I felt the need to include in my
sibos journal a separate post about Innotribe's
session The Future of Doing Good. A session that I
found to be really inspirational.
An elite panel tried to "enforce"
social responsibility into the banking industry players
present.
Kartik Kaushik, Managing Director, Global Head of Business
Development, Citi
Carolyn Stephens, Professor (PhD, FFPH, IFRSM) , Universidad
Nacional de Tucuman/UCL
Where is the bridge between banking
and social business? was the question the
Mateo
Rizzi, MOC of this session, asked the panel and the audience.
Maybe another important thing to find answers to is how to
really have traffic on this bridge, I which way banking industry
players are willing to cross it.
The panelists' pitches and the topics debated should really
challenge the thinking of today's banking sector. They should give
all of us something to think about. They surely made me think.
Think about how to "build a world that is socially and
environmentally sustainable" as Professor Carolyn Stephens
said.
Formal medic, she alsomade a funny parallel between medicine and
banking: "Medicine has its own investment bankers. We just call
them plastic surgeons."
Mr. Kartik Kaushik's speech raised a very interesting aspect:
"charity exists only when creativity fails." True, as social
business is not about charity, but about expanding business models
in order to actually solve social problems. About finding ways to
maximize your profit while doing also something good.
Doing good... Maybe not such a familiar concept for banks these
days, you might think when you listen to Prof. Yunus speaking about
the "paradox" of "banks landing money to those who already have
money, instead of those who really need it". His speech made you
feel the need for a more human centered banking approach. Instead
of banks judging if people are credit worthy, people should judge
if banks are people worthy.
At end of the panel talk, followed the social entrepreneur pitches
- ideas, projects that need sustaining in doing good. I kind
of liked one of the entrepreneurs' idea that the bank of the
future is a social business with a banking license. But I also
smiled when hearing it.
Nevertheless, what I believe it is true, is that social and
financial innovators should collaborate in order to solve real
social problems. And maybe not only them. Maybe social
responsibility should be of more concern also at an individual
level, hoping that this is leading to a larger social business
inclination in general and in the banking industry in
particular.
I would like to end this post with something I caught up in a
tweet: "this session has brought a human face to the entire event."
It was nice to see exactly what I felt put into words by another
person.
Congratulations to the Innotribe team for such an inspirational
session.