Social impact programs not only contribute to societal and environmental well-being but also provide tangible business benefits, making them a vital component of corporate strategies. What does it truly mean to be a purpose-driven company in the tech industry? And how can companies harness technology innovations and strategic partnerships to address global, social challenges while driving business value? In this episode, our experts explore how technology is transforming corporate ESG programs, highlighting how it creates a synergy between social impact and business growth, all while keeping people at the core of their mission.
Social impact programs not only contribute to societal and environmental well-being but also provide tangible business benefits, making them a vital component of corporate strategies. What does it truly mean to be a purpose-driven company in the tech industry? And how can companies harness technology innovations and strategic partnerships to address global, social challenges while driving business value?
In this episode, our experts explore how technology is transforming corporate ESG programs, highlighting how it creates a synergy between social impact and business growth, all while keeping people at the core of their mission.
Featured experts
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan, Head of Social Impact, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Faith Taylor, Global Citizenship and Sustainability Officer, Kyndryl
Tom Rourke 00:00
Hi, I'm Tom Rourke, VP for Design, Insights and Innovation at Kyndryl Consult, and I'm your host today for the latest episode of The Progress Report. In recent years, we've seen a significant expansion in social enterprise programs within organizations. They're recognized for the value they bring in terms of employee engagement, customer trust in brands and overall, doing the right thing in terms of a company's responsibility within the societies in which they operate. They've also faced headwinds, with some companies beginning to step back from some of their commitments. Today, I'm delighted to be joined by two experts in the field of social enterprise, Wen Jie, who is Head of Social Impact at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and my colleague and friend, Faith Taylor, who is Global Citizenship and Sustainability Officer for Kyndryl. So, Wen Jie, Faith, welcome to The Progress Report.
Faith Taylor 00:49
Thank you for having us.
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 00:50
Indeed. Thank you so much, Tom.
Tom Rourke 00:52
So, Wen Jie, maybe I could start with you. Social enterprise has become a more prominent theme lately. But can you maybe just describe for our audience what social enterprise means to you?
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 01:01
Yeah, I think for me, my mind comes to the term "triple bottom line" in terms of people, purpose and profit, and to have those three things integrated together is what comes to mind in social enterprise. And so social enterprise doesn't just look at doing business and generating revenue. It also doesn't just look at creating a social good. It really integrates the two of them so that they're almost having a symbiotic relationship. So that's what it means to me.
Tom Rourke 01:29
And maybe, Faith, a term that some of us might have been more familiar with was Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Social enterprise seems somehow richer or broader than that. Maybe you could help us understand the difference between what we would have understood as CSR in the past and social enterprise now.
Faith Taylor 01:29
I would say that social enterprise now has really been the compassion or the heart and lungs of delivering the results through people. And when you really look at people, how do you inspire our people,Kyndryls, as well as people externally, to help us get to those goals that have an impact? A positive impact on our communities, on our well being, on delivering sustainability goals. So it's really moved from just more of what I would say, the "Corporate Social Responsibility" naming, but incorporating, what I would say, the authenticity and the people element into that agenda.
Tom Rourke 02:32
The people element seems very important in terms of how we engage and why we engage. For an enterprise, what are the benefits the company is expecting to get from that commitment?
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 02:42
At the core, our mission at HPE really is to advance the way that people live and work. It is something that we say day in and day out. We do that with our customers, and when we think of advancing the way that people live and work, yes, we do that through innovation with our customers, but also we do that through engaging our team members. Why it's important for us is the people, and our people are the most important thing in our organization. And I think there's lots of research, but also, in some sense, common sense that when your people are happy, they're able to bring their full selves to work. And then, likewise, when they're happy at work, they're able to bring their full selves back to their family. And so for us, this is all, like what Faith said, it's all about the people. Can we bring people along together? Can we build community, both internally within HPE, but then also between our team members and the communities where they live and work?
Tom Rourke 03:34
And I know, Faith, right from the beginning, we at Kyndryl, the culture was was kind of held out as a really important theme. And I think your own role, indeed, was a very significant investment in signaling that that culture was a much deeper thing. You have a long track record in this world. What were the things that you would have been looking for when you came to Kyndryl in terms of determining whether or not we were for real about this, if you like?
Faith Taylor 03:58
Absolutely, it was leadership. Our leadership commitment to the culture. It's actually something that we put into action. The first leadership summit that we had was all focused on culture, and culture has really been embedded into how we deliver the business results. In fact, how we transform ourselves is aligned with culture. Culture, for us, has been being restless, and for me, it's been a sense of urgency to focus on our environmental, social governance, where within the first 18 months, we delivered our first report and had goals and metrics and delivered against them. And then empathetic to me was all about that we truly care. And caring for me has been about our people, but not only our people, our communities. At the end of the day, it's about collaboration. We collaborate with HPE, we collaborate internally across functions, but also to get this done, we have to work with organizations outside of our groups, and we've done that effectively to scale. And as you know, we measure engagement all the time, and it's a key area of focus. Do people want to be here? Would they recommend being here? And to me, that's been very, very important that we're actually taking this purpose and all of these goals and turning them into action, and we're measuring the results. To me, that's real impact, because in this day and age, it's easy to say you have a goal. It's harder to be able to deliver the actions against them credibly.
Tom Rourke 04:06
That's really interesting. And actually, can I go back to you on this one, Wen Jie? That connection between purpose, goals and then measures, you know, being able to demonstrate that you've had that impact. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about how HPE has approached that? And maybe, if there are any kind of things that are unique to HPE, it would be nice to understand those.
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 05:57
So for us, on a company level, health, climate, human rights, specifically the modern slavery issue, are three key pillars in which we are focusing on. And on metrics of success, they are pretty simple. It's a case of, are we enabling innovators, particularly from diverse and underrepresented communities? Are we enabling these innovators to develop solutions that improve lives and livelihoods across the themes of health, climate and human rights? And if we are showing that we are investing our money in the right places, helping the right communities, and then taking these innovations out to market scale and reaching more consumers with their products that make a difference in the world, that for us is a measure of success with regards to our strategy. On a flip side, when we look at our team members, we offer 60 paid volunteer time off for our team members to use whenever they wish, benefits such as donation matching and volunteer rewards we provide. And what for us is really important here,we do have in the back of our mind benchmarks and statistics of how well we're doing year over year, but what's really important, I think, is, are we creating the right structure so that if our team members want to show up in their community, they know that we support them? As opposed to it being a case of us as a company dictating that this is how our team members should show up in our community. And so we really want to, again, provide structure in the culture so that they know they're supported to show up in whatever way that they want and that they feel comfortable to do so without necessarily, again, the pressure from us to hit a particular arbitrary number, if you will.
Tom Rourke 07:37
There is definitely a sense that career advancement is always important, but purpose is becoming even more so. And to what extent does the existence and the caliber of your social enterprise programs become a really significant determinant to the talent that you attract?
Faith Taylor 07:54
I would say that purpose actually drives action, but more importantly, it drives commitment. And at the end of the day, when we really look at the purpose, and you look at the challenges that we face, when you look at climate change, when you look at poverty, when you look at the challenges with inclusive economies and regulations, it really does make people think about what they can do in their everyday lives. And if you give them that opportunity within not only at home, but at their work, it actually improves and retains and helps people understand that their jobs mean more than just developing a service or a product, but they're actually having an impact. More and more companies understand that because of the request, to be frank with you, with their own employees. You see it with customers. We see it with partners like Fred and HPE. You see this in terms of, "How can we be part of the solutions?" I really believe that.
Tom Rourke 09:07
We had a discussion around this distinction between best principles and best practice, and I'd really love to develop that because, as I reflected on it overnight, I could see how best practice can become something of a tick box, but best principles becomes a much more enduring concept. Wen Jie, maybe you could just talk a little bit about your view on that and the difference it makes to be more focused on principles than simply best practices.
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 09:30
For us at HPE, instead of mandating that specific geographies should achieve a 25% volunteer rate, for example, we take a look to see, "What does the world need and what's the principle behind it?" One example of how we brought this principle into practice, instead of giving people a check box if you need to volunteer X number of hours a day, we took a look to say, "What's an issue that we know our team members care about?" And one thing they care about is modern slavery, human trafficking. So, we took a look at the ecosystem and we saw most nonprofits, especially large international organizations running on legacy IT infrastructure, probably 50% of them would say that the way that they handle digital is not really effective. So we came in and said, "Wait, we have technologists who spend their time going out with companies to help these companies develop a digital transformation strategy. Why not we pair these technologists to an organization like the International Rescue Committee, and help the International Rescue Committee come up with their digital transformation strategy?" And in so doing that, not only did our team members manage to volunteer in a way that felt true to them, but also helped with their professional development. These technologists took this project and the use case and took it to their people leader and said, "Look at how I have gone above and beyond and stretched and developed my skills in new ways." This was right for our company at this time. This is one thing to which I say, when we look at principles versus practices, where is a company on its maturity journey? And what makes sense for its next level of maturity in terms of how to engage with the external ecosystem and with team members? And based on that maturity journey, you can live the right principles and adopt the right action without a hyper-focus on practices, and in so doing, you almost miss the mark if you only focus on practices.
Tom Rourke 11:25
I'm also conscious, though at various times, that things that change over time is the general sort of macro-political environment can change. And, unfortunately, we've seen at least some signals of some organizations perhaps resiling from earlier commitments in this space. And maybe I might just invite both of you and start with yourself, Faith, about your response to that, in terms of like, if others are stepping back, what's your view about what we should do?
Faith Taylor 11:49
We have built social impact into the foundation of our company. And so fundamentally, we will continue to lift communities focusing on building volunteerism and engagement. These programs, Environmental, Social, and Governance programs, delivers value. Whether it is through reducing expenses or increasing profitability by offering services and products in this area. Or if it's managing risk and meeting compliance and regulations around the world. Or if it's all about driving engagement and retaining and recruiting our associates, but also reporting on this to our investors, to our suppliers and customers. So there is true business value to what we're doing, and focusing on that, as well as being able to manage the landscape as it continues to change, is critical. I call this building resilience in the business. How do you do that? There's a huge amount of education and collaboration that we're going to have to do, and trust. And trust is built on demonstrating that we are doing the right thing. So what is the value? How do we build resilience in our businesses?
Tom Rourke 13:27
And Wen Jie, your experience at HP Enterprise, what advice would you give to someone who is seeking to establish a social enterprise program within their organization, as those sort of key considerations for gaining support?
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 13:40
I think a couple of layers. One, again, is to understand the business, understand the fabric of the company, and what's important to the company. So an example for us, when we launched a new strategy three years ago, the first pillar that we launched was the climate pillar, and that's because our leadership and climate sustainability is a huge, long legacy of our company, and it was really easy to build on that. And so what is the right thing for your company and the right thing at the right time? And so always be cognizant on the culture of the company, the maturity journey of the company, and the strategy of the company, because at the end, that is what's going to make a program successful in the long term. Now that might mean that at day one or day 100, you might not be at the end point of where you think your organization or your practice should be, and it's okay. Maybe at times it means that you are less vocal on some issues and more vocal on others, and that is also okay. To paint that into perspective for us, we speak up at really key moments and we don't at others, and that's because we recognize when we have a right to say something and when we don't have a right to say something. And so an issue like that, when we frame it in this lens, we find allies everywhere, and it makes the work a lot easier, I think, for us to move with. And so again, when we think of evolving a social impact program, the environment, the context, the connections, the time, the manner. All these things are as important, if not, in my mind, more important than the, "What do you actually do?" How you do it, oftentimes, is what makes or breaks a program.
Faith Taylor 15:15
I just want to support what you're saying in terms of how you communicate this, because at the end of the day, you can say the same thing in multiple ways. And choosing your words wisely and how you communicate this from a global perspective is critical today. And even our program, you know, we're only three years old. So we're still what I say, I call it "Progress versus perfection." We're still developing. We're still implementing many programs. We found climate action is critical. Building sustainable futures, educating in terms of forward future education, skilling, and we've doubled down on cyber security, because that actually is a long-term sustainable skill that we've implemented globally. And then, at the end of the day, inclusivity, right? And we work very closely with our resource groups and making sure that happens. What I really like is partnership, because certain organizations are going to stay with you or not, depending on where you stand. And I think it's up to each company to make that decision on what's right for them. But let's just be frank, it is going to evolve. When you've been in this space for many, many years, you're going to see this transition. Where are we going to be five years from now? It's going to be very different than what we are today. So the core foundation is the values, and that's going to be critical in this space, right? Staying true to your values and then communicating that and saying that in terms of how you say it being very careful with that, and how you do that.
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 16:58
One of my favorite quotes was in a book by Elizabeth Moran, who said that, "Change is an emotional problem wrapped in a business context." And I feel like sometimes we take care of the business pretty well, right? Again, it's the metrics, it's the data, it's the action and the practice. When the change really happens for the most part, even in the most detail-oriented and data-driven people, there is still an emotion attached to change, and the communication that enables that change is so key. So yeah, I just wanted to plus one to what you saidthere, Faith.
Faith Taylor 17:34
And I want to add what Maya Angelou actually said, "It's not what you said, but it's how you make people feel."
Tom Rourke 17:44
We like to finish on The Progress Report in terms of a look to the future and what progress might look like in the years ahead. Maybe if I could invite you both specifically within your field, what are the things that you would like to see or expect to see in the field of social enterprise in the years ahead? So, Wen Jie, maybe I could start with you and then come to you, Faith.
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 18:04
There are two key things that I hope for and that I wish for and want to work towards. One is a democratization of where power lies. You know, in the sense that when we're talking about people, can we enable grassroots, our team members, people with lived experience, to be the decision-makers of what we as organizations and leaders choose to do and where we choose to put our effort? Can we have this movement that's dictated by, again, the people whose lives we are actually trying to help? Can we engage them in making those decisions? That's something that I feel really strongly about, in terms of democratizing how we do philanthropy and how we how we try to create an impact. The second thing I hope for, and you know, I think it can be a byproduct of the first, is can we hold ourselves accountable and honest? With every cycle and with every threshold, it gives us an opportunity for us to evaluate if what we're doing is making the most impact. And when I think of the tech industry, there's something that I really wished would happen and then that we moved to, and I think we're starting to see that. You think, in tech companies, almost all of us do STEM education. STEM education programs are incredibly important, especially for girls and different communities, and we do that because we want to see more representation in the tech industry. There is huge potential there for us to create opportunities for the talent that does exist out there. There is talent. It's not a talent gap, it's an opportunity gap. And it's an opportunity gap because we need to do a better job at opening up opportunities for all. And these two things are what I hope will change. One again, democratizing decision making and power. And the second is, "Are we opening up the right opportunities? Are we keeping ourselves honest, and are we really progressing at the way that we want the world to move?"
Faith Taylor 19:58
When I look at progress and I look at technology, at the end of the day, I really believe that it's about access, and that there is global access for everyone on the planet. And right now, that is something that I believe we can truly achieve. And when I look at my family, and I look at what's happening on a global basis. If we can give people access to technology that enables a new future, a fair future, access to clean water, fresh air, food. When you have your fundamentals taken care of, then you can also be creative. You can build resiliency, and you can build economics in terms of communities. And so I truly believe that's why I'm here, to work with technology to enable that. And it's all about intent. And so my hope for the future is that the good that we see, that what we're actually building here, is going to translate to that positive movement forward. And we actually are at an interesting time. To be frank with you, I think that what we're going through right now is a huge transformation, and I truly believe that we can take what we do here and enable the good for the future. So that's my hope. And I'm really proud that we have these discussions so that people can have the opportunity to talk about it is just in and of itself, to be frank, you can't do this in every country. So we should be happy that we even have this platform to really discuss this and talk about it. So, thank you. I'm appreciative.
Tom Rourke 21:56
Thank you both for a fascinating conversation this afternoon on The Progress Report. I'm particularly taken by your focus on best principles versus best practice, and I'm certainly clear in my mind that that focus is what's going to allow your programs to sustain themselves in the face of some of the headwinds that these programs have faced. The right thing to do is always the right thing to do. Thank you both.
Fred (Wen Jie) Tan 22:17
Thank you so much, Tom.
Faith Taylor 22:18
Thank you so much, Tom and Wen Jie.
Tom Rourke 22:21
Thank you for joining us on The Progress Report today, and if you liked what you heard, please stay in touch. Like, share, and subscribe.