Because the worlds of business and impact have worked in silos for too long, we create Hybrids that leverage business to scale impact.
Why hybrid strategies?
Solutions already exist that could solve most of the world's problems, yet many fail to scale. Often, this is because of silos. Because good ideas in one sector are not known in the next where they could solve common issues. Because design thinkers, engineers, business executives, marketers, ethnographs, and others in other fields do not know each other. Because companies large and small, social enterprises and NGOs have not found common grounds to work together. Because funders struggle to find target investees while social and inclusive businesses starve for cash.
A large part of our work consists in breaking those silos, helping link actors who need each other to maximise their impact, catalysing collaborations across our clients; and also "walking the talk” ourselves, partnering with individuals and organisations with complementary skills.
+ We broker partnerships between different players of the inclusive business ecosystem
- supporting large companies in designing their partnership strategy with other companies, NGOs, or donors, to scale their inclusive business impact, e.g., supporting Unilever in leveraging partnerships to achieve its sustainable sourcing goals
- helping investors identify and evaluate social enterprises, e.g., building the initial pipeline and conducting due diligence for Engie Rassembleurs d'Energies fund
- helping public and private donors design their Private Sector Engagement initiatives, e.g., helping he French Development Agency design its social business strategy
+ We catalyze coalitions of public and private sector players
- setting up coalitions of actors to tackle issues that no one player can tackle alone, e.g., designing the strategy and running the first 18 months of the Toilet Board Coalition, a coalition of leading companies (Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, LIXIL Corporation, Firmenich), investors, experts and non-profits, who accelerate market-based sanitation initiatives
- managing multi-company initiatives, e.g., Accelerator of the B4IGinitiative, an alliance of 35+ large corporates and the OECD
- designing the best vehicles for impact across an industry, e.g. the African Cotton Foundation to allow cotton ginners to improve they livelihoods
+ We co-lead consortium of like-minded professionals with complementary skills
- founded and co-leading the Global Distributors Collective with Practical Action and BopInc
- leading consortia of service providers to tackle complex inclusive business issues, e.g., supporting Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation private partners alongside Ogilvy on marketing, Ri.Se on product innovation, ThinkPlace on consumer centric design...
- conducting multi-year on-the-ground programs together with local partners, e.g., co-leading with NGO GRET Project Meriem to fight malnutrition in Sahel with a group of 7 partners
