Fourteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Many of today’s challenges have grown at a pace and scale too great for one organization to solve on their own. While organizations increasingly recognize the need to create socially responsible economic impact, the resources and infrastructure to support meaningful collaboration is still nascent. With the emergence of benefit corporations and social enterprises, the purpose of a corporation has expanded from delivering values to shareholders, to all of their stakeholders, for the future success of company and community. Organizations can leverage for-benefit status as the engine to collaborate and drive mutually beneficial innovation, and to prepare for a sustainable future. We propose For-Benefit Collaboration (B-CollabTM) framework, which provides training and technology to facilitate cross-sector partnerships for shared value and collective impact. The B-Collab Workshop facilitates a process of exploration, co-creation, and implementation of cross-sector initiatives. The Workshop and a Workbook are framed around the 4D model with useful design tools including team charter, stakeholder map, business canvas and design brief for the co-creation process. The B-Collab NavigatorTM programs help organizations find suitable collaboration counterparts based on their shared values, complementary programs and resources. B-Collab enables collaborating partners to effectively drive innovation, collective impact and competitive advantage at once. It also helps organizations generate visibility by positioning them as leaders within their sector or industry, attract more resources to the work, and connect their customers as well as employees to a larger cause. Most importantly, it helps to justify the use of business resources toward achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Presenters

Weiqi Huang
Pratt Institute, United States

Xue Bai
Assistant Professor, Advisor to the Chair for Curriculum and Instruction, Creative Enterprise Leadership, Pratt Institute, New York, United States