Engaging the

Masses
Implementing CSR in the Downturn

Mark Turrell
CEO, Imaginatik
NetImpact, 27 May 2009

© Imaginatik 2009 www.imaginatik.com

 About Imaginatik

• Background
o Founded on Ph.D. research on collaboration systems &
human engagement
o Developed many key methods & theories on enterprise
innovation management practices
o Public company listed on London Stock Exchange
[IMTK.L]
• Specialized area: tapping into the brainpower of
hundreds & 000s to solve problems
• 40+ annual corporate clients across range of
industries
• 650K+ licensed end users

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Introduction

•We need to change the world for

better, we have to do it fast - and
social technologies are allowing that
to happen
•Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) now part of boardroom
agenda
•Downturn focusing attention on CSR
programs that can be implemented
at lower cost, with less risk, and with
more tangible impact
Introduction - 2

•Downturn creating new opportunities

for new ways of implementing CSR
programs

•Enterprise crowdsourcing – collective

intelligence & collaboration systems –
can be used faster and at lower cost

•Programs have already proven to be

successful in driving change and
tangible ROI for top firms
 CSR & Problem Solving – the Old
Way
• BOGSAT
o “bunch of guys sitting in a room”
• Suggestion box
• Pay consultants to interview your employees

• Even when you have ideas, they are not

considered from all the relevant angles
o “this year’s cost reduction is next year’s quality
improvement” Anon

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Enterprise Crowdsourcing

• What is it
o Using technology to tap into the brainpower, insights,
knowledge and creative problem solving capability of
large numbers of people to solve problems

• It is different!
o Blogs & wikis
o Social networking

• More focused on outcomes – the ‘human laser

beam effect’
 Implementing Enterprise
Crowdsourcing is Complex!

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CSR is Attractive in a Downturn

• Green for Green

• Employee Engagement

• Compliance
Professional Services Case Study
Wal-Mart Case Study
 Wal-Mart Sustainability Goals

To be supplied 100% by To create zero waste To sell products that

renewable energy sustain our resources
& environment

• Reduce GHG at • 25% reduction in • Align supply chain

existing stores, clubs, solid waste in 2008 around sustainable
DC’s by 20% by 2012 • 5% in packaging product innovations
• Design new prototype by 2013
25-30% more efficient
by 2009
• Fleet 25% more
efficient by 2008,
double by 2015

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 Campaign Background and
Overview
•Sustainability and energy savings – A “Green”
event
o ROI Target $5 Mil savings
o Drive discussion at Associate level

• Engage Personal Sustainability Program (PSP)

Lead at each store/club
• Audience 4,500 US based Associates (Wal-Mart
Stores and Sam’s Clubs (plus select Home Office
Associates)) PSP Leads
o 1 PSP Lead in each store allowed 1 hour/day to
participate
• Big hurdle - how do we focus externally –
collaborate with 4000 others across the
enterprise while also collaborating internally,
17 communicating to hundreds of associates in
 Campaign Background and
Overview
• Additional Challenges Facing the team:
o Expectation that we would have thousands of posts
o Unknown participant base – WM did not know who PSP
leads were
o Uncertainty regarding participant PC skills
o Requirement to simplify, simplify, simplify while
running a rather broad event
o Limited PC access
o Limited ability for WM staff to access training materials
o eMail access (no attachments allowed, unsure if users
had email accts)
o Limited time for facilitators and reviewers to participate

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 A Phased Approach

Step 1: Launch to Select

Stores Clubs Continue to consolidate
(30 stores/5 Clubs) and aggregate ideas

Feb 07 Feb 08 Feb 09 Feb 10

Feb 04 Feb 05 Feb 06 TH F S S Feb 11 Feb 12 Feb 13 Feb 14 Feb 15
M T W Event Closed M T W TH F
Consolidate Ideas

Consolidate Ideas
Re-open to remaining 4000+ US
Stores, Clubs and Home Office PSP
Captains

Allowed us to test registration, access, usability, connections

and to consolidate similar ideas as necessary prior to main launch

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 Hot links

Success
story

Events

Sandbox

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 Lighting Event
Indicator
Scrolling Stats

Alert

Links to jump
to other events

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 Event Indicator

Can select go to portal or

use “Go To” links to go to
another event
Ideas automatically
rotated on random
basis to generate interest
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 So how did it go? Key Event Statistics
Event Ideas* Comments TOTAL Ideas
Top/Should be
Considered
(Level 1)
Lighting 830 453 1283 272

Heating & Cooling 335 230 565 59

Appliances & Displays 300 215 515 154

Refrigeration 133 60 193 54

Other Utilities 919 1235 2154 365

TOTAL 2833 1877 4710 904

Participation: 4,490 Invited 1834 Participated 41% (benchmark is

30-45%)

Idea Contribution rates: 2,833 submitted by 1,059 Associates

(2.7 ideas/contributor)

Comments: 1,877 (3.7 comments/contributor)

*Prior to Consolidation
23 Process
 Anecdotal Information

Many positive stories and comments came out during the event:

“If we could
“Exceeded my
“We set up a only get the
“The expectations
stand outside our WIRE to look
application is already!”
store and asked like this”
really easy to
customers for energy
use”
saving ideas!”
“We made up a
binder of ideas from
“It's nice to hear that the campaign and
someone is listening, went around the store
and responding to our asking associates to
ideas so promptly” read and comment
on the ideas”

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 Wal-Mart Participant Survey

• Overall responses to the Tap Into Our Power

campaign were very positive
• Over 90% of participating managers felt that the
campaign:
o Was a productive use of associates time;
o Was a good way to connect associates to Wal-Mart’s
sustainability goals;
o Would positively impact Wal-Mart’s profitability; and
that
o PSP Captains were effective in connecting associates to
other stores and home office

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 Distinct types of Ideas coming out of the Campaign

Idea Type - Review Comments Recommendations

team rated as
“Best Practices” • Assumes that this is already on a • Number of ideas submitted
check list or is something that is known that falls within this category
at the stores/clubs shows a “Gap” in learning or
• Hundreds of ideas process understanding…this is
an area ripe for conversion to
training and education, check
list development
“Should be • These are ideas that need more • Over time, have teams
Considered” analysis…a huge pool of potentially explore these ideas in greater
good ideas depth – lots of opportunity for
local adoption, “skunk works”
to test them out

“Top Ideas” • These are ideas that rated highly on
the 5 scoring criteria and that the team
felt would yield best results
• Adopt some/all quickly, drive
for quick wins and successes,
report broadly, celebrate and
recognize contributors,
continue to look for other early
adoption ideas within
categories above

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 Top Ideas and Recommendations

Output of the Level 2 Review

teams
Event Ideas Ideas Rated as Ideas Rated Opportunities
Considered by Top ideas as Should Recommended
Level 2 be to Leadership
Reviewers Considered Team
Lighting 76 31 26 6

Heating & Cooling 59 0 12 None*

Appliances & Displays 28 11 8 4

Refrigeration 54 13 32 3

Other Utilities 32 6 8 2

TOTAL 249 58 87 15

*No Heating and Cooling Event Reviewers Participated in the Workshop

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Other Outcomes

• Although not part of the campaign, and not

evaluated by the review team, we noted a
significant number of posts regarding recycling
and waste management, particularly around
o Plastic bags
o Styrofoam cups
o Pallets

• 174+ Posts
o Volume suggests that someone with responsibility for
recycling looks through the db to harvest potential
ideas
 Review Process Outputs

• The focus of this first review cycle was to

identify the top 10-20 ideas for Wal-Mart to focus
on
• Not a once and done process
o There are hundreds of ideas left to harvest
 Hundreds of “Should be Considered” ideas
that will save significant resources
 Hundreds of “Best Practices” ideas that are
ideal learning opportunities for Wal-Mart to
build into check lists and other tools
 Hundreds of Recycling ideas that were not
part of the campaign but were submitted
nonetheless
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 WM Project Key Learnings

• On-going harvesting should be addressed within

the “Should be Considered” and “Best Practices”
categories to wrestle out all potential winning
ideas
• Many of these “small play” ideas can add-up to
significant savings enterprise-wide
• Consider having stores step-up and adopt some
of these smaller play ideas to test adoption and
impact – localize the ideas and make it a
challenge to the stores
• Best practices ideas are ripe opportunities for
Wal-Mart to reinforce training and or build
checklists
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Conclusions & Future
Developments
• CSR projects that drive cost reduction & engage
staff still very attractive
• Downturn forcing firms to look for new ways of
doing things – enterprise crowdsourcing

• Future projects based on the approach will likely

include
o Standardized methods & tools
o Non-competitive projects across companies
o Sharing ideas and outputs, not just the methodology
o Open CSR ecosystems (Engage all stakeholders, from
employees to NGOs)
Contact Details

For more information & white papers, please visit:

www.imaginatik.com

•Mark Turrell
•mark_turrell@imaginatik.com
•US: +1 617 459 4222
•Europe: +44 20 7917 2975