YW_WhitePaper_SocialInnovation&Business_2016

October 2016
Social
Innovation:
Gearing
business
to address
social
systemic
challenges

October 2016
Social
Innovation:
Gearing
business
to address
social
systemic
challengesThis report was compiled by Nokuthula Radebe,
Yellowwood’s Marketing Manager and David Blyth,
CEO, Yellowwood.
Written by Jessica Hubbard, Independent Writer
and Journalist.
Special thanks to Refilwe Maluleke - Strategy
Director, Yellowwood, Rhiannon Rees - Strategist,
Yellowwood and Gabriella Venter - Insights Analyst,
Yellowwood for their contributions.
Thanks to Leoni Joubert for the beautiful design
of this booklet and to Mlondi Zwane for the
excellent photography.
Contents
1. Introduction:
How can SA brands, tackling
a slowing economy, become
more relevant in a complex
marketplace?
2. Defining Social Innovation:
The Yellowwood way
3. Ditch the silos:
Take a broader worldview
4. Invest in culturally led solutions
to make an impact
5. Move beyond GDP and focus on
Social Progress
6. Innovate from the heart:
How true understanding leads to
meaningful change in business
7. Tackling youth unemployment
through smarter business
and entrepreneurship
8. Case studies on Social Innovation
All Safe
Rekindle Learning
9. Assessing the real impact of
business work streams in society
10. Paving the way for policy
disruption within global trade
11. Driving profit and positive change
in communities
12. Leveraging the right tools and
information to lead with vision
13. Guidelines for marketers
to start forming targeted
Social Innovation strategies
2
4
8
12
15
18
20
23
24
25
26
30
32
36

© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.www.ywood.co.zaPAGE 3
The local economy is stagnating
and unemployment is soaring.
As marketers, we are seeing the
effects of this worrying state of
affairs manifest in society in
different ways.
From a political point of view, South Africans have run out of patience when it comes to
putting up with failed service delivery, high levels of corruption, and an absence of the equal
opportunities for all citizens that government had so enthusiastically promised.
As a result, a significant number of people are fed up with the environment they are living in.
We see this in the rise of violent protests and in the rise of activism, as many citizens realise
that this may be the only way to effect real change. Indeed, people expressed sharp-edged
discontent in our recent local elections.
As marketers, we are now also dealing with a more skeptical consumer who has grown
weary of organisations and brands. Naturally, consumers’ brand interactions are increasingly
entered into from a position of deep distrust and they have a greater expectation from
big businesses.
While businesses scramble in an attempt to survive this tough climate, one thing is clear: it is
no longer ‘business as usual’. Consumer behaviour has changed and businesses must adjust
their approach if they want to stay afloat and prove sustainable in the long term.
Moreover, it is evident that the lines between social and economic flux – and the resultant
challenges – are blurred. For smart marketers, these blurred lines represent an opportunity
to collaborate with businesses and governments to find sustainable solutions to deep-seated
and systemic issues.
In our view, the businesses and brands that actively respond in
tangible and sustainable ways – through social innovation – will
ultimately thrive in this complex environment. Brands that aim
to be ‘better for’ consumers, not simply ‘better than’ competitors,
will achieve a competitive advantage.
How can SA brands,
tackling a slowing
economy, become
more relevant in a
complex marketplace?

The Yellowwood
approach to
social innovation
in business
and branding.
Crucially, Nzima witnessed first-hand the burdens
of: finding the funds for transport to the clinic,
the time spent waiting, the cost to have someone
look after children left at home, and the loss of
pay due to absence from work. To address this
very real problem, Nzima’s business, Iyeza, now
collects prescription medication for more than
250 residents in his township. For many, the
dynamic young entrepreneur’s service is far more
than just a pleasant convenience; it has helped
improve the quality of life of those he services
at a cost of only R10 per trip.
Apart from becoming a local sensation, Nzima
was also one of five South Africans to be featured
in Forbes 30 Under 30: Africa’s Best Young
Entrepreneurs of 2013, an achievement, he says,
that motivates him to work even harder.
Sizwe Nzima’s story shows that understanding
people is the heart and soul of any true social
innovation project. Marketers should first
root themselves in people and communities
when working to link social innovation to
brand-building.
Medicine on Wheels:
Customer-Centricity
in Action
Sizwe Nzima, a 24-year-old from
Khayelitsha, Cape Town, is the founder
of Iyeza Express Medicine on Wheels.
When he landed a R10 000 prize for
being the best entrepreneurial student
at the Raymond Ackerman Academy of
Entrepreneurial Development, he bought
two bicycles and got to work on the
business idea that he had developed
as part of his coursework.
This idea, Iyeza Express, emerged from a social
challenge that many Khayelitsha families en-
counter when collecting prescription medication
from the local clinic. Nzima witnessed sickly,
elderly people in his community having to get
up as early as 4 am to make the long journey to
the clinic to collect their chronic medication every
month. In addition, any late arrivals would have
to wait in excruciatingly long queues to be
attended to.
Defining social
innovation: The
Yellowwood way
In recent years politicians, academics
and professionals have pointed to
the term ‘social innovation’ as an area
of significance for business leaders
and marketers.
To direct marketers down an effective
and sustainable path to creating social
innovation, we have defined the concept
as follows:
‘A sustainable and profitable way of
solving existing systemic challenges or
needs in ways that benefit the public or
society, regardless of their social class.’
PAGE 5 www.ywood.co.za © 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.
In our search for an all-encompassing definition, we discovered that social innovation
is often misunderstood by marketers; falling into either the ‘social’ side of its
definition (do good, focus on people, non-profit) or the ‘innovation’ side (R&D, digital,
technological advances, etc.).
This polarised view of the concept obscures a more accessible, relevant and powerful
definition. Moreover, we found many different terms used by marketers to describe
concepts that are similar to social innovation, but that do not entirely capture the
essence of the idea. For example, the term ‘social enterprise’ centres on the idea of
being led by an organisation, while ‘social entrepreneurship’ is driven by an individual
and focuses on the unique qualities of the people involved.
To put us on the same page – and to understand what social
innovation is and how it applies to our businesses – we looked to
Iyeza Express Medicine on Wheels. This is a small enterprise that,
for us, clearly falls into the category of social innovation and indeed,
exemplifies it.
Case study:

© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.PAGE 7© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.PAGE 6 www.ywood.co.za www.ywood.co.za
To begin with, all South Africans need to get involved.
Businesses can’t sit back and wait for governments or
anyone else to solve social problems for them. Marketers,
most specifically, must be proactive in designing solutions
that adequately address systemic needs, rather than just
business needs.
There are emerging opportunities here, but to harness them we need to interrogate
the current approach to marketing and communications. Engaging with consumers
is no longer a game of ten-pin bowling, where marketers, businesses or leaders can
take aim at a fixed and predictable target. The game has changed, and its rules are
forever shifting.
Remaining with the game analogy, it is helpful to view consumer engagement as
a game of pinball: to keep the ball in play, players must be flexible and quick to
move in the direction of the desires of consumers as well as that of the business
environment. The consumer is the ball!
This insight is important in light
of the Meaningful Brand Index,
which reveals that most people
would not care if 74% of all
brands disappeared1
.
At a time when brands are
battling to be noticed, marketers
must do all they can to keep
their brands out of the 74% that
consumers so easily disregard.
Brands consumers
actually care about
26%
Easily disregarded brands
74%
Currently, we are seeing progressive companies actively shift their values, in order to orientate
their businesses towards ‘purpose’. They are doing this by driving initiatives and designing
offerings that make a tangible difference in the lives of the people in their communities.
Purpose and values, coupled with an ongoing quest towards engaging with and understanding
the consumer, is also shifting businesses towards the active pursuit of customer-centricity.
In our view, being authentically customer-centric leads to businesses creating innovations
that have the consumer at their epicentre.
This approach automatically places a business in a position where
it is geared to address, not only consumer needs, but also systemic
societal needs.
We believe that it is the task of big businesses to address and enable change in the area of
social challenges.
Sweet Spot for Social Innovation
Innovation Pipeline
Purpose and Values
Consumer
Insight
Social
ChallengeSocial Innovation
1
http://www.meaningful-brands.com

© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.PAGE 9 www.ywood.co.za
Khaya Mtshali,
former design
lecturer and current
Strategic Designer
at Village Strategic
Design, suggests
that the world is
becoming more and
more complex from
a socio-economic
point of view.
Ditch the
silos and
take a
broader
worldview
He argues that one of the drivers of
increasing complexity is the growing
interconnectedness between people,
communities, organisations and the
macro environment.
According to Mtshali, education instructs us to
deal with challenges within their distinct silos. As a
result, we use the same siloed approach in business
– believing that it makes us better and more efficient
in our problem-solving. This is a flawed approach,
warns Mtshali, because we never truly harness the
power that lies within the inherently interconnected
nature of all things.
“We realise that we haven’t been
trained to respond to complexity –
because we are trained to answer
structured questions … [but]
when the world becomes more
complex, the questions become
unstructured,” he explains.
Mtshali argues that discovering new questions
will help marketers and businesses reframe and
weigh strengths over the opportunities, as well as
design competitive advantages that are beneficial
beyond the company.
He poses the following question, which is worth
considering: “Could it be that our
challenge as marketers is that,
when we ask questions, we are
already unconsciously assuming
a certain perspective – and as a
result, missing out on the richness
of a new perspective?”
Perhaps understanding the interconnectedness
of things points to a way forward for the marketing
industry as a whole? Becoming a pioneering force
in social innovation requires a shift away from
operating like a communications-driven industry
(that drives messaging through broadcasting a
message), to a culturally led industry (that
understands the fundamental challenges, desires,
and lives of the communities it serves).

Drive
meaningful
change by
understanding
culture
Kofi Amegashie, Executive Director
at the African Leadership Institute,
tells a story that highlights the
mammoth challenge for marketers
who do not understand the nuances
of culture.
When Amegashie was working at a multinational corporation a few years back, his
team undertook a sales visit to Kibera, a slum area in Nairobi, Kenya. They noticed
many small stores trading next to one another, but selling the exact same goods.
From a ‘Westernised’ point of view, this doesn’t make sense, because it ignores
basic marketing principles relating to competition.
However, the reality in Kibera, is that each of the storeowners comes from a
different tribe. The community buys from the trader who is from their tribe (either
Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya or Kamba) because storeowners offer credit to individuals from
the same tribe. This reduces the risk of failed repayment, because traders know
how to locate debtors through their networks.
This example illustrates the lesson that a misunderstanding
of the nuances of culture can keep brands at a superficial
level. Sadly, marketers continue to miss out on the
opportunities that culture offers up.

Invest in culturally-
led solutions to
make an impact In addition, an understanding of culture helps marketers anticipate where consumer behaviour may be
changing. Cultural insights indicate shifts in the values, attitudes, and behaviours that influence consumer
behaviour, and articulate how consumers respond to major changes in the environment.
Notably, social innovation hasn’t only adapted to the need for cultural understanding. It has also begun to
challenge established ideas of business, innovation and social good. In this way, it’s an empty space with
the potential to transform the way we do business and interact with society.
Marketers need to take an immediate and real-time view of culture. Our heritage is both rich and complex,
and we cannot afford to ignore what it offers us as communicators. Indeed, we need to harness the wisdom
that exists in our communities – not only to remain relevant in the professional sphere, but also to play a
meaningful role in the betterment of society.
What if a brand that targets men, like Nestle Bar One or Unilever AXE,
took it upon themselves to engage with government, using content that
could be woven into the syllabus to educate young boys in schools?
For example, a brand could take on men’s issues and confront negative
attitudes towards gender, presenting a healthy perspective on what it is
‘to be a man’ in society today.
At Yellowwood, we believe that cultural under-
standing offers a pathway for marketers to
leverage different perspectives within a given
environment. Culture also creates in-roads for
businesses to initiate fresh conversations that
will solve critical needs.
Innovation Pipeline
Fragrances that make men
more appealing to women
Purpose and Values
AXE believes that a man’s
individuality is what makes
him attractive
Consumer
Insight
The dating
game has
changed, women
have become
a lot more
assertive
than before
Social
Challenge
Men are
struggling
to adapt to
women who
act outside of
‘traditional’
gender
norms
Social Innovation
Overcoming gender
issues by enlightening
men on how to positively
engage with women
*notional example

3
1
2 This is the thinking behind the Social Progress Index2
, which covers the social climates of over
161 countries. Michael Green, who is part of the team that created the Social Progress Index, says,
“Sadly, we live in a world where GDP is considered the only benchmark of success in a global
economy; [where] our societies have become mere engines of production.”
In contrast, the Social Progress Index offers a more practical way of measuring the wellbeing of a
society, by ascertaining how citizens experience living in a specific country, above and beyond GDP.
It doesn’t measure the effort or intention of a country or economy, but rather its real achievements.
For example, the Social Progress Index does not measure the amount of money a country puts
into healthcare, but rather the length and quality of the lives of the people in that country. It doesn’t
measure whether governments pass laws against discrimination, but rather whether people who
live in that country experience discrimination. The key is always the real, human experience.
Move beyond
GDP and focus
on social
progress
GDP – and its betterment – is what economies
and businesses doggedly chase, year after
year, because it has shaped and defined how
countries’ successes are measured. But GDP
ignores the environment, not taking into account
factors like happiness, community and how
people in each country experience life.
The Yellowwood approach
to Social Innovation
Identify the problem areas
Build a platform for implementation
with network effect
Find the intersections
(purpose, values, consumer insights
and innovation)
Are there similar products / services out there that address the issue?
Define what your brand is better FOR, not simply who your brand is better THAN
Understand culture communityUnderstand external factors
Can we add to something
already in existence?
Can we better what is already
out there?
Can we partner with a citizen or
another entity to achieve this goal?
Is there a way that we can
mainstream the idea?
Yes No
Yes Yes
2
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_green_what_the_social_progress_index_can_reveal_about_your_country

© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.PAGE 17 www.ywood.co.za© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.PAGE 16 www.ywood.co.za
Social Progress Index Regression
Curve 2016
Social Progress Index Chart 2016
Chad
India
Senegal
China
Russia
South Africa
France
UK
Canada
New Zealand
Costa Rica
Brazil
USA
Kuwait
GDP PER CAPITA
SOCIALPROGRESSINDEX
0 10,000
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000
Innovation Pipeline
Improved services
and communication in
the healthcare sector
Purpose and Values
Keep people connected
and make consumers
lives brighter
Consumer
Insight
In the rat
race of life,
I often
forget the
important
things
Social
Challenge
Poor quality
of life
attributed
to chornic
health
conditions
Social Innovation
Digital text reminder
from MTN to citizens as
a reminder to collect
chronic medication
The above regression curve underscores the relationship between GDP and
the Social Progress Index. Notably, in poorer countries the curve is steep.
This indicates that if poorer countries can generate more GDP and invest it in
social areas (nurses, sanitation, etc.), those countries can generate significant
‘bang for their social progress buck’.
As the curve flattens out, each dollar of GDP is buying less social progress,
making GDP less useful as a guide to social development in developed countries.
“In the 21st century, we face different challenges, such
as obesity, ageing, climate change, etc., and so we need
new tools,” Green says.
He poses this question: “Imagine if businesses didn’t just compete around
their contributions to the economy, but also around their contribution to social
progress?” Without doubt, the Social Progress Index offers a good starting point
for marketers to search for areas that need intervention and to identify where their
brands can provide a solution.
This presents an opportunity for a brand – like MTN, whose mission is to keep
people connected and make consumers’ lives brighter, for example – to partner
with clinics. Perhaps they could text individuals, reminding them to get chronic
medication and assisting in the area of healthcare by leveraging technology?
It is only
when we begin
to approach
systemic issues
with innovative
solutions that
we become real
pioneers: able
to create social
innovations
that drive visible
and sustainable
change. *notional example

Innovate from
the heart:
How true understanding
leads to meaningful change
in business.
Dr Garth Japhet co-founded the Soul City Institute for
Health and Development Communication in 1992, and
currently heads a company called Heartlines. The company
aims to drive social change through media and community,
by telling stories that people can relate to and engage with.
Japhet says that, at Heartlines, they believe in allowing
people to tell their own stories. He emphasises the under-
standing of where people come from, before trying to solve
their problems. For this reason, Heartlines embraces the
Social Behavioural Model as its core approach to engaging
with audiences and communities.
“This model states that the individual
is not an island, and that individuals are
a part of social networks, communities,
organisations, etc.,” explains Japhet.
“All of these environments and
relationships have an impact on the
individual … an individual’s decision
is never made in isolation.”
According to Japhet, any messaging that
is directed at the individual should carefully
consider these environments.
“The model helps us to target messages
and design strategies around how we
solve certain issues,” he says.
“We look at each of the circles and
establish the barriers to the desired
behaviour…”
Interestingly, Kofi Amegashi believes that
marketers haven’t fully leveraged this concept
yet. He says that, when marketers conduct
research, they give the people they wish to
target a questionnaire that guides and shapes
the conversation and feedback.
“If marketers are going to find new
solutions that drive social innovation
and break through the clutter by
offering people actual solutions to
problems, we cannot keep asking
the same questions,” says Amegashi.
Social Behavioural Model
Public Policy
Community
(cultural values, norms)
Organisational
(environmental, ethos)
Interpersonal
(social network)
Individual
(knowledge, attitude, skills)

Amegashi states that, “Socio economic develop-
ment and new ways of doing business in Africa will
ultimately be driven and led by the youth. However,
current leaders in Africa are mostly over the age of
70. And the youth haven’t been given the education
or the platforms required to express themselves in
ways that will effect change.” He also says that the
current African education system is not adequate
– and that it hasn’t transformed at all over the past
50 years: “In Africa, we haven’t trained people to
succeed in the new economy.”
On the bright side, it is encouraging to see organisa-
tions across Africa applying social innovation to
bridge the gap between skills and education.
One such example is Harambee Youth Employment
Accelerator, created to empower young people from
disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed in the
modern global economy.
According to Bryony Maxwell, Head of Marketing
at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerators,
the challenge is this: the youth get through Matric,
but then get stuck and cannot find full-time
employment. As such, they are often excluded
from key networks that can provide meaningful
work opportunities for them.
“Only about 12% of jobs are advertised,
and the rest are shared via word of mouth
or referrals,” Maxwell explains.
To bridge the gap and to give the youth the best
possible chance of succeeding in the job market,
Harambee offers access to networks that will
provide real world opportunities and relevant skills.
The organisation conducts a series of assessments
that cover various factors; learning potential,
numeracy, literacy and work readiness.
It also creates behavioural profiles to help match
young people to opportunities and roles at the
companies that they are most likely to succeed at.
As it stands, when notable employers look for
university graduates, they tend to look only at the
top ten universities. This puts students graduating
from other universities at a severe disadvantage.
“Unemployment in South Africa is a challenge that
cannot – and will not – be solved by government
alone,” says Maxwell. “Government and business
need to work together to address the issue.” She
adds, “Sadly, businesses don’t think about the
burden of the initial costs that someone who has
just started working has to take on. For example,
how do you cover transport costs in that first month
of work?”
To assist young people entering employment,
Harambee offers them a set amount of money to
cover transport costs when they are attending work
readiness training. They also engage with
businesses to negotiate stipends to cover other
major expenses within their first month of
employment, before they receive their first salary.
According to Harambee the South African who gets
and keeps a job for 12 months or more has a much
greater chance of remaining employed for the rest
of his/her life. Big corporates must be aware that this
is a trend that directly impacts their longevity and
profitability. Importantly, it also provides a platform
for youth brands to equip young people with the
tools and information they need to build better lives.
At Yellowwood, we challenge big business to take
this issue seriously, because prevailing methods
of selecting candidates for employment simply
perpetuate unemployment at the bottom of the
pyramid. The alternative is to help to overcome it
by offering young people a career path.
We want to encourage businesses and marketers
to be the front-runners in driving change within
their areas of influence, and to behave like
‘Positive Deviants’ in every possible way.
Tackling youth
unemployment
through smarter
business and
entrepreneurship
Yellowwood’s Social Innovation value cycle
Word of Mouth
12%
88%
Suppliers,
Distributors
Consumers,
non-users
Your category
eg. books
Social needs
of category
eg. education

www.ywood.co.za © 2015 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.
Positive Deviance3
refers
to a behavioural and social
change approach, premised
on the belief that, in any
context, individuals
confronting challenges,
constraints and resource
deprivations, will employ
uncommon but successful
behaviours or strategies
to enable them to find
better solutions.
Brands need to become
‘Positive Deviants’ in
their unique spheres
of influence
Case study:
Social Innovation
through targeted
community
engagement
Rowan Spazzoli, a Masters Student
in Development Economics and
Assistant Lecturer, together with
Tsakane Ngoepe and Louis Buys,
were inspired to get involved in
curbing violence in Cape Town,
in response to attacks in Khayelitsha
and Tokai in early 2016.
They began to investigate how people
structure their security in less affluent areas,
speaking to people who live in these
communities they discovered that each
street had a WhatsApp group. If anyone was
in danger or felt unsafe, they could message
the relevant group to request help.
Spazzoli explained that these WhatsApp
security groups brought communities together
to fight crime, as an alternative to private
security services like alarms, beams and
patrol vehicles (which many cannot afford).
This insight inspired the group to form a
company called AllSafe, and to create a
wrist device known as the Guardian.
When a user presses the panic button on
the device, it is linked to the AllSafe app that
sends his/her location and information to
people on the Guardian database, including
the police and family members. Because the
idea is to make the device as low-cost and
inclusive as possible, it is Bluetooth-enabled
and doesn’t require data to send the signal.
Spazzoli says that, although they can’t ever
completely stop crime, “…we can help to
stop an attack before it gets really serious.”
As this example demonstrates, social
innovation within the ‘informal’ space is a rich
area that marketers must purposefully tap into
to discover new opportunities. In many cases,
someone in the community has already solved
a specific problem in an informal way.
However, the discovery of such innovations
only comes about when approached with
intent. Many marketers come in as ‘educated
experts’, trying to provide solutions to
problems that they don’t fully understand.
We need to shift our approach if we want to
make a meaningful impact.Sweet Spot for Social Innovation
Innovation Pipeline
Provide peace of mind through
making people feel more secure
Purpose and Values
To reduce violent crimes
Consumer
Insight
I often feel
unsafe when
I am alone
Social
Challenge
High crime
rates in
South
Africa
Social Innovation
The Guardian wrist device:
Sends an alert to police
and loved ones when
you are feeling unsafe
Critically, these individuals identify solutions
where others don’t. As a result, they’re the key
to spreading and sustaining required change.
At Yellowwood, we support the notion
of creating white spaces for brands. In our
view, Disruption® is far more than a noun,
a book, or a process. It’s a way of thinking and
acting, and a way to look at our clients’
businesses and find new opportunities for
them. In addition, it’s a way of defining how
brands should behave, and how agencies
should do business every day.
We look at two examples of ‘Positive Deviants’,
demonstrating lessons for marketers and
businesses in problem solving and innovation.
3
The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators ...
Book by Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin, and Richard T. Pascale

Assessing the real
impact of business
work streams
in society
Leveraging
existing
platforms
to design
targeted
interventions
Rapelang Rabana, founder
and CEO of Rekindle
Learning, refers to herself as
a ‘technology entrepreneur’.
She says,
“Among the millions of things
that need to be fixed in
education, the feedback loop
is one simple thing that we
can action immediately
by using digital tools.”
LEARNING
Rekindle Learning was established when Rabana realised
that individuals are not empowered to improve or correct
their mistakes when learning. According to Rabana, one of
two things happens in traditional learning today:
“In the school environment you either don’t get
comprehensive feedback or, two weeks later,
when you get your marks back, you don’t remember
what you were thinking when you wrote your test,”
she explains. “In the work environment, employees
are sent on training workshop courses for one or
two full days, and employers hope that the staff
will remember, retain and implement the knowledge
they received. However, that usually doesn’t happen
because staff just feel overwhelmed with
information overload.”
In Rabana’s view, it is likely that a learner or employee
will repeat the same errors in future, “so you perpetuate
your strengths and leave your weaknesses behind
because it becomes too hard to track”.
She refers to the learning model created in the 1960’s by
Ebbinghaus, which notes that up to 80% of knowledge
presented is lost without adequate reinforcement but
that individuals can overcome the ‘forgetting curve’.
To address this challenge, Rekindle Learning is an app
that helps individuals to put into practice the information
that they are taught:
Rekindle Learning gives each learner the space to
achieve the core mastery of knowledge required to
reach higher levels of thought and critical analysis.
This is done by enabling learning in small nuggets
that are easy to digest and in a manner that can be
measured. At the same time, educators and training
officers are empowered with data to provide targeted
learning interventions.
To illustrate this point, Khaya Mtshali shares a conversation he had with a homeless
26-year-old. The young man told Mtshali that he was homeless because his father
had passed away years earlier, leaving him and his brother behind.
“Sadly, the bank sold the house …
leaving the children on the street,”
says Mtshali.
He argues that, from a business point of view, the employee at the bank who
authorised the repossession of the home is held accountable to specific targets,
and the bank is accountable to shareholders. As a result, these types of impersonal
outcomes are inevitable.
But the critical point is that we, as businesses, need to assess the impact of our
work streams on the environments around them. Furthermore, how do we intend
to deal with impacts such as these?
For example, what if the banking sector undertook to drive financial literacy in a
way that achieves the right impact? According to the World Bank, South Africans
are among the biggest borrowers in the world, with 86% of the banked population
in debt4
. Competency must be accelerated in this area.
For marketers, it is a constant challenge to find ways
to keep brands interesting and relevant to consumers.
Changes in the speed of communication and access
to information have introduced an age of greater
transparency, and with transparency comes consumers
who hold brands accountable for everything they do.
Innovation Pipeline
Methods that will assist learners
to absorb information easily
Purpose and Values
Rekindle Learning exists to
reduce the time it takes to build
competency in learning
Consumer
Insight
I feel
overwhelmed
when I am
exposed to large
amounts of
information
at the
same time
Social
Challenge
Gap in skills
development
in the
country
Social Innovation
Rekindle Learning App helps
learners to immediately put
into practice the information
that they are taught
Case study:
© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.www.ywood.co.zaPAGE 24 © 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.www.ywood.co.zaPAGE 25
4
http://www.rdm.co.za/business/2016/03/08/what-10-million-south-africans-struggling-with-debt-should-know

Paving the way for
policy disruption
within global trade
Karabo Songo, Group Founder CEO of Olive Communications and Media Group, is a member
of the alliance and serves on its Board of Trustees.
According to Songo, the Alliance works on tackling the issues and policies that hinder young
entrepreneurs and businesses in getting started and succeeding in their respective economies.
In addition, the Alliance addresses ways to facilitate cross-border trade.
“The Alliance supports young African entrepreneurs as they seek
to boost youth employment, contribute to trade, and support the
Sustainable Development Goals – recognising that young people
play an important role in wealth creation and poverty reduction”
Songo says.
As they drive trade within and across borders, Songo asserts that the new union will give
young entrepreneurs and businesses a voice with high-level policymakers and enhance the
youth entrepreneurship environment. It will also create a peer network for support and
information sharing:
“At the Commonwealth Alliance, we are currently working out what we can leverage from each
other in our different countries, to help fill the gaps that exist by encouraging inter-governmental
assistance. It is important for young people to know that there are many markets out there that
they can work and succeed in.”
The Commonwealth Alliance of
Young Entrepreneurs unites young
business leaders from several countries
in Southern Africa, seeking to promote
entrepreneurship and trade across
the region.

From the
ground up:
boosting
the start-up
sector
As many entrepreneurs can testify,
getting an enterprise up and running
in African markets can be laborious
and trying for even the most
determined of characters.
Kofi Amegashi explains, for example, that in big multinational companies:
“You walk in as a new employee and everything works. You have a salary,
and they automatically deduct your PAYE, pension funds, medical aid, UIF, etc.
You just fill out a form and everything is sorted. Now when it comes to drawing
up an employment contract for a smaller start-up, sourcing all of these basics can
be very challenging. Currently, these benefits are created to cater to the needs of
larger businesses, and their structures are framed and created to be feasible
in larger multinationals.”
In Amegashi’s view, entrepreneurs need an organisation that considers all of
the gritty challenges facing start-ups.
“Entrepreneurs should be able to buy this ‘start-up kit’
or package online and get going…we are in need of
a massive shake-up in social innovation in business,”
he says. “Today, we talk entrepreneurship but we are
not enabling entrepreneurs to succeed.”

Driving profit
and positive
change in
communities:
It’s not an
either / or…
The Bertha Centre for Social
Innovation and Entrepreneurship is
the first academic centre in Africa
dedicated to advancing social
innovation and entrepreneurship.
It also supports activists and
storytellers working to bring about
social and economic change.
Unsurprisingly, the Centre attracts top talent
to its teams. One such example is Tsakane
Ngoepe, who is part of its Innovative
Finance team.
“The Innovative Finance team works with
social financial experts including government,
social enterprises and researchers.
It conducts research to identify innovative
practices that are solving social problems
in Africa” explains Ngoepe, “Bertha then
‘incubates’ the projects to help sustain them.”
The Bertha Centre also offers a social insight
bond, which is an outcomes-based contract
that is run by the government, together with
social purpose organisations and NGO’s.
The government will effectively pay out a
bond to the social organisation, should the
intervention prove to be effective.
The Centre also runs an Impact Investment
Programme for investments that have a strong
social upliftment element, and measures its
success in both financial and social terms.
“These types of investments are
gaining traction, and are proving
to be an established financial
and social strategy,”
says Ngoepe.
Indeed, the Bertha Centre has launched
the African Investing for Impact Barometer,
which is an annual publication that snapshots
Africa’s fast-growing ‘investing for impact’
market.
As marketers, we need to shift our perspective
on social innovation and its various offshoots.
Instead of thinking of it as abstract or
somewhat intangible, we need to embrace the
fact that the socially driven contributions we
make to society can be measured, profitable
and sustainable. Moreover, this work doesn’t
have to take place within the CSI space alone;
ideally, it should become central to how we
conduct business and grow our brands.
Yellowwood’s Transformative Innovation Model
Benefits: Better revenue
and profit
Better value
for existing
customers
Growing
categories,
developing
new categories
and unlocking
new markets
New
employment or
entrepreneurial
opportunities
Education,
healthcare,
infrastructure
and sustainable
natural resources
Shareholder
Value
Customer
Value
Market
Value
Direct
Employment
Value
Long-term
Societal
Value
T-2 T-1 T T+1 T+2

Leveraging the
right tools and
information to
lead with vision
Today, consumers are watching
their budgets closely and shifting
their spending patterns to favour
the essentials. While some changes
in spending patterns may be
predictable, we suspect that
marketers may be caught off-guard
by some of the less obvious trends
provoked by the global downturn.
To help us to identify these shifts, Dr Mignon Reyneke, Senior Lecturer at GIBS
Business School and a marketing business strategy consultant, points to the
‘foresight effect’5
, centred on international research conducted by Oleg Urminsky
and Adelle X Yang of the Chicago Booth School of Business.
“The foresight effect explores how local optimism
motivates consistency in brand and purchase decisions,
and local pessimism motivates variety and shifts in
brand decision-making,” explains Reyneke.
“Consumers sometimes prefer to repeat past choices,
while at other times, the same consumer prefers to try
something new.”
Foresight Effect Framework
Inferences
from
available
information
Local Optimism
Situational
Future Outlook
Preference for
Self-continuity
Consumer
Choices
Increase
Self-continuity
(Avoid Self-change)
Sequential
Choice Consistency
(Repeating Usual Options)
Decrease
Self-continuity
(Seek Self-change)
Local Pessimism
Sequential
Variety Seeking
(Adopting Novel Options)
5
http://home.uchicago.edu/ourminsky/Foresight%20Effect.pdf

© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.PAGE 35 www.ywood.co.za© 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.PAGE 34 www.ywood.co.za
During uncertain times, people tend
to try to control what they can, making
adjustments and decisions that are within
their control – with brands being one of
the most obvious and variable elements.
Looking ahead, the opportunity lies in
becoming a brand that is a ‘champion’
and that stands firmly against consumer
frustrations during difficult times.
From our vantage point as marketing strategists, this is an important concept,
and one that could trigger a refresh of existing brand and marketing strategies.
If not, a slowing consumer spending cycle will surely worsen.
With this model in mind, Yellowwood was eager to explore current attitudes in
South Africa, and how consumers relate their attitudes to how they spend their
money and which brands they select. We conducted a mobile study on a
representative sample of n=1147 people6
in South Africa. The study revealed a
connection between people’s attitudes about their present and future, and
switching between the brands that they regularly purchase.
When asked about the current South African context with reference to economic
instability, lack of employment and the general political landscape, 1 in 4 people
reported that they are unhappy with where they are in life right now.
Notably, being positive or negative about the future seems to be driven by income,
with significant differences around age and race. Those who said they felt
negatively about the future were skewed towards people who were 50 years of age
and older, as well as people who have a household income of less than R4000 a
month. Individuals aged 25-34, were significantly more positive about their future
in South Africa.
This optimism translates into brand purchasing behaviour. A major proportion
of people who are negative about the future stated that they never buy the same
brands, while people who are positive about the future stated that they always
stick to the brands they regularly buy.
Interestingly, 23% stated that they always stick to brands
that they regularly buy, with an overwhelming majority (72%)
stating that they tend to change the brands they buy based
on what they can afford. This affordability aspect speaks to
the prevailing economic climate, with 54% saying they watch
their money more now than they have in the past.
Taking these insights into account, it is important to look for ways to mitigate
the instincts of consumers to switch brands as a way of protecting their future
prospects – and Yellowwood believes that this can be achieved through
social innovation.
6
sample recorded in South Africa over the period of 5 - 14 July 2016

With this in mind, we have compiled a guideline
for marketers to start forming targeted Social
Innovation strategies:
Guidelines for marketers
to start forming targeted
Social Innovation strategies
1+1=3: How Can Social Innovation
Change Cultures and Create Public Value?
A Mediterranean Comparative Multiple
Case Study
Ricardo Altimira Vega, Ilaria Bassi
Monica De Melo Freitas, Rocco Frondizi
Marco Meneguzzo, José Manuel Resende
Young entrepreneur sees big potential in
underserviced South African townships
http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/
young-entrepreneur-sees-big-potential-in-
underserviced
-south-african-townships/
Interview with Khaya Mtshali
Former design lecturer and current Strategic
Designer at Village Strategic Design
Interview with Kofi Amegashi
Executive Director at the African Leadership
Institute
Social Progress Index Report
http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/
global-index/
Michael Green TED X Talk
What the Social Progress Index can reveal
about your country
https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_green_
what_the_social_progress_index_can_reveal_
about_your_country?language=en
Interview with Garth Japhet
Co-Founder of the Soul City Institute for Health
and Development and CEO of Heartlines
Interview with Bryony Maxwell
Head of Marketing at Harambee Youth
Employment Accelerators
The Power of Positive Deviance: How
Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s
Toughest Problems
Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin and Monique
Sternin
Interview with Rowan Spazzoli
Co-Founder of AllSafe
Interview with Rapelang Rabana
Founder and CEO of Rekindle Learning
Interview with Karabo Songo
Group Founder and CEO of Olive
Communications and Trustee of the Board
of the Commonwealth Alliance of Young
Entrepreneurs
Interview with Tsakane Ngope
Innovative Finance Analyst
Interview with Dr Mignon Reyneke
Senior Lecturer at GIBS Business School and
Marketing Business Strategy Consultant
Finally, we believe
that it is critical to
recognise that
businesses can be
profitable and drive
Social Innovation
at the same time.
Armed with unique
cultural insights,
a broader world
view and business
prowess, local
marketers can lead
the change that
communities so
desperately need.
At the same time,
our brands will
grow stronger and
gain the relevance
they need to survive
in fast-changing and
competitive markets.
Conclusion
Place Social Innovation at the core of business
strategy. It cannot operate as a separate CSI
project or tick-box affair.
Take the bigger picture into account and
avoid working in silos - environments
are interconnected.
Devise operating models that consider
the socio-cultural impact of the business.
Listen to conversations before starting
new ones. Marketers should gain a deeper
understanding of the context in which key
consumer trends arise.
Instead of trying to ‘lead a movement’,
provide the platform to draw attention to
the things that matter most to consumers.
Stop collecting more and more information and
start creating and applying knowledge in ways
that make you more relevant
www.ywood.co.za © 2016 YELLOWWOOD. All rights reserved.
References

Get in touch
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Fax: +27 21 425 0338
David Blyth, CEO
Email: davidb@ywood.co.za
www.ywood.co.za
@askYellowwood
Yellowwood
info@ywood.co.za

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