News & Events

Maximising Value & Demonstrating Impact

Breakfast Dialogue: 24th March 2010 at the RSA in London

Shareholders, donors and taxpayers increasingly seek assurances that their stakes are yielding the best possible value — or making the maximum possible difference. But how do companies, NGOs or public sector providers demonstrate the impact of their actions, not only on the financial bottom line, but also on people and the environment?

Co-led by Ian Adam, BP's UK Director of Reputation and Social Affairs and Manny Amadi, C&E's CEO, this session explored these and related questions. Participants - senior representatives from a range of organisations including Accenture, Warner Bros., The Energy Trust, BAA Community Trust, Barclays, The Shell Foundation, and Stars Foundation — shared perspectives, experiences and insights as they considered this question.

The discussion confirmed that all sectors (private, public and non-profit) were experiencing greater pressures to get 'more from less' and to demonstrate their value added. This pressure is being exerted by external stakeholders in an increasingly competitive landscape and one in which resource use is under greater and growing scrutiny.

Discussion also confirmed that in each sector, practitioners are facing a range of similar challenges and barriers in terms of how to capture, measure and communicate the effectiveness of their policies, programmes and impacts. Barriers range from the difficulties of establishing and isolating 'cause and effect' in terms of qualitative and non-financial issues, the limitation of tools, as well as the frequently changing context in which organisations operate. In all cases, establishing clarity in terms of objectives and priorities is a key enabler to capturing and demonstrating value.

Finally, the session explored the emerging trends in the area of maximizing economic, social and environmental value. Please contact us of you would like to receive further outputs from the session