"We believe that it is a responsibility for a company such as ours to seek to have a beneficial impact on the world around us." – Hans-Paul Bürkner, President and CEO
Why We Engage in Social Impact Activities
Despite rapid economic development, the world still faces a multitude of challenges: approximately 2.6 billion people, about 40% of the world's population, still exist on less than two dollars a day, with about 1 billion of them living on less than one dollar a day. More than 850 million people—roughly one in eight—do not get enough food to lead healthy, active lives, and one in four children in developing countries are underweight, leading to more than 3.5 million children dying each year before the age of five due to undernutrition. Meanwhile, diseases of the developing world continue to exact a terrible toll: malaria, for example, is estimated to kill one African child every 30 seconds.
BCG's involvement in social impact work is motivated by eye-opening facts such as these. And although generally less dramatic, there are many examples of underprivileged communities in developed countries that also need support. Because we possess expertise that can make a difference, we are inspired to work with social sector organizations to have an effect on local communities and the world at large.
What We Do
BCG partners with social impact organizations at both local and global levels. Our global efforts seek to support the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. We partner with the U.N. World Food Programme, Save the Children, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other organizations involved in global health initiatives. On the local-office level, we aim to have a direct, measurable impact in the communities where we live—for example, by teaching business skills to high-school students with the business@school program in Southeast Asia (SEA); IT skills to mentally challenged students at Singapore’s Chao Yang Special School; and providing financial support for grassroots organizations such as Beyond Social Services—a local charity dedicated to reducing delinquency among children and youths from less privileged backgrounds. Through the GAYE (Give as you Earn) program and a company dollar-for-dollar match on all charitable contributions, each SEA office provides financial support to local organizations and community projects.
In the last year, BCG completed more than 140 cases with about 80 social sector organizations worldwide. Many of our staff also engage in volunteer activities and BCG offices around the world strive to reduce the firm’s environmental footprint.
Local Impact: Alliance for Financial Inclusion of the poor (AFI)
BCG was invited to develop a business plan for the new global Alliance for Financial Inclusion of the Poor (AFI) being set up and implemented by an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. BCG was involved in assisting with the realization of the goals that by 2015, policy makers from 40 developing countries could prioritize and implement pro-poor financial policy solutions that enable at least 50 million people living on less than $2 a day to have access to formal financial services.
The importance of this work was based on providing an innovative and efficient governance model. To generate and put in place by-laws, lean grant-making procedures and templates, as well as a clear communication strategy.
The business plan was designed to help new AFI employees start their tasks in a focused way as soon as they join, and to support AFI in communicating the organization’s strategy and activities clearly with key stakeholders.
How to Get Involved
Case work with our partner organizations is the primary path to getting involved. We also have two supplemental activities: the Social Impact Secondment and Leave of Absence programs. Additionally, a wide variety of volunteer opportunities exists.
Volunteering and Sustainability
In addition to our project work, our contributions include volunteering in our local communities, charitable giving, and providing talent, contacts, and resources.
BCG is also concerned with its own environmental footprint. We have launched BCG Green initiatives in many of our offices to reduce resource consumption, waste, and CO2 emissions.
What We Do
BCG partners with multiple organisations around the world that seek to make a difference. We support these organisations by applying our talents, expertise and insights in the consulting services we provide to them. Our social impact work is conducted through both our global and local partnerships. We structure our efforts along eight topic areas: the environment, poverty and hunger, public health, education, community and economic development, arts and culture, corporate social responsibility and philanthropy.
In the last year, BCG completed more than 190 cases with about 100 social sector organisations worldwide.
Global Partnerships
On the global level, we work with selected partners in long-term relationships. Our global efforts focus on the challenges of the developing world and seek to support progress toward attainment of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. Because these are long-term challenges, we believe they require long-term relationships with critical players. We have chosen to partner with
- the U.N. World Food Programme
- Save the Children
- the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and other organisations in global health.
Local Initiatives
Our local social impact work aims to have a direct, measurable impact in the communities where our offices are located and where we live. Depending on local needs each office determines the topics it wants to focus on and the organisations it partners with.
In recent years, BCG Athens has been involved in a number of social impact initiatives:
- We have supported SEV (the Federation of Greek Industries), the main lobbying organization representing the interests of large enterprises in Greece. We helped SEV identify the challenges that were hindering the competitiveness of the Greek economy, developed a framework for measuring Greece’s relative position among the world’s economies, and formulated a set of specific and achievable recommendations that will help Greece and Greek businesses overcome the existing hurdles.
- We have supported the five most important foreign Chambers of Commerce in Greece to develop a strategic plan for the development of the Greek economy. BCG Senior Partner and Managing Director Nikos Vrettos together with distinguished Professor of Economics and IOBE Director Ioannis Stournaras developed a comprehensive plan consisting of 123 concrete actions that can be used as a working tool by Greek policy leaders.
- We have supported SEN/Junior Achievement, an NGO aiming to raise awareness among Greek students of economic and business matters. BCG employees are voluntarily teaching entrepreneurial and business courses to high school students.
- BCG Senior Partner and Managing Director Nikos Vrettos is a member of the Board of Directors of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, promoting American-Hellenic commercial, financial, and political relations.
Ways to Get Involved
Case work with our partner organizations is the primary path to getting involved. We also have two supplemental activities: the Social Impact Secondment and Leave of Absence programs. Additionally, a wide variety of volunteer opportunities exist, especially at a local level.