"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 percent 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.
Our primary objective is to make a tangible and lasting contribution to the world in which we live. We are firmly convinced that together we can achieve more than any of us could individually. We also find that the work challenges us intellectually, helps us develop professionally, and fulfills us personally. Social impact is fundamental to who we are as an organization, and is one of our nine stated values. Our Social Impact practice organizes and coordinates our activities similarly to our commercial practices.
What We Do
BCG partners with multiple organizations around the world that seek to make a difference. We support these organizations by applying our talents, expertise, and insights in the consulting services we provide to them. Our social impact work is conducted on two fronts: 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 140 cases with about 80 social sector organizations 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 organizations in global health.
Local Initiatives
Locally, BCG aims to have a direct, measurable impact on the greater community. Since 2006, BCG’s Budapest office has been a partner of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and annually organizes the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. With this initiative, we identify and recognize entrepreneurs who have created an innovative, sustainable organization with the primary goal of developing society or solving a social problem. Profit-making is only the secondary goal. In recent years, the consultants and support staff of our Budapest office have been enthusiastically involved in finding and getting to know these successful and inspiring entrepreneurs.
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 also in Budapest to reduce resource consumption, waste, and CO2 emissions.
Impact
Our ultimate aim is to improve the living conditions of those in need. We often do so by helping our partner organizations become more effective or by directly advancing a topic. We evaluate our impact by looking at what we achieved within the organization, as well as the ultimate effect on beneficiaries. For example, in our work with the U.S. food bank network Feeding America (formerly known as America’s Second Harvest), we devised a strategic plan that, once fully implemented, should help the organization raise further funds to distribute additional food to its network and feed an additional 3 million hungry people each year. In Budapest we helped a business school with a growth strategy, helping to stabilize the undergraduate programs.
Ways to Get Involved
There is a "menu" of options for getting involved in BCG’s social impact work. Participating in one of our social impact programs is a unique opportunity to make a difference and to gain personal experience. BCG employees can engage in social impact work in several ways:
Case work: Become staffed on a global or local case, just as you would be staffed on our corporate client work.
Social impact secondments: Apply for a social impact secondment. If selected, this gives you the opportunity to spend six to twelve months working with one of our global partners as part of their team.
Social impact leave of absence: Take a social impact leave of absence to spend up to 12 months on social impact work of your choice. BCG can support you in identifying the organization and position.
Volunteering: Participate in volunteer projects through your BCG office. There are many that can benefit from your contribution. Examples include consulting to local social entrepreneurs, mentoring high-school classes, or spending a day with your office colleagues helping in a homeless shelter.