1. Mantra for Project Management to drive Social Impact
Pranal Dongare
Assistant Consultant
Tata Consultancy Services

2. Shared Value Creation
A New Age Business Strategy
Nachiket Kawathekar, Pranal Dongare
Title: “Shared Value Creation: The New Age Business Strategy”
Theme: Mantra for Project Management to drive Social Impact
Keywords: Shared Value Creation, Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility
Abstract:
Today, business practices are heavily skewed towards the benefit of the business even as the social
impact, which these practices may have, is largely ignored. Even if few organizations do pay attention
towards the social responsibility, it generally is considered as a non-core activity and thus rendered
irrelevant to the business. Hence, the overall outlook of the society towards the business is that of
distrust and business unit perceives social responsibility as a burden.
However, in reality, the two sides are interdependent for their very existence and growth. Healthy
society needs a competitive business for job and wealth creation and in turn, competitive business
depends on the healthy community to create demand for its product and to provide support for its
overall business environment.
The time has come when the business organization starts thinking about social responsibility as
inherent part of its overall strategy. This means treating the society as “The” stakeholder rather than
“a” stakeholder. The focus should be on the creation of the shared value which will benefit both the
society as well as the business unit.
However to achieve this, we will require a new approach from the business leaders and need to
identify new management practices. This paper deals with some ways in which organizations can
achieve this goal and provides some real world examples of the few organizations which already are
on this path of creating competitive advantage for themselves by focusing on the creation of the
shared value.

3. Contents:
Contents:....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
What is “Shared Value creation”?..............................................................................................4
Four approaches for “Shared Value Creation”...........................................................................5
3.1Solve the problem:............................................................................................................5
3.2Align the Product:..............................................................................................................6
3.3Look Inside:.......................................................................................................................6
3.4Choose The Cause:............................................................................................................7
How “Shared Value Creation” benefits the business?...............................................................7
How “Shared Value Creation” benefits the society?...............................................................10
How can “Shared Value Creation” be incorporated in project management?.......................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13
Author Details...........................................................................................................................13

4. Introduction
Industrial age wisdom of running business was founded on the principle of “profit maximization”. This
resulted in business organizations going all out, all guns blazing against each other with unwavering
focus on getting larger chunk of the pie. Strategy and tactics resembled that of warfare. Each
organization made it a point to kill or cut out the opposition in order to gain the supremacy.
However in all this warfare, bloodbath and throat-cutting an important stakeholder- the “Society”, was
mostly, if not always, ignored by all. Business is not an island and does operate amidst the society
and as we see, the major loser of the battle between the business organizations was not any
organization but it was the “Society”. Cities became cramped, water became polluted, air became
toxic, rich became richer and poor went poorer.
Remember Enron? Union Carbide in Bhopal? These are just a two examples of how unwavering
focus on “profit maximization” by the business organizations led to major catastrophes. History is full
of many such catastrophes which could easily have been avoided if the business organizations had
focused on need of the society in addition to the need of self.
What is “Shared Value creation”?
This brings us to the point of “Shared value creation”. This idea stems from the belief that society is
major stakeholder for the business and is, as said by Jamshetji Tata, the very purpose of its
existence.
“In a free enterprise, community is not only just another stakeholder but the very purpose of
its existence.”
- Jamshetji Tata
The idea is to align the business strategy to create a benefit for both the business organization and
the society. For business these benefits can be more direct like creation of new business opportunity
or sometimes indirect as improvement in brand value. For society this may mean a sustainable option
for existence, greater employment opportunities or improvement in lifestyle.

5. Figure 1: Shared Value
Four approaches for “Shared Value Creation”
The entire idea of shared value creation rests on the axiom of benefit of both. It is not a suggestion of
doing charity or benefitting the society at the cost of business itself. This can never be sustainable and
will end up costing both the parties heavily.
There can be various ways of creating the shared value. We will try to present a few of them along
with the real world example for each one:
3.1Solve the problem:
Nobel laureate Muhammad Younus, during his research, acknowledged the need of the skilled poor
for the source of a loan to make their living. Mainstream financial institutions were not designed to
provide the loans to the poor who can’t provide any collateral. The negative outlook of these
institutions kept the poor out of the financial inclusion and he had no way to come out of the rut of
poverty and become independent financially. This very problem faced by the society- the need of the
poor for the credit, became the business opportunity for the Grammen Bank. Grameen Bank was
found on the principle that loans are better than the charity to interrupt poverty. They offer people the
opportunity to take initiatives in business and agriculture and pay off the loan.
The similar kind of innovation and awareness can help businesses to understand the problems faced
by the society and apply the strength of the organization to create a business model which will solve
the problem and will also become profitable for the organization. We call this approach “Solve the
problem”.

6. 3.2Align the Product:
Organizations which have multiple years of history and are in business for long time can follow the
approach of “Align the Product” to create the shared value. In this approach the organization can
identify the ways in which it can change its current practices or products to align to the cause.
Nike is perfect example of this. Nike Grind is a concept in which Nike recycles the used shoes and
creates a material out of it which is then used to create high quality sport surfaces like courts, turfs
and tracks. This has enabled Nike to take care of the waste material which would otherwise have
polluted the environment and also has cut its cost of creating such sport surfaces as the raw material
became available almost at no cost. Since 1990 Nike has recycled around 28 Million pairs of shoes
and 36000 tonnes of scrap material to produce sports surfaces of 63,20,00000 square feet all around
the globe.
3.3Look Inside:
Next very important approach by which business organization can create the shared value is by
getting its own house in order – by “Look Inside” we suggest that an organization can make a great
deal of difference and also benefit itself by making conscious efforts to change its own policies and
practices. Improved facilities at the buildings, reduction in usage on natural material, employee
friendly policies and many such small but important initiatives go a long way in creation of shared
value.
This method of creating shared value will benefit the organizations in terms of reduction in operation
cost, lower attrition rates and motivated employee bases to mention few.
As we can see by the following graph, this is actually the approach which many organizations have
currently focused on. This approach helps organizations to contribute to the society by making bare
minimum changes in its overall strategy.
Figure 2: Drivers of Shared Value Creation [Source : IBR 2008]

7. 3.4Choose The Cause:
Another approach for the organizations to create the shared value is to choose a cause which aligns
to its business needs or ideology and then try to spend some part of its resources to address the
same.
For example, Piramel Group has started with the “Piramal Foundation For Education Leadership”.
The foundation was started with the aim of addressing one of the gravest problem faced by the India
(especially in rural areas and in government schools), the sub-standard education system. The
foundation has started the 3 year part-time program to provide masters degree in the areas like
Education Leadership, District Education Management, Instructional Design, Coaching for School
Improvement etc. to headmasters of the schools. The effects have started showing with increase in
enrollment of the students from across the locality. Attendance has increased by 20% and
improvement is seen in the learning competency as well. In return organization has got the loyalty of
the locality and immensely matured brand image.
How “Shared Value Creation” benefits the business?
It is given that no organization can create sustainable business by focusing only on the welfare of the
society. Charity can never be a good reason to run a sustainable business. When we talk of creating a
shared value we have to ensure that business organizations get benefitted from the endeavor so as to
make it sustainable and profitable venture. Below we try to list out some of the benefits for the
business organizations:
· Competitive edge
Shared value creation can open new business opportunities for organizations and early entrant can
gain competitive edge over the competition. As we have mentioned in the “Solve the problem” or
“Align the Product” approach above the endeavor to address the acute problem faced by the society
can actually result in creation of a new business opportunity altogether for the business organizations.
The rapid decline of traditional energy resources is the most disturbing challenge faced by today’s
world and automobile industry makes for substantial part of today’s fuel consumption. Toyota’s
response to concerns over automobile emission is a best example of how it helped Toyota to gain
competitive edge. Toyota Prius, the hybrid electric / fuel model innovation have produced competitive
advantage for Toyota as well as environmental benefits to society by reducing emission of harmful
pollutants. This new innovation by Toyota has created a unique position with customers and forcing
other car companies to use this innovation.

8. · Early entry into the business segment
Innovation can lead to creation of altogether new business segment for the business organization.
This provides business organization with immense competitive edge and even before the rivals can
understand the phenomenon completely a niche market segment is already created for the company.
For example Nintendo’s strategic decision to create a video game to improve the social wellness
changed the demographics of the video gaming industry completely. Social wellness is about
connectedness, quality, intensity, durability and quantity of relationships. Nintendo developed a game
Wii which helped to bridge the gap between generations and contributed immensely towards the
theme of social wellness. Sunrise Living – a senior care center company in USA used Wii at it’s one of
the center where “Wii Fit exercise program” helped to turn 1 hour social program into fun creation
activity. This video game became a useful medium for social interaction in families and at senior care
centers. This initiative not only made Nintendo major player in video games market but also ensured
social wellness is improved.
· Easy access to capital
Including social welfare performance in financial report of business units is getting mandatory day by
day. A strong social welfare performance helps organizations to create a unique selling point.
Creation of shared value can build organization’s image as ethical organization in the eyes of the
stakeholders and hence can help it gain trustworthiness.
Investors are increasingly viewing social welfare performance (indexes like the Dow Jones
Sustainability Indexes, FTSE4Good) as a strategic business issue. Many socially responsible
investors are using the shareholder resolution process to pressure companies to change policies and
increase disclosure on a wide range of CSR issues, including environmental responsibility, workplace
policies, community involvement, human rights practices, ethical decision-making and corporate
governance.
Hence creation of shared value can actually attract good investors towards the organization and will
make it easy for the organization to get access to capital.
· Brand Differentiation
Business Units are trying to create unique selling point and unrivalled brand image to survive in cut
throat competition in today’s globalized business scenario. Shared value creation helps them to gain
advantage over competitors by creating trust environment between company and stakeholders on
which business sustains and grows.
Recently Coca-Cola launched its new anti-obesity campaign in USA. The campaign drew attention to
Coca-Cola’s low calories drinks which were made with natural sweeteners. The message was clear
“Coca-cola cares about your obesity and wants to make you healthy”. This campaign helped Coca-
Cola to retain its reputation and created a strong brand image for the organization.

9. · Cost Saving
Environmental sustainability initiatives such as recycling, waste management, water management,
using renewable energy sources, utilizing reusable resources, creating 'greener' supply chains, using
digital technology instead of hard copies, developing buildings as per environmental standards and
minimizing overall pollution helps organizations to save cost in their operations which they can utilize
for business growth.
Following graph depicts the correlation between efficient waste management and related energy
efficiency for the countries world over:
Figure 3: Waste Management-Energy Efficiency Correlation [Source : IBR 2008]
· Innovation in practice
Focus on creation of shared value leads to various innovations in various business application areas
for an organization. Innovation helps to increase organization’s competitiveness. Focus on innovation
makes it an integral part of the organization’s thought process and hence help build vibrant culture

10. with lots of ideas getting generated and discussed upon regularly. Recent organizations like Google,
Facebook and WhatsApp are good examples of this “Innovation in practice”. For all these
organizations innovation makes an integral part of the overall business strategy.
· Loyalty
With growing awareness creation of shared value can be a major differentiator for the business units.
According to ‘Grant Thornton IBR’ report of corporate responsibility drivers Employee welfare / Human
resource development tops the chart with 65% (Refer Figure 2).
In Many countries, employees are preferring organizations with high moral values and ethics.
Potential recruits often ask about a firm's social welfare policy during recruitment, and having a
comprehensive policy can give an advantage. It can also help improve the perception of a company
among its staff, particularly when staff can become involved through community volunteering.
How “Shared Value Creation” benefits the society?
“Shared value creation” considers society as “The” stakeholder and hence results in maximum benefit
for the society. Below we list down few of the benefits which society accrues:
· Employment Opportunity
With ever increasing population and unemployment rate, dependency on government and
conventional business units for new job generations really has limitations. With organizations focusing
on “Shared Value creation” new employment opportunities are created and opened for the society.
For example, Marriott has created 180 hrs. of classroom and on the job training program for
unemployed local youths. It proved beneficial to Marriott to reduce cost of recruiting entry level
employees as well as to local community to reduce unemployment. A study suggests that 90% of
trainees join Marriott and 65% retains job after 1 year which really is a collaborative (WIN-WIN)
scenario for both business and society.
· Chance of participation
General rule of participation suggests “Whoever is affected by the firm’s actions should have the
rights to participate, with preference given to those affected the most.” With shared value creation
society can get this kind of opportunity to participate in some of the business decisions. The society
can have direct voice in what kind of product or benefit does it desire from the business enterprise.
For example, Starbucks, in 2008, launched the website “Mystarbucksidea.com”. This website
encourages people to place their ideas regarding any of the business product or process. This idea is
then put to review and moderated discussion and best of the ideas which also create a business case

11. are selected for implementation. Some of the results of this activity are – A splash stick which fits into
the lid of cups, a Starbuck VIA Ready Brew, to name few.
This endeavor by Starbucks not only provided Starbucks with million dollar ideas almost for free but
also provided society with a chance to participate in decision making and to draw benefits from this
participation.
· Improvement in standard of living
Social welfare initiatives are immensely contributing to improve overall standard of living of the
society, by contributing in Health sector, Education sector, Environmental initiatives, and
infrastructure. It highlights the importance of getting basic facilities to everyone and improves socio-economic
status.
For example, Nestle’s value chain creation in the district of Moga in Northern India proved life
transforming for the nearby villages. When Nestle had started its dairy operation in the district of
Moga, the locality was reeling under abject poverty. Basic amenities such as medical care,
transportation, electricity were near absent and milk production from the area was sub-standard in
both quality and quantity.
Nestle’ took giant steps forward to change this reality. To increase the milk production both
quantitatively and qualitatively it created refrigeration facilities, provided each town with transportation
facilities for milk collection and also built testing labs in the area. In addition to this Nestle’ also helped
create medical facilities for the farmers. It also provided financial and technical assistance to farmers
in the areas of agriculture as well.
These initiatives resulted in increase of milk production in the area by around 50% along with
improvement in the quality. Calf death rate is decreased by around 75%. 90% of residents of the town
now have electricity, telephones, have primary / secondary educational facilities and have better
medical facilities improving overall standard of living of the town.
· Less impact on environment
‘Go Green’ is the mantra of today’s globalized world for environment protection. Shared value creation
with focus on environmental sustainability can result in improvement in environment standards in the
locality of the business organizations operational units.
These initiatives can mean cleaner and safer potable water, greener surroundings, cleaner air,
reduction in noise pollution and various such benefits for the society. This will also ensure that future
generations get safe and sustainable earth as the heritage from present generation.

12. How can “Shared Value Creation” be incorporated in project
management?
As project is the last unit which implements the organizations strategy it becomes imperative that
“Shared value creation” becomes imperative part of project management practices. This will ensure
that actual project work is in line with the overall organization strategy and hence contributing towards
organizations goal of creation of shared value.
Here we would like to suggest some of the ways in which project managers can incorporate the
strategy of shared value creation in some of the project management knowledge areas. Major areas
which project managers can focus on are:
· Cost Management: Allocate a cost budget at project level for social welfare activities. Man hour
efforts should be also considered during planning stage. Mandating social cost benefit analysis
can be done in order to perform shared value analysis of social welfare initiative.
· Stakeholder Management: Incorporate ‘society’ as a key stakeholder in stakeholder
management and impact analysis should be done from social point of view also during
stakeholder management process. “Social value creation plan” can be put in place within this
knowledge area which can chalk down the methodology and processes to follow in order to attain
maximum positive impact on the society.
· Procurement Management: Procurement should be done from globally ethical suppliers which
need to be mandated in procurement management process. Corporate social responsibility
practices can be made one of the major screening criteria while conducting procurement.
· Human Resource Management: In order to create shared value and make social welfare
initiative successful, team members should understand what their responsibility is and what
organization is expecting from them for social welfare initiatives. In order to achieve this, making
social welfare training as a core training of the organization will definitely prove beneficial.
Comprehensive understanding, know focus areas, understand key points and value proposition
makes sure that everyone in the organization understands the organization’s social welfare
strategy very well.
Conclusion
Creation of shared value is need of the time and has to be first priority of the business organizations if
we have to create sustainable and safe future. As a primary consumer of world resources including
human resource, the onus of creating safe and sustainable community lies on the shoulders of
business organization. Shared value creation provides with both tangible and intangible benefits to the
organization. It helps create the sustainable society and improves participation in the business
endeavors.

13. When embarking on the path of “Shared value creation” business unit don’t have to do something
completely out-of-sync but can choose any one approach out of “Solve the Problem”, “Align the
problem”, “Look inside” and “Choose the cause” to do so.
Project being a last unit of implementation of organizational strategy has to take onus of incorporating
the “Shared value creation” in the practice. It can improve on and utilize many existing knowledge
areas to ensure the correct decisions are made and maximum possible positive impact is made on the
most important stakeholder that is “Society”.
References
[1] Haque, Umair; The New Age Capitalist Manifesto
[2] Hart, Stuart L.; Prahalad, C.K.; New Age of Sustainable Capitalism: Business Models to Drive
Growth and Social Change (Collection), The
[3] http://csr.cisco.com/pages/environment
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility#Potential_business_benefits
[5] http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/page.php?Story_ID=2786
[6] http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/better-world/stories/2013/05/reuse-a-shoe
[7] http://www.piramal.com/piramal-foundation
[8] International Business Report 2008, Corporate Social Responsibility :a necessity not a choice.
[9] Lovehagen Nina, Bondesson Anna; Evaluating sustainability of using ICT solutions in smartcities
– methodology requirements
[10]Sammi Massood V., Cost Benefit Analysis
[11]Zheng Qinqin, Luo Yadong, Wang, Stephanie Lu; Moral Degradation, Business Ethics, and
Corporate Social Responsibility in a Transitional Economy
Author Details
· Nachiket Kawathekar (Assistant Consultant, Tata Consultancy Services)
· Pranal Dongare (Assistant Consultant, Tata Consultancy Services)