Table Of ContentTHE SOCIAL
INNOVATION
IMPERATIVE
Create Winning Products, Services,
and Programs That Solve Society’s
Most Pressing Challenges
SANDRA M. BATES
New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City
Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
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For my three amazing sons Joshua, Matthew, and Seth—and my bonus
daughter Lindsey—the ultimate blessings and joys of my life.
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CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xv
Part | 1 Investigate 1
Chapter | 1 Defi ne the Social Challenge 3
Chapter | 2 Understand and Prioritize the Needs 43
Chapter | 3 Examine the Opportunities 82
Part | 2 Innovate the Solution 109
Chapter | 4 Devise a Workable Solution 111
Chapter | 5 Develop a Business Model 148
Part | 3 Implement the Solution 169
Chapter | 6 Diffusion of Innovation 171
Chapter | 7 Health Care 182
•• vv ••
vvii •• CCoonntteennttss
Chapter | 8 Resource Conservation 198
Chapter | 9 What Citizens Want 210
Notes 226
Index 234
FOREWORD
It’s certainly exciting to see all the attention being paid to social innova-
tion over the past decade. Nothing could be more worthy of our time,
resources, and focus than creating solutions to alleviate some of the
world’s most pressing social problems. We are inspired by social innova-
tion successes such as Grameen in microfi nance, Teach for America in
education, and MinuteClinic in health care. And because we are not
simply dealing with the corporate bottom line, the rewards of success and
the consequences of failure are immense.
Social innovation—as with any type of innovation—is fraught with
challenges. No doubt the challenges of addressing the needs of the poor,
uninsured, and homeless are exacerbated in comparison to other types of
innovation. Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that social innovation
should not and cannot benefi t from a systematic approach adapted from
the best practices applied to innovation in other domains.
At its core, social innovation is about satisfying a particular type of
need of a particular group of people. It is not about whether the solution
is created by a for-profi t or not-for-profi t entity. Social innovation shares a
requirement with other types of innovation—to understand the needs of
those affected, to devise innovative solutions to address those needs, and
to deliver the solution so that its value can be realized. As such, it can also
share in the insights gleaned from innovation in other spheres. The truth
of this statement can be seen in a recent personal experience.
•• vviiii ••
viii • Foreword
My wife and I felt fortunate recently to discover an innovative com-
pany in the health-care space. We had visited our pediatrician on more
than one occasion to get a diagnosis and treatment for an unknown
growth on the fi nger of our youngest daughter, Julia. The diagnosis:
“Don’t know.” The treatment plan: “Wait and see.” We had waited—
hence, multiple visits. It was now time to escalate the medical care to
a specialist.
We are not uninsured, but we may as well have been. Our search for
dermatologists in our insurance network indicated that the closest derma-
tologist was more than an hour’s drive away and that she would be happy
to see us at her next available appointment—more than six weeks out.
The search for an out-of-network dermatologist was no more reassuring.
It would also take many weeks to be seen and would cost more than $150
for the visit. Ouch!
So we took a small but calculated risk on a company called JustAnswer.
com. JustAnswer provides an online platform for people to ask questions of
experts in a variety of professional fi elds, including health care. Its stated
mission: “equal access to Experts for all” via a platform that provides “a
fast, affordable and convenient way to connect with Experts.” Sounds like
social innovation to me.
So we asked our question, shared information and images with our
online expert, Dr. Nair, and got our answer. A common wart. We took
Dr. Nair’s advice, and the wart was gone within a few weeks. With Just-
Answer, we were able to engage Dr. Nair at our convenience—not his
since it was after midnight for him. We were able to “see” Dr. Nair imme-
diately and were able to obtain our diagnosis within a couple of hours. And
the cost for getting our answer? $19. We happily provided a tip for Dr. Nair.
Whether JustAnswer is a for-profi t or not-for-profi t entity is beside
the point. The point is that—at least for us—JustAnswer provided
more affordable and convenient access to health-care services than was
available to us with the standard health-care system. And the point is
also this: Despite the focus on affordable health-care access—a social
challenge—our underserved needs could have been readily gleaned from
Foreword • ix
a simple conversation with us about our frustrations with current health-
care options for the problem we were facing. With these needs in mind,
JustAnswer has devised and delivered a classic “good enough” disruptive
innovation. In other words, JustAnswer has applied the best practices of
innovation in other spheres to innovation to address a social problem.
And you can too!
This is the value that Sandra Bates provides in The Social Innovation
Imperative, which offers a practical and systematic innovation process that
builds on innovation’s best practices while still recognizing the unique
challenges facing social innovation initiatives. Over the past several years,
I have had the pleasure of working alongside Sandy as we led innovation
projects and trained innovation champions in companies from a diverse
variety of industries. I know the expertise, experience, and passion she
brings to social innovation.
Social innovation does not need to be a mysterious “black box” pro-
cess. Like other types of innovation, it can be approached in a systematic
manner, and Sandy shows how in this book. Sandy is not simply laying
out best practices that she hopes will work. Rather, as she shows through
countless illustrations, the methodology, tools, and templates of The Social
Innovation Imperative have been tried, tested, and refi ned through years
of application.
In our training work together, one comment that we received often
was how refreshing it was to get practical guidance and tools concerning
how to actually do the work of innovation. Though a lot of this praise was
rightly the result of the innovation process we were using, it was also in
no small part a response to Sandy’s desire and skill to make the theoreti-
cal practical through hands-on tools and templates. As she has done with
innovation training, Sandy does in The Social Innovation Imperative. She
makes the theoretical practical, and the reader is sure to benefi t from her
extensive and practical experience.
Peter Drucker once wrote that, “Above all, innovation is work rather
than genius. It requires knowledge. It often requires ingenuity. And
requires focus.”1 If you are wondering, “How can I work smarter to focus
