[Note to presenter: enter your name, title/position, organization, date.]Social innovation may be defined as the implementation of new ideas and strategies aimed at solving complex problems in areas such as education, healthcare, and economic development. Intel encourages and fosters social innovation by empowering individuals, sharing our expertise, applying our technology, and partnering with others who share our goals. Through social innovation, we are helping to transform economies and improve people’s lives around the world.
Throughout Intel’s history, we have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible to dramatically improve how people work, live, communicate, and play. Our vision for the next decade is even more ambitious: to create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.Social innovation is the enabler of Intel’s vision. We encourage and enable social innovation that helps us achieve our corporate strategic goals of: Caring for our people: We empower our employees to be actively engaged in communities around the world. We encourage them to partner with communities to share their experience, time, and resources to address local needs. Caring for our planet: We integrate concern for the environment into every aspect of our business. Inspiring the next generation: We serve as a trusted advisor to governments and educators around the world to help improve education quality and technology access to enable tomorrow’s innovators, drive social innovation, and promote entrepreneurship.
As a leading technology company, Intel’s success depends on innovation. Similarly, we believe that innovation is critical to improving social conditions and advancing economic growth worldwide. At Intel, we focus our social innovation strategy in three key areas:Empowering social entrepreneurs: We create and invest in programs designed to give social entrepreneurs the skills and resources they need to address community issues and create sustainable enterprises. These programs include business plan competitions, entrepreneurship curriculum, and university seminars designed to help engineering, science, and business faculty to build entrepreneurship programs. Transforming ideas into technology solutions: We provide training and consultation for innovators developing products and technologies to address social challenges. Our goal is to support the creation of sustainable social businesses that address local needs, and to scale replicable technology solutions globally. Building the ecosystem: We take a systemic approach to social innovation, building collaborative relationships with NGOs, governments, development agencies, social entrepreneurs, and other technology companies to enhance our understanding of critical needs, share our expertise in applying technology solutions, and leverage other Intel programs and resources. [Note to presenter: Incorporate local examples, programs, and partners.]
Intel partnered with NetHope and Catholic Relief Services to use technology to help eradicate diseases that attack cassava, an important cash crop in East Africa. Field workers equipped with ruggedized laptop PCs work with farmers to map and record the presence of the crop diseases across the region. The laptops also enable farmers to share information on isease prevention and other farming practices. To date, the project has resulted in an information management model affecting over 7 million people.