1. Smart maps can help businesses keep track of their social media promises. 2. Smart maps can help businesses better understand their customers. 3. Smart maps can help businesses connect with their customers. 4. Smart maps can help businesses better understand their competition.
Mapping technology and location intelligence can help you measure success and improve your work.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In order to be successful in the era of corporate social responsibility, a new business must address two crucial questions: What need does my product or service fulfill? How does it help society at large?
It's easy to make a promise, harder to keep it. In recent years, companies have been making many vows to do better. Whether a business promises to reduce its carbon footprint, be more equitable in hiring or better serve a group in need, consumers are increasingly demanding more transparency.
Many companies make similar pledges, so it is understandable for the public to be skeptical of corporate commitment to causes. So how can you show that your corporate social responsibility isn't just a marketing strategy and that you're really doing the work?
is a way to learn. 2. Show and tell is a way to share.
It would be easy for that pledge to turn into a platitude. Who would check? However, remote sensor monitoring has become so advanced, that regularly updated satellite imagery honed in on a specific location for planting would show the work is indeed happening. Those images could be posted publicly for consumers to see and shared with important stakeholders.
The technique has also been adopted by organizations that want validation that their suppliers are acting responsibly, including not contributing to deforestation. That's what one refiner of palm oil did. By monitoring its suppliers' farming practices, the refiner could ensure they weren't harming any forests and preserve their reputation as a responsible source of the ingredient. The results are mapped and presented quarterly on easy-to-read dashboards for the public.
The geographic approach of mapping this information gives people the necessary context of where products are sourced.
2. Go to the place where you are needed.
What problem are you solving? This question can also be applied to doing social good. One company noticed that during large-scale emergencies, public safety and first responders were working separately and were using data and systems that couldn't be shared or communicated with one another. So, the company created a solution that put valuable emergency-response information on a shared map, which could be prepopulated with data about the affected community. This helped to put everyone on the same page when the need arose.
The company focused on its skill set and doing what it does best to assist. Recognizing your organization's specific talents can be the first step in determining what problem you can help solve during a community crisis and keep you from becoming overwhelmed.
There is a lot of truth to this statement. Working smarter means finding ways to do things more efficiently and effectively. It can mean finding shortcuts or using technology to your advantage. It can also mean working on tasks that are more important and less time-consuming.
Basic needs, including access to food, have been stretched thin between health crises and natural disasters. In 2020, the need for food aid across the United States rose by as much as 500%. Community aid groups and food banks are struggling to keep up with the demand.
The American Red Cross, with support from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation, built the Disaster Partner Hub to coordinate emergency responses among more than 70 relief organizations. The site is accessible online, anytime and from anywhere, and it means groups do not overlap in their relief efforts and can focus on where there is a need specific to each organization's offering.
There's also a lesson here for entrepreneurs looking to do good: Focus on your strengths without trying to be everything to everybody and partner with like-minded companies and business leaders. If you're in the clothing industry, use leftover fabric to make blankets or cloth masks to distribute when needed. The key is knowing where to go. Organizations with similar philanthropic goals could set up a shared line of communication much like the Red Cross's Disaster Partner Hub that's mobilized when needed to show who is doing what, and where. See the same need, the same goal and the path to get there — in one collaborative place.
Look for markets that are not being served well and could use your product or service.
In 2020, corporate donations aimed at supporting anti-racism causes surged. However, another way businesses can do their part to combat systemic problems is to proactively set out to reverse them. Areas that have traditionally been underserved by banks and full-service grocery stores - financial and food deserts that trace their lack of services to historic redlining - can be ripe for an ethical, entrepreneurial enterprise.
It takes smart maps to understand an area's residents and what they need, like building up a record of credit or better transportation networks to access grocery stores and banks. In the case of banking deserts, financial institutions can use location-intelligence tools to visualize where inequities exist. It isn't charity. It's good business to reach out to an untapped market while simultaneously serving the community's needs. The potential isn't limited to banking. Socially conscious businesses can pinpoint communities that may be lacking vital resources by layering social-equity data on maps showing what is (or rather, isn't) available, like sidewalks. Local neighborhood paths can be taken for granted, but at least one startup is focused on mapping their accessibility and walkability — two features that can greatly improve a community's quality of life.
People often believe what they see, regardless of their role in the company. Smart maps and the location intelligence they offer can show tangible proof of a company's social good initiatives, revealing that promises are being fulfilled.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In order to be successful in the era of corporate social responsibility, a new business must address two crucial questions: What need does my product or service fulfill? How does it help society at large?
It's easy to make a promise, harder to keep it. In recent years, companies have been making many vows to do better. Whether a business promises to reduce its carbon footprint, be more equitable in hiring or better serve a group in need, consumers are increasingly demanding more transparency.
Many companies make similar pledges, so it is understandable for the public to be skeptical of corporate commitment to causes. So how can you show that your corporate social responsibility isn't just a marketing strategy and that you're really doing the work?
is a way to learn. 2. Show and tell is a way to share.
It would be easy for that pledge to turn into a platitude. Who would check? However, remote sensor monitoring has become so advanced, that regularly updated satellite imagery honed in on a specific location for planting would show the work is indeed happening. Those images could be posted publicly for consumers to see and shared with important stakeholders.
The technique has also been adopted by organizations that want validation that their suppliers are acting responsibly, including not contributing to deforestation. That's what one refiner of palm oil did. By monitoring its suppliers' farming practices, the refiner could ensure they weren't harming any forests and preserve their reputation as a responsible source of the ingredient. The results are mapped and presented quarterly on easy-to-read dashboards for the public.
The geographic approach of mapping this information gives people the necessary context of where products are sourced.
2. Go to the place where you are needed.
What problem are you solving? This question can also be applied to doing social good. One company noticed that during large-scale emergencies, public safety and first responders were working separately and were using data and systems that couldn't be shared or communicated with one another. So, the company created a solution that put valuable emergency-response information on a shared map, which could be prepopulated with data about the affected community. This helped to put everyone on the same page when the need arose.
The company focused on its skill set and doing what it does best to assist. Recognizing your organization's specific talents can be the first step in determining what problem you can help solve during a community crisis and keep you from becoming overwhelmed.
There is a lot of truth to this statement. Working smarter means finding ways to do things more efficiently and effectively. It can mean finding shortcuts or using technology to your advantage. It can also mean working on tasks that are more important and less time-consuming.
Basic needs, including access to food, have been stretched thin between health crises and natural disasters. In 2020, the need for food aid across the United States rose by as much as 500%. Community aid groups and food banks are struggling to keep up with the demand.
The American Red Cross, with support from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation, built the Disaster Partner Hub to coordinate emergency responses among more than 70 relief organizations. The site is accessible online, anytime and from anywhere, and it means groups do not overlap in their relief efforts and can focus on where there is a need specific to each organization's offering.
There's also a lesson here for entrepreneurs looking to do good: Focus on your strengths without trying to be everything to everybody and partner with like-minded companies and business leaders. If you're in the clothing industry, use leftover fabric to make blankets or cloth masks to distribute when needed. The key is knowing where to go. Organizations with similar philanthropic goals could set up a shared line of communication much like the Red Cross's Disaster Partner Hub that's mobilized when needed to show who is doing what, and where. See the same need, the same goal and the path to get there — in one collaborative place.
Look for markets that are not being served well and could use your product or service.
In 2020, corporate donations aimed at supporting anti-racism causes surged. However, another way businesses can do their part to combat systemic problems is to proactively set out to reverse them. Areas that have traditionally been underserved by banks and full-service grocery stores - financial and food deserts that trace their lack of services to historic redlining - can be ripe for an ethical, entrepreneurial enterprise.
It takes smart maps to understand an area's residents and what they need, like building up a record of credit or better transportation networks to access grocery stores and banks. In the case of banking deserts, financial institutions can use location-intelligence tools to visualize where inequities exist. It isn't charity. It's good business to reach out to an untapped market while simultaneously serving the community's needs. The potential isn't limited to banking. Socially conscious businesses can pinpoint communities that may be lacking vital resources by layering social-equity data on maps showing what is (or rather, isn't) available, like sidewalks. Local neighborhood paths can be taken for granted, but at least one startup is focused on mapping their accessibility and walkability — two features that can greatly improve a community's quality of life.
People often believe what they see, regardless of their role in the company. Smart maps and the location intelligence they offer can show tangible proof of a company's social good initiatives, revealing that promises are being fulfilled.
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