About

We help companies find practical responses to complex social challenges that affect their business success—like poverty and poor working conditions in global supply chains, women’s economic empowerment, water and food security.

These challenges are daunting, and no one company can address them alone. But we believe any company can make an impact. With more than 20 years’ experience on the social side of sustainable business, we help our clients find approaches that fit their level of ambition, further their objectives, and resonate with their most important stakeholders.

Best practice in this space is still emerging. In fact, the organizations we work with—businesses and their development partners—are helping to create it.

Our clients are usually managing several issues at once, each one complex and evolving, with few benchmarks. They’re innovating and at the same time they’re investing time gaining and maintaining buy-in for their efforts. They need help cutting through the complexity, making sure they’re maximizing their impact, and telling compelling stories about what they’re doing and why.

We’ve found that our clients appreciate having access to experienced advisors who operate flexibly, almost as part of their own teams. Our working practices emphasize efficiency and agility and deliver relevant, actionable results.

Our work

We combine world-class research and analysis, communications and stakeholder engagement to help clients develop strategy, build capabilities, and secure allies on the social side of sustainable business.

Through more than 35 published reports, numerous client assignments and cross-sector dialogues, SocialSide team members have helped shape the way companies, their partners and stakeholders think about business’ impact on people. We have focused especially on expanding economic opportunity, empowering women, and enhancing access to water, nutrition, and other essential goods and services through inclusive business models and value chains, cross-sector partnerships, and system strengthening efforts. See our reports here.

Develop strategy

Our clients strive to make a positive impact, support commercial objectives, and meet stakeholder expectations – all at the same time.

We help by:

Analyzing complex issues in ways that build understanding, reveal opportunities, and align stakeholder interests.

Sharing leading practice to take advantage of lessons learned.

Developing strategic priorities and plans of action that align and mobilize both internal and external stakeholders.

Typical outputs:

• Issue landscaping and analysis

• Stakeholder research and mapping

• Best practice identification

• Strategic recommendations

Build capabilities

Our clients aim for scale. To achieve it, they have to enable innovation and collaboration across functions, sectors, and markets.

We help by:

Assessing existing capabilities and needs.

Developing clear, actionable guidance based on internal and external lessons learned.

Producing practical insights and resources that engage staff who feel “too busy to learn.”

Typical outputs:

• Toolkits, guidance notes

• Case studies

• Issue briefs

• Workshops

• Videos

Secure allies

Our clients seek to achieve resonance with diverse audiences, attract the right partners, and stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape.

We help by:

Framing and translating for different stakeholder audiences.

Developing evidence-based policy positions and delivering advocacy strategies that reach key opinion leaders and build networks of champions.

Creating engagement opportunities through influential event platforms and social channels.

Typical outputs:

• Policy positions

• Thought leadership reports and case studies

• Stakeholder engagement

• Advocacy strategies and campaigns

• Speeches, presentations, blogs and visual content

Team

beth jenkins

Beth Jenkins, Partner, is a researcher, analyst, and strategic advisor who founded the Economic Opportunity Program at the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. Over the years, she has worked with the likes of Acumen, The Coca-Cola Company, the International Finance Corporation, Mars, SABMiller, TechnoServe, Unilever, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the World Economic Forum.

richard gilbert

Richard Gilbert, Partner, is a communicator and public policy practitioner with two decades of experience, most recently with Business Fights Poverty and previously with premier communications agencies Edelman, Weber Shandwick, and Burson-Marsteller. His clients have included SABMiller, the Better Cotton Initiative, The Coca-Cola Company, the International Finance Corporation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Scaling Up Nutrition, and the UK Department for International Development.

Kate Tallant meier

Kate Tallant Meier, Partner, is a senior advisor, researcher, and strategist with 20 years of experience in helping business advance equitable social change. She has worked with dozens of leaders in corporate responsibility and sustainability across sectors, such as Unilever, GSK, Pearson, The North Face, Intel, Cisco, SAP, Salesforce, Target, Rockefeller Foundation, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, FSG, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Contact

We’d love to talk about your priorities and needs.

hello@socialsideinsight.com