Like most of you, when I try to fall asleep and clear my mind, I can't help but dwell on these questions. The world has proven itself to be very small and more interconnected than we might have realized. I also feel that this is a test of leadership as well as a test of people's character.
Impacts on the Gig Economy
4. Do you think about the gig workers and what this might mean to the future of the gig economy?
5. Will people drop the flexibility they once craved for more traditional employment that has PTO, sick time, health insurance and other benefits?
6. Do you think that when half of the workforce embraced the gig economy for flexibility and the thrill of ever-evolving work experiences that they thought about what a pandemic means for them or not being able to file for unemployment?
7. Will we think about localizing and diversifying more of our supply chain to protect against the risk of a future pandemic?
8. Will companies retreat to adding costs to their supply chains by adding inventory to protect against risk, or will we learn to open our inventory to share with other companies?
Impacts to the Government and the Economy
9. In the future, who will you trust to lead you?
10. Have you gained or lost trust in the government or the media; and did it change once the pandemic got closer to home?
11. Do you ever think that people were maybe overreacting, or did you hold firm in your urge to protect every human life, the economy be damned?
12. Do you ever wonder about all the self-employed small businesses and get stressed trying to think of a way they can survive?
13. Once the government started talking about “the cure being worse than the virus,” did you capitulate, if even for a minute?
Paul Polizzotto is the CEO and Founder of Givewith, a Service-as-a-Software solution that generates social impact funding opportunities for nonprofits that can be embedded into transactions between buyers and suppliers. As a social entrepreneur, he brings his expertise as the former founder of EcoMedia, which directed more than $100 million in funding and resources to environmental, education and community health and wellness programs across the country, improving the quality of life for more than 60 million people. Here he talks about the role of ESG scores on a company's bottom line and ways that sourcing and procurement can initiate cultural change in their organizations.
Givewith is a social impact technology platform – what does that mean and how does it work?
Givewith is a social enterprise creating innovative solutions that bring together companies and nonprofits to generate real, measurable impact – while simultaneously driving unprecedented business value. Givewith Enterprise is a SaaS solution that generates business-relevant social impact funding opportunities that can be seamlessly embedded into any transaction between a buyer and a supplier.
Here’s how it works:
Our platform analyzes companies’ sustainability and CSR performance based on robust data that’s important to their customer base and the investor community – enabling their company to amplify its strengths and improve weaknesses. The Givewith algorithm aggregates these insights and identifies the most effective nonprofit programs, which the buyer can easily add into any of their RFPs.
“It’s not enough to have lived, we should be determined to live for something” – Leo F. Buscaglia
The pursuit of greater meaning sits at the pinnacle of human nature. It reflects within all that we do, in our lives, and in our professions. As procurement or sourcing professionals, we strive every day to make a difference in the business, to solve problems while creating business value. The words “sustainability”, “sustainable”, and “impact” are commonplace these days in the procurement and sourcing world as the industry pushes towards a new future in sustainable business – but what can we really do to drive true change?
We believe Procurement has the expertise to drive sustainability while delivering the highest standard of work and championing continuous improvement in business by integrating our processes with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
Amidst all the various measures in the world today, the UN SDGs provides a solid benchmark for sustainable procurement and sourcing for the following reasons:
Jane Zhang is the Co-Founder of ETCH Sourcing, a Canada based consultancy specializing in providing strategy and execution services in the sourcing, procurement and category management space. She loves people, solving problems, and has years of expertise working throughout the entire sourcing spectrum, from building and executing multi-million-dollar tactical strategies, to being entrusted with some of the most complex and strategic contractual negotiations on business-critical projects. Graduating from the Haskayne School of Business twice over with a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and an MBA in Finance with a focus on Global Energy Management and Sustainability, she has returned to build and teach business contract negotiations with her Co-Founder as a part of giving back and elevating her alma mater.
Jane is passionate about education is a member for multiple boards, most notable is her role as Board Director and Chief Operating Officer of a non-profit designed to connect children aged 8-13 with industry learning and development through play.
Jane’s latest passion is to champion the role of sustainability in procurement and is celebrating the launch of ETCH’s sustainable procurement offering, which integrates the UN SDGs as a sustainability function into the procurement process from an end-to-end perspective.
Editor's Note: We saw a longer version of this blog a few months ago and were inspired by the support that Beeline provides to the global community. We asked if we could share it with the SIG community to inspire other companies to do more and/or to share what they do. Please read below...be inspired...and share your own wonderful work with us!
What Inspires You? I have been thinking about this question for several months now, no doubt due to the "Be Inspired" theme from the 2013 Beeline Conference. After hearing from such amazing speakers like Derreck Kayonga (the Global Soap Project) and Robert X. Fogarty (the Dear World project), I felt overwhelmingly inspired. See photo where SIG's own Dawn Evans participated in the Deear World project.
Their projects have affected countless lives around the world, which really got me thinking about Beeline's philanthropy. Every day at Beeline, my colleagues make a choice to place an importance on giving back to the community. One thing is certain: I am inspired by the generosity of others.
Typhoon Relief After thousands lost their lives (and countless remain homeless) from the typhoon that struck the Philippines in November 2013, Beeline immediately set up a fund to support relocation and rebuilding efforts. The Beeline office located in Manila spent a Saturday packing supplies for the victims of this typhoon and made the decision to cut certain budgeted items. Feeling inspired to help, several Filipino colleagues in the Beeline Jacksonville office immediately set up a Typhoon Donation Luncheon and made traditional Filipino food. Between both offices' efforts, Beeline raised $9,564.47 to support this effort.
20 Questions About Life Post-COVID-19
1. What have we learned?
2. What changes will be permanent?
3. What will go back to the way it was pre-COVID?
Like most of you, when I try to fall asleep and clear my mind, I can't help but dwell on these questions. The world has proven itself to be very small and more interconnected than we might have realized. I also feel that this is a test of leadership as well as a test of people's character.
Impacts on the Gig Economy
4. Do you think about the gig workers and what this might mean to the future of the gig economy?
5. Will people drop the flexibility they once craved for more traditional employment that has PTO, sick time, health insurance and other benefits?
6. Do you think that when half of the workforce embraced the gig economy for flexibility and the thrill of ever-evolving work experiences that they thought about what a pandemic means for them or not being able to file for unemployment?
7. Will we think about localizing and diversifying more of our supply chain to protect against the risk of a future pandemic?
8. Will companies retreat to adding costs to their supply chains by adding inventory to protect against risk, or will we learn to open our inventory to share with other companies?
Impacts to the Government and the Economy
9. In the future, who will you trust to lead you?
10. Have you gained or lost trust in the government or the media; and did it change once the pandemic got closer to home?
11. Do you ever think that people were maybe overreacting, or did you hold firm in your urge to protect every human life, the economy be damned?
12. Do you ever wonder about all the self-employed small businesses and get stressed trying to think of a way they can survive?
13. Once the government started talking about “the cure being worse than the virus,” did you capitulate, if even for a minute?