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The shop fronts lining the Davos promenade at this year’s 50^th "The World Economic Forum" all carried the same message. Each sign read like a manifesto for change: highlighting either impact, a social mission or the environment. This year marks a huge shift in awareness compared to the last ten years I have been attending. While it has always been the mission of the World Economic Forum “to improve the state of the world”, topics related to society and the environment were always an afterthought for the participating CEOs. But is it just marketing? A kneejerk reaction to the Thunberg-effect and the devasting images of the Australian bushfires? Or is the message that capitalism needs reform really getting through to powerful executives?

Enlightened CEOs know that to survive as a modern business, companies need to contribute to the world rather than just extracting from it. They also know that they can’t make empty promises: Siemens’s Joe Kaeser demonstrated in recent weeks how PR disasters can occur when CEOs overcommit on societal topics yet underdeliver. The question that remains for these executives, then, is how do we move from announcements into action? 

There is a clear path forward: it’s called social business. This is a new type of business 100 % dedicated to solving social or environmental problems and reinvesting its profits. After setting up the Grameen Bank to provide microloans for the poor in Bangladesh, our chairman Prof. Muhammad Yunus coined the term “social business”. Working with the poor gave him a huge insight into the many problems they face, so every time he confronted a problem, he created a business to solve it. Businesses are naturally organized to achieve concrete goals - to provide goods or services that people need and want. Social business uses the productivity of a business and pivots it into a force for good. A great example is the Indian social business Rang Sutra which produces beautiful fabrics and clothes. The business trains and employs over 2500 female artisans with a cooperative model that empowers employees with higher wages and decision-making power.

But how does this fit with the large corporations that until now have existed to maximize shareholder profits? At Yunus Social Business - together with partners at the WEF’s Schwab Foundation, INSEAD, and Porticus - we recently conducted an ambitious study to analyze how corporations could themselves start social businesses or work together with them. We were able to identify more than 200 Corporate Social Intrapreneurship initiatives and interview more than 50 social intrapreneurs at leading blue-chip giants such as IKEA, Novartis, and Renault.

A social intrapreneur drives tangible internal change in a company by creating an example - a north star - for doing business differently. More than 60 % of the respondents of our research said that a concrete example of social business in their company changes mindsets and kicks off a more fundamental transformation. So in this way, social intrapreneurship initiatives help companies act themselves into a new way of thinking and as a whole contribute more to society.

While addressing important societal problems, we found through our research that social intrapreneurship also internally motivates employees and improves their skill sets. The generation entering today’s workforce is increasingly focused on working for purpose-driven businesses, so we even see social businesses as the new secret weapon in attracting and retaining talent.

Business is the most pervading force in our society, the most productive and effective way of achieving a goal. So we, as a business community, have a responsibility, not just to hang signs proclaiming it’s time for a change, but to start acting. It’s no longer a choice, but a necessity.

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To be read also in the dossier "Social Business": 

• A business of a different kind
• Companies with social added value  
  
• Four ways to boost social business in large companies
• Eight Societal Challenges in Luxembourg