Social Innovation Seems To Be Mainstreaming

John Elkington

August 15, 2010

Two articles this week reinforced my growing impression that the social innovation concept, which Volans spotlighted a couple of years back in our tagline ‘The Business of Social Innovation’, is going mainstream rather faster than I had expected.

The first was in The Economist, focusing on how partnerships with social entrepreneurs can help governments to solve some of society’s most intractable problems. Not sure, though, that I would subscribe to the magazine’s assertion that social innovation is largely about innovation in terms of public-private partnerships. I think it goes wider, but will think about it.

The second, this time in Time, provides an update on progress with Danone’s partnership with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, with the production of ‘Shakti Doi’, a nutrient-rich kids’ yoghurt. Grameen Danone is helping break mental barriers within Danone about what is possible – and the technologies and business models could well find wider applications in parts of the world where the conventional Danone business model would struggle to gain traction.