CONSULTING SERVICES

INNOVATIVE BUSINESS AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

We help organizations utilize multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approaches so that they can benefit from the new role business can play in development innovations and solutions, particularly Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG); Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through the lenses of competitiveness and competitive advantage, business ethics, transparency, accountability, authenticity, and corporate responsibility. We work with international development organizations, such as the World Bank, GIZ, and the Organization of American States (OAS), on development innovations and solutions for shared prosperity in support of the ESG/SDGs agenda, with a strong emphasis on the business case and good governance for the ESG, DEI, and SDGs.

We offer a multi-stakeholder approach, based on competitiveness, social and financial inclusion, blended finance, ethics, and integrity that addresses issues of developing and implementing strategies for emerging markets and low income and the Base of the Pyramid (the 4 billion+ people living on less than $5/day) segments; and shared prosperity.

MICRO AND SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE

Global CDL team members have experience building the capacity of MSMEs and SMEs by strengthening the business and policy ecosystem; supply chains, business operations, and equipping entrepreneurs, including social entrepreneurs, with the skills and tools needed to scale up their operations and offer improved goods and services. With an additional focus on job creation, self-employment, and unique understanding of both formal and informal enterprises, Global CDL has a strong track record in youth (Gen-Z) and women economic empowerment across the world. We are actively engaged with two global initiatives, Ideas for Action and SDGs&Her, which are led by the World Bank and Wharton’s Zicklin Center (See below: Global Initiatives: I4A and SDGs&Her).

UNDERSTANDING THE MIND OF ESG EXECUTIVES AND
ENTREPRENEURS/INTRAPRENEURS

To better understand the thought process and feelings of corporate executives and intrapreneurs/entrepreneurs about ESG issues and their role in business and development, when engaging with complex sustainability problems, Global CDL is collaborating with Olson Zaltman. Using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), our research has found that although executives, including investors and intrapreneurs/entrepreneurs are incredibly motivated to make a difference in the world, they face several roadblocks that business, policymakers, and other stakeholders have implicitly and explicitly put in place. These barriers can inhibit their chances of successfully generating and implementing innovative ideas. Insights such as these can help corporate leaders and investors understand how to engage their employees – especially younger employees (Gen-Z) – in an innovation process that addresses complex corporate challenges, particularly around ESG/DEI. These are challenges that require truly innovative solutions, not just offering slight tweaks to business models or fine-tuning current products and services. More specifically,

Think and strategize in the context of the ESG/DEI changing world,

Better articulate and embrace the complexity of the ESG/DEI issues that their organizations are trying to address, and employ educated and sophisticated resource allocation and risk-taking,

Embrace the development of future-proof organizations by engaging their peers, employees, and other critical stakeholders in the ESG ecosystem journey

Executives may not be fully aware of the emotional challenges and obstacles employees are facing – and may not be aware of the “unwritten rules” of their organizational culture that discourage these kinds of innovations and lead to the misallocation of corporate resources and mismanaging risk. We help clients to address these missing insights and strengthen the innovation culture that improves a company’s ability to support the ESG/DEI strategy and intrapreneurship and adequately allocate resources. By utilizing the concepts of Actionable Capacity Development and Multi-Framework Thinking we help clients put in place processes that support in-house innovation generation.

MULTI-STAKEHOLDERS ESG/DEI RESPONSIBILITY

We use a holistic approach to assist governments, the public sector, multilateral development organizations, donor and cooperation agencies, and civil society organizations to address their ESG/DEI responsibility strategies and understand how these strategies affect private sector ESG/DEI responsibility and corporate strategy more effectively.

We assist governments and their key stakeholders in developing and implementing National and Sub-National ESG Responsibility and Sustainable Development Strategies, with an emphasis on the SDGs, utilizing the concept of shared prosperity, competitiveness, and related frameworks. Our approach builds on years of work, for example in the Western Balkans, India, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, and Democratic Republic of Congo.

By combining management interviews, strategic consultations and brainstorming, benchmarking, stakeholder mapping, international best practices, and conceptual frameworks, we help organizations develop and implement ESG/DEI strategies that create social, environmental, governance, and economic value.

More specifically,

Create processes that will stimulate innovative thinking about how to frame, contextualize, and implement the ESG/DEI principles

Productively shaping the external business and policy ecosystem

Entering new markets

Innovative alliances with non-traditional partners, including competitors

Access to actionable knowledge and new forms of capital, not limited to financial capital

We help design and implement the right measurement tools for organizations to assess the social, environmental, governance, and economic value created by programs. Audit or check organization’s actual situation and give clear guidelines for the next steps using our experience and best practice.

SUSTAINABILITY, STRATEGIC COMPLIANCE, AND CORPORATE STRATEGY

We advise companies on how to develop strategic compliance programs grounded in their organizational culture that advance their corporate strategy to better address both high risk areas (such as, environmental, social, and governance issues; antitrust, corruption, and bribery; and greenwashing) but also conducts that may not violate the law but can have damaging effects on reputation, brand, customer, and supplier relations, etc. and thereby a significant impact on the bottom line.

This approach is particularly important for large companies from emerging economies that are active global players. These companies face significant challenges in navigating foreign (primarily US and European) laws and regulations, including those related to ESG/DEI, that often conflict with the way business is conducted in their home markets. A number of these companies have been investigated and prosecuted in the U.S. and other foreign jurisdictions because of preventable compliance failure. As a result, it is critical for these companies to have compliance programs that work.

STRATEGIC COLLECTIVE ACTION

We advise organizations on how to initiate, lead, manage, and implement collective action initiatives for value co-creation and managing risk, and shaping the external ecosystem. Strategic Collective Action involves both companies and other key stakeholders, such as governments, development organizations, donors and cooperation agencies, foundations, and civil society organizations. We also advise on the issue of the ‘geography’ of anti-corruption and ethics, based on clusters of integrity and competitiveness.

This service is based on our experience in launching: (1) the Business Led Collective Action against Corruption – an international consortium of companies and development organizations, including the World Bank; and (2) the Business Alliance of GAIN – Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. We also led capacity and movement building for global and regional action networks, including the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) and Africa Responsible Business networks.

Consulting Services: Projects