your learning by providing feedback to real-world co-creation projects currently in the works. We’re featuring finalists from our “Co-Creating a Healthier World” challenge. Through this activity, you’ll have a chance to review real-world Co-Creation proposals spearheaded by health innovators in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim employees. Please note, this is a practice exercise as these entries were submitted as part of a global challenge on co-creation in 2015. This practice exercise will provide you with insight into the life cycle of the co-creation process. This may even inspire you to develop your own co-creation idea!

For Module 4, we’ll look specifically at projects that have a connection with this week’s theme on “Leveraging Shared Value”.

Follow These Three Steps to Complete the Co-Creation Activity:

1) Visit the Co-Creation Feedback Forum “Leveraging Shared Value”.

2) Click on a project title that interests you, and then follow the link to that project entry. Focus on the information listed under the “Secondary Entry Form,” the last listed section near the bottom of the page.

3) Share your evaluation of the project in the ‘Leveraging Shared Value’ Forum discussion thread. We recommend that you think about Ashoka’s criteria – innovation, impact, and financial sustainability.

We expect this activity to take 30 minutes to complete. We suggest you focus on evaluating one project entry only but you are welcome to explore additional projects.

4) Discussion Question

Corporates, non-profits, and social entrepreneurs differ in many ways. What unique skills, assets or attitudes do each have that the others can benefit from through partnership?

 

5) Want to dig deeper?

For more in-depth case studies of companies achieving social and business impact in the medical devices and pharmaceutical industries read the excerpt from “Competing by Saving Lives: How Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Companies Create Shared Value in Global Health,” written by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter.

Elective Reading: Shared Value Opportunities in Global Health