Corporate Impact Strategies

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
	Lisa Hehenberger	Dirección General y Estrategia	ENG

CONTENT

1. Session 1: Introduction to corporate impact strategies In this session we will get to know each other and set the basis for the course. I will introduce you to the core concepts, including social impact, social entrepreneurship, impact investing and corporate impact strategies. To understand the concept of social impact, we will start by exploring examples of social enterprises that generate social impact through different business models. Finally, we will go through key aspects of the course such as structure, contents, grading as well as cases and tasks. Required preparation: 1. Read the Elkington & Hartigan (2008) article and submit a short individual response to the guiding questions on Moodle. ¿ Elkington, J. and Hartigan, P. (2008). Creating Successful Business Models. Lessons from Social Entrepreneurship. In The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
2. Session 2: Generating social impact through social entrepreneurship To understand social impact, it is fundamental to begin by setting the objectives of what a social enterprise is trying to achieve. This may appear an intuitively simple task but in practice there is often confusion. In this session, we will debate the meaning of impact and how developing a theory of change is a fundamental first step in understanding how to achieve impact. In order to better understand the concept of social impact and what it means to invest in a social enterprise, we will also analyze the social enterprise case La Fageda. Required preparation: 1. Read the La Fageda case and submit a group response to the case guiding questions. ¿ Vernis, Alfred; Lamolla, Laura and Arenas, Daniel: ¿La Fageda (A): a social enterprise¿ and ¿La Fageda (B): Scaling a social enterprise¿ SEKN Case SKE119. Boston, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2009.
3. Session 3: Corporate Impact Strategies ¿ how Corporates can generate social impact Large corporates often find it difficult to be innovative, and have experimented with different organizational structures to better tap into and leverage innovations. For social innovation, the situation is similar. Building on our acquired knowledge about social impact and social entrepreneurship, we will look at why corporates are exploring how to have a positive and proactive impact on society. Subsequently, we will outline the prevalent corporate impact strategies, and start discussing the first one: Inclusive Business Strategies. Required preparation: ¿ Read Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth (pages 1-37) and submit a short (2-3 pages) individual response to the following guiding questions: 1. What are the main reasons why corporates are engaging in social impact strategies? 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages for a corporation to implement an Inclusive Business strategy? ¿ Varga, E. ¿Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth¿. EVPA Knowledge Centre, 2015.
4. Session 4: Corporate Impact Venturing and Strategically aligned Corporate Philanthropy In a very business minded-fashion, a few corporations are pursuing value creation through Corporate Impact Venturing (CIV). Similar to Corporate Venturing, CIV offers discrete pools of capital or investment funds, which seek access to innovations that they would not be able to obtain internally, through external exposure. Using the Danone case, we will explore how corporations invest in innovations that aim to serve emerging markets or lower-income populations, seeing these customers as the upcoming middle class and/or a lower margin/higher volume incremental business. Furthermore, corporate foundations can be powerful social innovation tools for corporations use their foundations strategically, aligning their objectives with those of the core business. Such corporations use the foundations to invest in creating long-term value and pilot ideas that take much longer to develop and/or are riskier than what the mother company is willing to take. In this session, we will use the C&A Foundation case to explore how corporations can build strategically aligned foundations. Once (and if) the foundation¿s investments show commercial viability, they can be handed over to the business (or sometimes the whole industry) to ¿make the whole pie bigger or better¿. We will also hear from a guest speaker in this class. Required preparation: ¿ Read Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth (pages 38-52) and submit a short (2-3 pages) individual response to the guiding questions: 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages to a corporation of using Corporate Impact Venturing? 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages to a corporation of using Strategically Aligned Corporate Philanthropy? ¿ Varga, E. ¿Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth¿. EVPA Knowledge Centre, 2015.
5. Session 5: Investing in social impact By now, we have learned how social entrepreneurs set up their enterprises to offer a solution to a social problem. Their goal is to change the situation or at least alleviate the problem, i.e. to have an impact on society. We will now start looking at how to generate social impact in other ways. In this session, we will look at how to invest in enterprises run by social entrepreneurs, i.e. how to be an impact investor. Impact investors seek to generate environmental and social impacts in addition to financial returns. Together, we will look at the impact investment process and highlight the importance of impact and the measurement thereof. Using the Acumen Fund case study, we will study the key elements underpinning the concept of impact investing and analyze two potential investments from the perspective of an impact investment fund. Acumen is a non-profit that raises charitable donations to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty. Acumen was founded by Jacqueline Novogratz, who has been the Chief Executive Officer even since. More information: http://acumen.org/ Required preparation: ¿ Prepare the Acumen Fund case and submit a group response to the case guiding questions: 1. If you were Brian Trelstad, would you recommend to the investment committee that Acumen invest in Ecotact, Meridia, both, or none? Use the Capabilities Assessment Matrix (Exhibit 9) as the foundation for your analysis. You may also use other criteria that you think are pertinent. 2. What is Acumen Fund trying to achieve? What is its value-add? ¿ Ebrahim, A. and Kasturi Rangan, V.: ¿Acumen Fund Measurement in Impact Investing¿. Boston, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2011.
6. Session 6: Impact Investing by a Bank ¿ leveraging the resources and skill sets In this session, we will discuss the current and potential role of banks within the social impact investment marketplace; how banks are currently engaging with venture philanthropy and impact investment; what the drivers, challenges, and benefits are for engaging as well as practical strategies for getting involved. We will hear from a guest speaker, and you will present the bank strategies you have prepared. Finally, we will wrap up the course and discuss our main key take-aways. Required preparation: 1. Read pages 36-78 in the publication Social Impact Strategies for Banks. Choose one of the featured banks and investigate further: What are the core features of its strategy? Has the bank developed anything new since the 2014 when the publication came out? Are there any signs that the strategy has changed? Please come prepared to share your conclusions with the rest of the class. THIS IS A GROUP EXERCISE - EACH GROUP CHOOSES ONE BANK AND LETS ME KNOW IN ADVANCE! You only need to upload the assignment once per group! ¿ Buckland, L. ¿Social Impact Strategies for Banks ¿ Venture Philanthropy and Social Investment¿. EVPA Knowledge Centre, 2014.

1. Session 1: Introduction to corporate impact strategies

In this session we will get to know each other and set the basis for the course. I will introduce you to the core concepts, including social impact, social entrepreneurship, impact investing and corporate impact strategies.
To understand the concept of social impact, we will start by exploring examples of social enterprises that generate social impact through different business models.
Finally, we will go through key aspects of the course such as structure, contents, grading as well as cases and tasks.

Required preparation:
1. Read the Elkington & Hartigan (2008) article and submit a short individual response to the guiding questions on Moodle.
¿ Elkington, J. and Hartigan, P. (2008). Creating Successful Business Models. Lessons from Social Entrepreneurship. In The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

2. Session 2: Generating social impact through social entrepreneurship

To understand social impact, it is fundamental to begin by setting the objectives of what a social enterprise is trying to achieve. This may appear an intuitively simple task but in practice there is often confusion. In this session, we will debate the meaning of impact and how developing a theory of change is a fundamental first step in understanding how to achieve impact.
In order to better understand the concept of social impact and what it means to invest in a social enterprise, we will also analyze the social enterprise case La Fageda.
Required preparation:
1. Read the La Fageda case and submit a group response to the case guiding questions.
¿ Vernis, Alfred; Lamolla, Laura and Arenas, Daniel: ¿La Fageda (A): a social enterprise¿ and ¿La Fageda (B): Scaling a social enterprise¿ SEKN Case SKE119. Boston, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2009.

3. Session 3: Corporate Impact Strategies ¿ how Corporates can generate social impact

Large corporates often find it difficult to be innovative, and have experimented with different organizational structures to better tap into and leverage innovations. For social innovation, the situation is similar. Building on our acquired knowledge about social impact and social entrepreneurship, we will look at why corporates are exploring how to have a positive and proactive impact on society. Subsequently, we will outline the prevalent corporate impact strategies, and start discussing the first one: Inclusive Business Strategies.

Required preparation:
¿ Read Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth (pages 1-37) and submit a short (2-3 pages) individual response to the following guiding questions:
1. What are the main reasons why corporates are engaging in social impact strategies?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages for a corporation to implement an Inclusive Business strategy?
¿ Varga, E. ¿Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth¿. EVPA Knowledge Centre, 2015.

4. Session 4: Corporate Impact Venturing and Strategically aligned Corporate Philanthropy

In a very business minded-fashion, a few corporations are pursuing value creation through Corporate Impact Venturing (CIV). Similar to Corporate Venturing, CIV offers discrete pools of capital or investment funds, which seek access to innovations that they would not be able to obtain internally, through external exposure. Using the Danone case, we will explore how corporations invest in innovations that aim to serve emerging markets or lower-income populations, seeing these customers as the upcoming middle class and/or a lower margin/higher volume incremental business.
Furthermore, corporate foundations can be powerful social innovation tools for corporations use their foundations strategically, aligning their objectives with those of the core business. Such corporations use the foundations to invest in creating long-term value and pilot ideas that take much longer to develop and/or are riskier than what the mother company is willing to take. In this session, we will use the C&A Foundation case to explore how corporations can build strategically aligned foundations. Once (and if) the foundation¿s investments show commercial viability, they can be handed over to the business (or sometimes the whole industry) to ¿make the whole pie bigger or better¿.

We will also hear from a guest speaker in this class.
Required preparation:
¿ Read Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth (pages 38-52) and submit a short (2-3 pages) individual response to the guiding questions:
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages to a corporation of using Corporate Impact Venturing?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages to a corporation of using Strategically Aligned Corporate Philanthropy?
¿ Varga, E. ¿Corporate Social Impact Strategies ¿ New Paths for Collaborative Growth¿. EVPA Knowledge Centre, 2015.

5. Session 5: Investing in social impact

By now, we have learned how social entrepreneurs set up their enterprises to offer a solution to a social problem. Their goal is to change the situation or at least alleviate the problem, i.e. to have an impact on society. We will now start looking at how to generate social impact in other ways.
In this session, we will look at how to invest in enterprises run by social entrepreneurs, i.e. how to be an impact investor. Impact investors seek to generate environmental and social impacts in addition to financial returns. Together, we will look at the impact investment process and highlight the importance of impact and the measurement thereof. Using the Acumen Fund case study, we will study the key elements underpinning the concept of impact investing and analyze two potential investments from the perspective of an impact investment fund.

Acumen is a non-profit that raises charitable donations to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty. Acumen was founded by Jacqueline Novogratz, who has been the Chief Executive Officer even since. More information: http://acumen.org/

Required preparation:
¿ Prepare the Acumen Fund case and submit a group response to the case guiding questions:
1. If you were Brian Trelstad, would you recommend to the investment committee that Acumen invest in Ecotact, Meridia, both, or none? Use the Capabilities Assessment Matrix (Exhibit 9) as the foundation for your analysis. You may also use other criteria that you think are pertinent.
2. What is Acumen Fund trying to achieve? What is its value-add?
¿ Ebrahim, A. and Kasturi Rangan, V.: ¿Acumen Fund Measurement in Impact Investing¿. Boston, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2011.

6. Session 6: Impact Investing by a Bank ¿ leveraging the resources and skill sets

In this session, we will discuss the current and potential role of banks within the social impact investment marketplace; how banks are currently engaging with venture philanthropy and impact investment; what the drivers, challenges, and benefits are for engaging as well as practical strategies for getting involved. We will hear from a guest speaker, and you will present the bank strategies you have prepared.
Finally, we will wrap up the course and discuss our main key take-aways.

Required preparation:
1. Read pages 36-78 in the publication Social Impact Strategies for Banks. Choose one of the featured banks and investigate further: What are the core features of its strategy? Has the bank developed anything new since the 2014 when the publication came out? Are there any signs that the strategy has changed? Please come prepared to share your conclusions with the rest of the class. THIS IS A GROUP EXERCISE - EACH GROUP CHOOSES ONE BANK AND LETS ME KNOW IN ADVANCE! You only need to upload the assignment once per group!

¿ Buckland, L. ¿Social Impact Strategies for Banks ¿ Venture Philanthropy and Social Investment¿. EVPA Knowledge Centre, 2014.

Methodology

The course encourages active class participation through case studies, practical examples, group exercises in the classroom and a mix of interactive lectures and class discussions.
The first half of the sessions follows a lecture/discussion format. These sessions are devoted to presentation and discussion of frameworks, tools, data that are useful to devise and implement corporate impact strategies. Due to the nature of the topic, the knowledge conveyed is more practical than theoretical and will not be based on any comprehensive textbook. However, there will be assigned readings that will help you be better prepared to more fully grasp the concepts debated in class, and to participate and ask relevant questions. Guest speakers will be invited when possible to contribute their own real-life experience to the discussion.
The second half of the sessions will focus on the analysis and discussion of a practical case or reading, that should be studied and prepared beforehand. Cases intend to give you practice in assembling data, supporting and discussing decisions. You are encouraged to seek evidence for your analysis beyond the case material - from external resources where possible.

Students will be expected to do intensive preparation before each session individuallly and sometimes in groups, as well as to attend ALL classes, since a high proportion of the learning is developed in class. To prepare for each class, you should submit a short individual response to the guiding questions, or a group response to the cases and the final exercise. (Please refer to section 5 - Course Mechanics and Assessment for more details on course requirements).

Assessment criteria

As in other courses, the nature of this course on corporate impact strategies does not lend itself to objective questions; generally there are no "right? or "wrong? answers. There are however, different levels of quality. Grading is a measure of performance (not effort) and is based on the following scale:

Grade Score Evaluation
Grade Score Grade Score
A 10 C 7
A- 9.5 C- 6.5
B+ 9 D 6
B 8.5 D 5.5
B- 8 D- 5
C+ 7.5 F 4.5

Grades will be awarded based on:

45% A. Individual responses to reading questions, and B. Participation in class (especially case studies, classroom exercises, concept discussion and guest-speaker interaction)

55% C. Group responses to case questions and presentation of final exercise

A. Individual responses to reading questions:
As a preparation for each reading discussion you should read and prepare individually the reading and submit a short individual response to the guiding questions. You should be ready to relate the concepts discussed with the specific examples and cases studied.
You are expected to submit your individual responses to the reading questions at the latest 1 hour prior to the beginning of each class.

B. Class participation:
Every student will be expected to attend class, to come prepared, and to participate actively in the discussion. Before class, you should have read the assigned cases, readings, thought critically about the concepts they present and their application to the case or topic of the day, and be prepared to answer the assigned study questions. The best contributions are those that are relevant to the question at hand. They often build on or respond to the observations of others, make links to prior classes, or draw on materials and lessons from other courses. Debates and disagreements can be powerful opportunities for learning. You are encouraged to challenge the views of your classmates and the professor - provided that you do it constructively and politely.

C. Group responses:
As a preparation for each case discussion you should read individually and prepare in groups the case and submit a short group response to the guiding questions. You should be ready to relate the concepts discussed with the specific case studied.
You are expected to submit your group responses to the case questions at the latest 1 hour prior to the beginning of each class, i.e. at 13:00 the same day of that class. The last exercise will also be conducted in groups. For the group responses, each group makes one submission, and all group members are assigned the same grade. At the end of the course, I will conduct a peer evaluation to make sure all group members contribute to the group work as best they can.
This course follows strictly ESADE's code of Honour. If you read or use case solutions from previous years, it would not only harm your learning process but would be considered as a serious violation of the Honour Code and will carry the corresponding disciplinary measures (among them: course failure). The same would happen if you know that someone has done it and you don't inform us. All submissions go through a process of plagiarism detection.

Of course, regular attendance is a must. You cannot participate if you are not there. All classes will start promptly. You will be expected to be on time. Late arrivals can delay the start of class, disrupt the conversation, and are disrespectful to guests, classmates, and me. If you expect to be late for some good reason, please alert me if possible and take a seat in the back of class. Without a compelling excuse, late arrivals will count against your class participation grade. We will have a break some time at or shortly after the halfway point in class. You will be expected to return promptly from all breaks.

Policy for Missed Classes: If for any reason you know you must miss a class, please email me in advance. Considering the limited number of sessions, a missed class will most likely lead to a lower grade, and more than one missed class may hinder you from passing the course.

Type:	OP	Curs:	3	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	2 ECTS

Corporate Impact Strategies (BBA80016)

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Course Learning Objectives