Finding profit driven impact at #MESTAfricaSummit
The #MESTAfricaSummit on Tuesday hosted a debate on how to make your company sustainable while also making it impactful.
CAPE TOWN – The #MESTAfricaSummit on Tuesday hosted a debate on how to make your company sustainable while also making it impactful.
The debate looked at how companies can also make a profit but still hold corporate social investment as the main aim or purpose of the company.
Saidah Nash Carter, the head of innovation at Thomson Reuters said that innovation ecosystems that can advance a business is the way forward.
She focused on how companies can create revenue models in order to create funds but then these funds must be used in a way that can assist its works, grow the business and further develop the business in order to stay sustainable.
Anders H Lier, the chairman of Nordic Impact, drove the important point that businesses can still be successful and innovative even if they have social investment as a driving force.
Job creation is the driving force for most companies that have profit driven impact as the main focus of their business. Wambui Kinya, the VP at Andela said it is endemic to be for profit but we as the business needs to do more for employment creation.
One of the other main topics with the discussion was how one measures the impact the business has made, Lier said “to measure the impact is not difficult, look at education, employment and financial inclusion”.
Kinya ended by stating that Andela the future is so important. Creating leaders and that shape their community and by in large the African continent is where Andela is focused.
– BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE
Source: iol.co.za
