In its latest issue brief, titled Scaling up Inclusive Business – Solutions to overcome internal barriers, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) identifies a series of solutions aimed at helping companies scale up commercially viable business solutions that expand access to goods, services, and livelihoods opportunities for low-income communities—something the WBCSD calls inclusive business.

Companies of all sizes, including many WBCSD members, are actively testing and rolling out inclusive business models, but relatively few of them have achieved their full potential of improving livelihoods and companies’ economic bottom line.

The objective of the ‘Scaling up Inclusive Business’ brief is to better understand the internal barriers companies face when trying to scale up inclusive business, and identify solutions for overcoming those barriers.

"To date, most of the discussion around inclusive business has focused on external market barriers, such as insufficient market information, ineffective regulations, and limited access to finance in low-income markets. But through our work with member companies and partners we have found is that internal organizational barriers are just as, if not more, important. The brief offers businesses in all sectors concrete solutions, building on the hands-on experience of a dozen members active in this space,” says Filippo Veglio, Director of the WBCSD’s Social Capital Focus Area.

WBCSD members featured in the issue brief include CEMEX, Grundfos, ITC, Lafarge, Masisa, Nestlé, Novartis, Novozymes, SABMiller, Schneider Electric, and The Coca-Cola Company, and Vodafone.

The brief organizes the range of possible internal organizational barriers to scale up inclusive business into three main categories:opportunity cost of investment; strategic and operational misalignment; and capability gaps. For each of these three categories of barriers, the brief describes a range of solutions (a dozen in total) illustrated by company examples – from obtaining the support of senior leadership and establishing centers of excellence, to bringing core capabilities in-house, adjusting performance targets and quantifying the total value created by inclusive business ventures.

This piece is a contribution to Action2020, the WBCSD platform for business to contribute solutions to environmental and social challenges.

More information:

• Download Scaling up Inclusive Business – Solutions to overcome internal barriers
• Read more on the WBCSD’s work in this area on our blog: www.inclusive-business.org