Four ways inclusive businesses can benefit from social impact data
Nairobi in Kenya, where Access Afya operates its micro-clinics. Photograph: Tom Cockrem/Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images
By Yunzhong Cheng, Data Management Consultant, Business Call to Action
Business Call to Action is helping companies to map out results in order to assess the scale of their social impact
The Business Call to Action (BCtA) launched four case studies from its BCtA Impact Measurement Services (BIMS) initiative in September 2016. These case studies document BCtA’s customised approach to assisting inclusive business members Mahindra Rural Housing Finance (pdf), Empower Pragati (pdf), ¡Échale! A Tu Casa (pdf) and Access Afya (pdf) in measuring their social impact and operational performance.
With the data collected through BIMS, these companies can:
Improve product and service development
Market the social value of their products and services more effectively
Inform strategic decision-making
Communicate their social impact
Inclusive businesses provide solutions that have the potential to solve many social, economic and environmental challenges affecting people at the base of economic pyramid (BoP). It is therefore critical to assess the scale of their social impact – beginning with the number of individuals they are reaching. While this can be measured simply by tracking operational figures such as number of products and services sold or delivered, number of people employed, or number of suppliers, the question is: should they stop there? Can companies go beyond basic operational outputs to increase their long-term social impact?
Empower Pragati in India is one of the early adopters of BCtA’s Impact Measurement Services Photograph: Business Call to Action
To answer this question, BCtA guides companies in mapping out their entire results chains to link their activities to intended social impact. To test companies’ assumptions about how they will achieve long-term impact and understand where to make changes that improve these impact areas, it is essential for companies to collect data on relevant activities and resulting social outcomes. One example of this relates to Empower Pragati, a vocational training company in India implementing the country’s National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF). The data this company collected through BIMS show that a majority of high-school students in the programme would like to pursue some employment after finishing the course, but a significant number expressed their interest in pursuing further studies either full-time or through distance learning. This data can help Empower Pragati and India’s government to address the gap between labour-market demand and student needs.
In addition, social impact data can help companies identify new areas of potential impact and incorporate them into marketing strategies. This is because the data not only shows the impact of a particular product or service, but tells something about customers themselves – who they are, what their priorities are, why they make certain purchase decisions, and how they use the products or services.
By better understanding customers, companies can more effectively market the social value of their products or services. For instance, Mahindra is a financial services company providing home loans in rural India. Initial BIMS survey results showed that while its customers have increased access to finance as a result of its services, they still lack the awareness to invest their loans in water and sanitation facilities. Mahindra’s newly developed marketing materials have already emphasised the importance of installing clean water and sanitation to customers’ health and wellbeing.
Social impact data analysis can also inform strategic and operational decision-making. BCtA works with member companies to develop indicators that go beyond reporting and communication to strategy-setting. For example, Access Afya, a social enterprise operating micro-clinics in Nairobi’s slums, is identifying new sites for three additional clinics. BCtA helped the company to develop surveys measuring key decision-making metrics including accessibility, costs and quality of existing healthcare services in the new sites. With this critical information, Access Afya was able to assess its potential for impact, which will inform its strategic decisions on expansion.
Finally, BCtA helps member companies to map their indicators and survey questions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By doing so, companies are able to use the global sustainable development agenda as a common language to communicate more effectively to stakeholders about their social contributions for branding, partnership and investment. Participating company ¡Échale! A Tu Casa has presented its contributions to the SDGs to potential investors. And in the meantime, while the company previously focused on five SDGs, it has established a strategic plan to address all 17 through its work to identify more business opportunities.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Business Call to Action, sponsor of the The Guardian Business and the Sustainable Development Goals Hub