Collaboration is king
It has long been said that a team can achieve more than an individual acting alone but it is only in more recent years that we have started to see the true potential of this statement when it comes to industry and community collaboration in New Zealand.
As a business, you will know your consumers better than anyone, after all it is your job to do so. You know where they are, what they are doing and why, so the challenge I put to you is – How do you use this knowledge and insight to help create social change?
A great example of this, and one I am personally grateful for as a mother of two young kids, is the Vodafone Parenting in a Digital Age online programme which they have done in partnership with The Parenting Place and Netsafe. Yes, the cynics out there will say Vodafone have done it for purely commercial reasons securing future customers when they come of age but you can’t ignore the more immediate social upsides – educating and empowering parents like me to help prepare my children for the rapidly changing technological world we all live in.
I didn’t grow up with cell phones, Facebook and the “always on” mentality. Thankfully, to date, I haven’t had to cope with being defriended or had videos posted without my knowledge. I have largely learnt by doing and applying some of our more traditional life skills to these new environments. But here is an expert in the form of Vodafone taking time to share what they know to help improve the community they operate in. It is not a silver bullet but they were prepared to take a stance and use their consumer insights for more than just market share and sales.
Looking a little further afield - Starbuck’s have a Farmer Support programme which aims to assist farmers with the overall management of their businesses, Nike’s “Better World” campaign includes an Active School programmes to get kids moving while Cisco (global IT Systems Company) provide technology-related jobs to disadvantaged youth in places like Asia and Africa as part of their commitment to improving the communities they do business in. The list goes on.
Communities have the passion and the power while corporates have the resources and increasingly the desire – what is missing from the puzzle is the strategy to bring it altogether which is where true collaboration can be king.
So what insights do you have that you could share to help improve your community? How could you use your market position to help create social change? A really simple starting point might be sharing more stories about the things you do, not just what you produce or sell on your website or penning a personalised letter to a key stakeholder to show the human side of your organisation. Whatever it is, I encourage you to take a minute to stop and think about what is really important to your community and consumers – you never know what new ideas it might throw up for you and how you could make a real difference.
If you would like some help to brainstorm some ways to create more meaningful connections with your key stakeholders, please contact us on jude@seenandheard.co.nz.
Image courtesy of WIX.