Measuring Shared Value

How to Unlock Value by Linking Business and Social Results

Michael E. Porter, Greg Hills, Marc Pfitzer, Sonja Patscheke, Elizabeth Hawkins

Measuring shared value allows companies to maximize opportunities for innovation, growth, and social impact at scale. This article explains the specific purpose of shared value measurement and offers a step-by-step process and pragmatic approaches to measurement with examples from leading companies.

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Syed Adeel	(10/11/2012 2:35:05 PM)

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Interesting in looking at the measurement aspect of the framework. As for the model itself, I do not find it any different from the social entrepreneurship concepts we saw 10 years ago.

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Greg Hillls	(10/11/2012 4:35:13 PM)

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Syed, thanks for your response. As one of the authors, I can say that you are absolutely right that the measuring shared value approach is quite similar to (and builds upon) the good thinking and practice in the social entrepreneurship space. The distinction is that most for profit companies do not operate like social entrepreneurs, i.e., they do not consider how progress on social issues connects directly to business performance. This requires "new muscles" for companies, including applying different tools, management processes, and incentives. We see tremendous opportunity for companies to do more of this and hope this report illuminates that this is indeed possible.

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Syed Adeel	(10/12/2012 4:11:08 PM)

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Thanks Greg for taking the time to reply. Agree to the emphasis on exploring the opportunity further. Companies are still not intentional about finding intersections between segments of market that can pay for their services and segments that can not. Creative involvement of other segments of society to help company's operations and profitability is the direction I have taken for my career and encourage others along also. The idea however is not unique.

Sara Farooqi	(11/18/2012 4:09:42 AM)

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The HBR article, "Creating Shared Value," was pivotal for me, describing perfectly my perspective and approach as an MBA student focusing on socially responsible business. I was excited to read this follow-up article, noticing that 'The Shared Value Measurement Process' overlaps with the Human-Centered Design (hcd.org) approach to innovation I am currently exploring in one of my courses. HCD is all about iterating, developing empathy and prototyping early, with an overarching focus on addressing social challenges. I'm currently blogging about my experiences as a b-school student and attempt to apply the concept of 'Shared Value' here: http://sarainnovates.com/?p=8 .

Stephanie Lepp	(1/6/2013 1:59:51 PM)

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Thanks for this overview of the emerging shared value measurement space. Insightful to see what exists and what's missing.

From a systems thinking perspective, we're trying to measure outputs and correlations between different components in a complex business-stakeholder-environment ecosystem, so I imagine systems thinking (and more specifically systems dynamics) would have some light to shed on shared value measurement. Has FSG used systems diagramming or similar tools to 'map' shared value initiatives? Might be an interesting approach.

In this sense, it's a blessing to be required to measure shared value - because doing so will in turn require us to think systemically and collaborate with public health professionals, social workers, community organizers, and others to develop a holistic framework for understanding the relationship between different forms of value. And it is these collaborations that will be the ultimate victory :-)