Center for Social Innovation

Despite the growing importance of intellectual property (IP) to companies, IP is still commonly controlled by the legal department. In this university podcast, experts discuss the value of basing IP protection on a holistic approach that targets social, environmental, and ethical responsibility throughout the supply chain.

As both an open publishing platform and a social media site, Tumblr allows content creators to not only host and share, but also have access to an engaged network of users. Liba Rubenstein, Tumblr’s director of social impact and policy, talks at Social Media on Purpose 2014 about how Tumblr’s versatile platform can help non-profits tell powerful stories, catalyze engagement and drive measurable impact.

Devising a plan of action that leveraged the expansiveness of Twitter and social media, Stefania Pomponi and Clever Girls Collective helped turn Make-a-Wish Foundation’s #SFBatKid into a word-of-mouth local campaign to a global phenomenon. Pomponi discusses the step-by-step process of creating a viral social media campaign that garnered two billion impressions, and the key lessons that nonprofits and social organizations can take away from it.

Social enterprise is scaling up through digital design. In this audio lecture, Carl Bass, President and CEO of Autodesk, discusses at Social Innovation Summit 2013 the application of design to solve social problems. Bass describes how the availability of infinite computing capacity combined with people's willingness to share their knowledge of how to make things advances social entrepreneurship for everyone's betterment, and he shares examples of creative small businesses that advance social enterprise through innovation.

Jake Harriman is using his military experience to revolutionize the fight against extreme poverty. After leaving his position as a Special Operations Platoon Commander in the Marine Corps, Jake Harriman founded Nuru, a nonprofit aiming to bring relief to the poorest places in the world. Jake puts his venture’s focus on finding and training capable leaders in these places, rather than giving these communities quick economic fixes. Through this podcast, Jake Harriman shares his enthusiasm for combating extreme poverty and portrays his excitement for the future of his venture.

Professor Robert Sutton of Stanford University shares his conclusions about a problem he has wrestled with for several years - successful scaling. Professor Sutton highlights a few major lessons, including the importance of keeping team size down when scaling and the role of culture in the ability to scale excellence. In this podcast, Professor Sutton shares his overarching ideas and insights in hopes that listeners will be able to more effectively and efficiently share aspects of excellence.

Globally, 700 million people do not have access to a reliable water source. In this audio interview, the Co-Founder and CEO of TOHL, Benjamin Cohen, discusses how he and his team are improving the quantity and quality of water for people in need. TOHL designs, engineers, constructs, operates, and maintains both conventional and mobile water systems to reach its goal of bringing clean water to those who need it most, in the most efficient and effective way possible.