Transformation for good: The social sector needs business transformation too

Genpact, a global professional services company that makes business transformation real, has been using its digital, process excellence and domain expertise to create replicable, scalable and sustainable solutions for not-for-profits — helping them make their processes more efficient and create a stronger social impact.

The special evening featured inspiring stories of impact, a panel featuring leaders from corporate India as well as leading voices in the social sector—people with a view—and was moderated by Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18. Chetna Sinha, founder of Mann Deshi foundation, gave a keynote speech about empowering women in rural areas economically and socially and the impact they are making to the society.

The Genpact Social Impact Fellowship, in partnership with EdelGive Foundation, is one such successful initiative that is helping not-for-profit companies reimagine how they work. Under the year-long fellowship program, process experts from Genpact work on high-impact social projects in India. At NASSCOM, Genpact’s project is enabling more than 100 universities to better prepare digital talent to suit the needs of companies. With its Udayan Shalini Fellowship Program, Genpact fellows are focused on empowering underprivileged girls by providing them with financial support and mentoring interventions. The overall impact of the fellowship has been significantly big. In the last four years, 50 projects run by 70 fellows has benefited 5.2 million people.

“The not-for-profit’s skill lies in the work that they do on the ground, while companies like us understand how to drive operational excellence. The marrying of the two is what has led to this wonderful solution,” said Lavanya Shrinagesh, global CSR, diversity and inclusion leader, Genpact.

An invigorating panel discussion took place at the event, featuring CSR champions and corporate leaders. The Genpact model, for example, shows that it is possible to make CSR projects create a win-win situation for all stakeholders. Under the Genpact Social Impact Fellowship program, the selected fellows help build great solutions for the NGOs they work with but they gain a lot themselves. They learn to work under tough conditions, build resilience that carries over into everything they do, igniting their innovative minds to come up with lasting solutions.

“Our youth are thinking very differently about the social sector and are keen to engage in it and solve problems. And that’s exciting,” said Amit Chandra, Managing Director, Bain Capital.

“While corporates can add a lot to the social sector, they also learn and imbibe from it. It’s a marriage and an important partnership,” said Ashish Dhawan Founder and Chairman of Central Square Foundation.

Reshma Anand, Chairman, Unilever Foundation, pointed out that CSR initiatives need to be more broad-based and not niche as the corporate sector is no longer isolated from the various crises that is plaguing rural India or communities in general.

Aditya Natraj, CEO Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership, spoke about the small changes that make a big impact in transforming the social sector, and how governments and corporates can come together to improve processes.

Explaining the objectives that Genpact aims to achieve over the next few years, Sasha Sanyal, global business leader Insurance, Diversity and CSR, Genpact said, “We are focused on making transformation real. We help organizations prepare for tomorrow by reimagining their businesses today. We apply the same expertise in this program. The innovative solutions created by our fellows for the not-for-profit organizations are replicable, have a multiplier effect and create scalable impact.”

It’s time indeed for corporates to come together to create a better tomorrow!