Post by Trade facilitator on Sept 14, 2017 9:08:36 GMT 1
Businessmen make investment decisions for many reasons but it is certain that every entrepreneur set up a business primarily to meet consumer needs and make profit. The concept of impact in business relates to both tangible and intangible effects your shareholders, employees, customers, as well as the society at large. Although impact has always been a major focus of businesses, the current economic climate further nudges the necessity of making impact to the survival of any business.
Reputation of one is essential to a business survival and in the same vein, making impact and indeed positive ones is key to building good reputation for business survival. Building good reputation benefits a business in many ways such as growth in customer base and loyalty, as well as a raise in bottom line. For instance, customers tend to have preference for products that have built reputation in quality and consistency.
An American study on organizational reputation reflects that quality, social responsibility, customer focus, reliability, and emotional appeal are five of many components of organizational reputation (Business in Focus Magazine 2016).
Businesses build either positive or negative reputation based on their environmental, social, or economic impact. Respect and protection of the environment, resource use, and practices devoid of danger are essential to environmental impact of a business.
Businesses that are resource/energy efficient for example tend to build positive reputation in the same manner, financial performance goes a long way to determine the reputation of a business just as social responsibility, employee wages, prices, and value derived from purchase of products and services are part of social impact a business may bring on the society. It is however almost to build good business reputation or make impact in a community without considering and including every member of the community in the operation of the business. A business that seeks to deliver impact seeks to integrate all members including low income, vulnerable members.
This concept is however, not yet widely practice on the African continent even though it involves including the often neglected population groups in the process of business operations. UNDP defines it as a commercially viable model that benefits low-income communities (those who live on less than 8 dollar a day) including them in a company’s value chain on the demand side as clients and consumers, and/or on the supply side as producers, entrepreneurs or employers. (United Nations Development Programme report 2008). Often times, businesses tend to assume that location only contributes to poverty alleviation or just economic development, but fail to realize the business case of improving bottom line. In other words, a business opportunity like the International Finance Corporation outs it, ‘Shared Prosperity’.
Reputation of one is essential to a business survival and in the same vein, making impact and indeed positive ones is key to building good reputation for business survival. Building good reputation benefits a business in many ways such as growth in customer base and loyalty, as well as a raise in bottom line. For instance, customers tend to have preference for products that have built reputation in quality and consistency.
An American study on organizational reputation reflects that quality, social responsibility, customer focus, reliability, and emotional appeal are five of many components of organizational reputation (Business in Focus Magazine 2016).
Businesses build either positive or negative reputation based on their environmental, social, or economic impact. Respect and protection of the environment, resource use, and practices devoid of danger are essential to environmental impact of a business.
Businesses that are resource/energy efficient for example tend to build positive reputation in the same manner, financial performance goes a long way to determine the reputation of a business just as social responsibility, employee wages, prices, and value derived from purchase of products and services are part of social impact a business may bring on the society. It is however almost to build good business reputation or make impact in a community without considering and including every member of the community in the operation of the business. A business that seeks to deliver impact seeks to integrate all members including low income, vulnerable members.
This concept is however, not yet widely practice on the African continent even though it involves including the often neglected population groups in the process of business operations. UNDP defines it as a commercially viable model that benefits low-income communities (those who live on less than 8 dollar a day) including them in a company’s value chain on the demand side as clients and consumers, and/or on the supply side as producers, entrepreneurs or employers. (United Nations Development Programme report 2008). Often times, businesses tend to assume that location only contributes to poverty alleviation or just economic development, but fail to realize the business case of improving bottom line. In other words, a business opportunity like the International Finance Corporation outs it, ‘Shared Prosperity’.
