Social Innovation and Addressing Social Needs

Innovation can be defined as the creative thoughts, new ideas and new imaginations in the form of a method or device. Innovation is often regarded as the application of better solutions with the help of which new requirements, existing market needs and unarticulated needs can be met effectively.  Innovations addressing social needs are the strategies, ideas, and concepts which are adopted by the organizations for the purpose of meeting social needs resulting from education, working conditions, health and community development. The purpose or goal of creating these ideas is strengthening and extending the civil society. This essay focuses on how innovation can address social needs. Tesco has been selected as the organization for this essay for explaining how benefit can be derived by those at the bottom of the pyramid from the innovation imperative. This essay further highlights the manner adopted by Tesco for delivering value.   

There are a number of social challenges faced by the people living in UK such as poverty, social exclusion, health and demographic challenges and substantial levels of inequalities. Therefore, it is the basic need of such people to be capable of overcoming these social challenges. Innovation assists in in addressing social exclusion by way of reducing unemployment along with offering the employment opportunities to the disadvantaged groups. Furthermore, the introduction of new products and services such as simplified and cheaper versions of existing goods can further help in the reduction of differences and inequalities in the living standards of various groups living in the society. Moreover, a number of health challenges can be addressed by innovation through more predictive, preventive and personal healthcare products. In other words, social innovation can play a useful role in providing answers to various social problems and needs when the solutions are not available through the use of conventional approaches. Innovations are mostly made by way of making the use of advanced technology. Technology can be regarded as the immense force for good in the world.  

The bottom of the pyramid can be defined as the socio- economic concept with the help of which the vast segment that consist of the poorest citizens of the world who are blocked by challenging barriers and are therefore prevented from the realization of human potential for their own benefit. This concept refers to the market- based model of economic development, which provides a promise of alleviating the widespread poverty along with providing profits and growth for the multinational corporations. The firms operating in various industries are increasingly adopting this concept. Unlike the traditional models of economic development, the recast of poverty is approached by the bottom of the pyramid as an economic opportunity for MNCs. There are three premises of the basic argument, firstly, the poor population of the world constitutes massive profit potential and growth opportunities for MNCs. Secondly, a leading role should be played by the MNCs for the purpose of unlocking the economic potential of the markets which are difficult to access. Thirdly, the poor of the world are required to be brought into the global economy which, in turn, will generate fortunes for the multinational corporations along with resolving the problem of global poverty. In other words, the population segment at the bottom of the pyramid remains underserved and therefore, there are a number of opportunities for those who have the capability of bringing innovation for the purpose of offering aspirational and original products and services.

The Bottom of the Pyramid and Innovation

Success can be achieved by way of lowering the cost of ownership along with offering quality and features which are aspired by the consumers. Small pack sizes are the most well- known and obvious method for the consumer goods companies for the purpose of targeting the low- income consumers. However, these methods are often not regarded as the best method. There is a requirement for employing other innovations as well and should be based after gaining a proper understanding of the needs of the consumers by engaging the business in the local market.  Furthermore, the chances of the creation of a sustainable business model are also increased with the help of the immersion strategy.           

Tesco is a general merchandise and groceries retailer with headquarters situated in England, United Kingdom. It was founded in the year 1919 as a group of market stalls by Jack Cohen and slowly spread its operations over Ireland, Czech Republic, Malaysia, India, Thailand and Hungary. Tesco is taking a number of initiatives from time to time for the purpose of addressing the social needs with the help of innovation. Tesco is supporting innovation in the growth of new crops by supporting the growers for bringing news products into the market for meeting the social needs. In the year 2104, Tesco started an English apricot industry, the exclusive purple carrots, the first British- grown watermelons and the Trinidad Scorpion, the commercially grown chili sold on the streets of UK.  

Tesco proved that charity is not the only way for the greatest social impacts. It aimed at mobilizing other non- cash resources which are in abundance with the company, such as their distribution networks, supply chains, business footprints and marketing prowess, in order to create business strategies which have the capability of delivering significant social value. The innovation of Tesco for the people belonging to bottom of the pyramid includes ‘Bags of Help’ which is a part of the local grant scheme. This scheme makes the use of the money raised from the government for funding the various local projects for the creation or improvement of the green spaces in the Scotland, Wales, and England’s communities. This scheme will include building of sports facilities, new parks which provide great places to the communities, colleagues and the customers to enjoy.  ‘Bags of Help’ by Tesco is working in those parts of UK which are most disadvantaged. In this way, they assist people in the creation of better places, improving their prospects and allowing them to work and live in a greener way.

The UK people on the bottom of the pyramid suffer from the number of diseases and therefore, it is there social need to stay healthy. Tesco addresses this social need of the UK people by partnering with “Little Helps for healthier living” which brings the expertise and skills of the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Cancer Research UK. The aim of this innovative partnership of Tesco is to lower the risk of circulatory and heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. For a duration of five years, these four organizations planned to work together for assisting the 300,000 colleagues of Tesco and the millions of customers in UK such that the barriers to healthier habits can be removed. The pledge of these four organizations provide for sharing of the findings from their work across the health community of the United Kingdom  for the purpose of assisting in accelerating the progress towards the international and national public health goals. The main goal of this initiative of Tesco is to bring a measurable improvement in the nation’s health.

Tesco’s Innovations for Addressing Social Needs

Another innovative technique adopted by Tesco for meeting the basic social need (i.e. food) of the people living at the bottom of the pyramid is the use of Fare Share Go Support. Fare Share Go is a service that provides access to free surplus food for the community group or charity. The food is of good quality and tasty. Around 2,500 stores of Tesco provide their surplus food through Fare Share Go to the local charities. The local organizations can receive food only by equipping themselves to store, receive, serve and prepare food safely.  Then the organization is visited by the team of Fare Share Go for the purpose of ensuring that the food is being utilized in accordance with the appropriate safety and handling guidelines. In this way, Tesco is able to reach the poor people and meet their needs in an easy manner. Since 2014, Tesco have supported a number of community projects by donating funds for schools, sports groups, animal shelters, health organizations, elderly care centres and much more.  

These innovations are not new for Tesco and are a part of Tesco since so many years. Another innovation that addresses the social needs of the people in UK is the charity campaigning with the help of ATM donations. Tesco Personal Finance has provided an opportunity to its customers to support the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, Tesco Charity of the Year, only by way of using the cash machine at the Tesco stores.  For each and every transaction which is conducted with the help of the cash machine present at the Tesco stores till the end of February 2010, Tesco will donate the funds to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign that aimed at raising £3 million to a fund which will provide specialist equipment to the children suffering from muscular dystrophy. The cure for this condition faced by the children in UK has not been found, however, the quality of life of the children will significantly improve with the help of the equipment funded by this partnership. Muscular dystrophy is regarded as an incurable, devastating and life- limiting condition due to which the muscles of the children waste away which, in turn, makes the children weaker and prevents them from performing even the simple tasks.

Tesco has taken into consideration the above mentioned innovative initiatives for the purpose of delivering value to the people in UK. Those on the bottom of the pyramid can derive a number of benefits from these innovative imperatives adopted by Tesco. All these initiatives were a part of the value- creation mechanism of the organization.  Social needs play an important role for the individuals for the purpose of living a healthy life and therefore are required to be adequately met. With the help of these innovative imperatives of the organization, the people living at the bottom of the pyramid can meet their social needs relating to healthy and sufficient food, disease- free body, clean and green environment etc.  When all these social needs of the people of UK will be met on time, the society will head towards its development. With the passage of time, these people will also become capable of meeting all their health needs and will live a healthy life. If other organizations will also undertake similar initiatives from time to time, the number of people living at the bottom of the pyramid will subsequently reduce. This means that their standard of living will improve and therefore, the society will move towards its development.

Therefore, it can be concluded that innovation is a term that defines creative thoughts, new ideas and new imaginations in the form of a method or device. The concept of bottom of the pyramid provides for the vast segment which consists of the poorest citizens of the world who are blocked by challenging barriers and are therefore prevented from the realization of human potential for their own benefit. This underserved population provides a number of opportunities to the organizations having the capability of bringing innovation for the purpose of offering aspirational and original products and services.  This essay focused on Tesco for gaining understanding regarding how innovation can address social needs. A number of innovative initiatives are undertaken by Tesco from time to time for addressing the health needs and providing food to the needy people and the customers. In this way, it has made its contribution towards meeting the social needs of the people of UK.

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