This year’s Techsauce Global Summit 2018 concluded on Saturday with a talk between David Galipeau, the Chief Impact Officer at UNDP SDG, and Shannon Kalayanamitr, who founded IKIGAI GROUP. As the last speakers, the two opened an interesting discussion about using technology for helping marginalised groups and leading organisations for a broader impact rather than just financial benefits.

Striking a balance between financial growth and impact growth

Based on current priorities in the world, United Nations defined a framework called ESG (environment, social, governance) that presents a way to evaluate corporate behaviour and determine the future financial performance of companies. In simpler terms, it’s a guide for investors to know what to invest in and what not. Recently, another model SDG (sustainable development goals) saw the light of the day – in this model, UN presented 17 goals across various verticals that present a challenge for humanity as a whole. Each issue is underlined by an ongoing environmental, social, health or other issue and is open for entrepreneurs to solve. For companies, focusing on an issue from this framework will mean financial benefits as solving this problem will attract attention of financial backers and investors as well as it impacts the society at large.

Does it make sense to follow this framework?

Both Shannon and David agreed that it makes financial sense to pursue opportunities within the SDG framework. As previously mentioned, focusing on a meaningful issue will enable the company to attract the attention of other foundations and investors that are likely to support the cause. For example, one of the goals is good health and well-being. A company or startup developing a product aimed at a particular health issue will be able to attract the talents as well as investors as solving a health-related problem will resonate with many people around the world since it is something they can put their heart into.

Why is company mission important?

Again, David and Shannon argued that a mission like this behind a company can be a strong driving force. The put it this way: company’s goal is to maximise shareholder value, earnings come from sales, sales come from products and products come from people. In other words, people, value and culture remain one of the most important assets. Employees with a burning passion and understanding for what they do will be happy employees, and high employee satisfaction leads to better performance. In the end, all sides win. Both employees and shareholders are happy and the problem gets solved.