We hear a lot about social business, but little that defines what it is, how it works, and the value it delivers. One of the difficulties in defining a social business model is that they do not conform to a specific market and may have many types of implementations. Consequently, we tend to associate social business only with marketing, product branding, and philanthropic enterprises. While these are all good examples of social business models at work, they implement only limited aspects of what a fully flushed out model can do. In this series of blogs we will explore what defines a social business model, its principles, practices involved, and how embracing these practices can transform your company into a profit engine for good. Social business models redefine how outcomes are achieved by realigning the interests of all the parties involved. Its full adoption brings about a fundamental change in the transactions between these three spheres:
• Corporate internal structures and operational processes.
• Partners.
• Customers. Essentially, social business models create living economies by establishing feedback loops between all the parties involved based on trusted long-term relationships that result in shared revenue streams. When all the players have a stake in the outcome, each looks after the other as their own. A social business does not rely solely on the pursuit of a monetary transaction as an end unto it’s self, but as a means of transmitting and propagating values. Tomorrow's thriving markets are about building value in a bottom-up manner. People will choose companies that support their values and lifestyles. Companies will partner with their customers to crowd source ideas with them in order to develop outstanding products and services that support the values of their customers. In this way, companies will enter into dynamic transformative relationships with their customers that will reorient their views on environmental and social issues to reflect that of their customer base. When customers truly identify themselves with a company's mission, they become much more than just passive consumers. They become a community of active participants. That's what social business is all about and how it creates a profit engine of good!
