OHKF launches “Business for Social Good” to foster social innovation
Winning Teams of “Bees & Trees Alliance” Contest Selected
(Hong Kong, 28 July 2016) Our Hong Kong Foundation (OHKF) announces the launch of “Business for Social Good” (BSG). With the support of local business leaders, BSG aims to foster social innovation to solve the problems the local community is currently facing.
The inauguration of BSG was officiated by Mrs Carrie Lam, Chief Secretary for Administration of HKSAR Government. Mr C H Tung, Chairman of OHKF, highly praised the innovation spirit and passion for social services of BSG members, and hoped that the business sector can do more to help foster social innovation for the betterment of Hong Kong.
Mrs Carrie Lam, Chief Secretary for Administration of HKSAR Government, Mr C H Tung, Chairman of Our Hong Kong Foundation,
and Dr Joseph Lee, President of Wofoo Social Enterprises.
|
Mr Bernard Chan, member of the Executive Council of HKSAR Government, is the Convener of BSG. He said, “BSG is a civic voluntary organisation and over 120 business leaders have joined as founding members so far. Members have shared values - corporations have the responsibility both to make profits for their shareholders and also to help address social problems with their core expertise and resources at the same time.” “As society progresses, I am happy to see many established enterprises attaching greater importance to corporate responsibilities and even proactively adjusting their business development strategies for the sake of social good. Through the resource re-allocation and innovative practices, these enterprises are able to share the returns with the entire society, thereby achieving a win-win situation. I hope these successful cases can inspire more and more business leaders to join us in the future,” added Mr. Chan. The inauguration was followed by the finale of “Bees & Trees Alliance” Contest. Inspired by the “bees and trees theory” put forward by Dr. Geoff Mulgan, a UK expert in social innovation, the Alliance aims to pair up business leaders (“trees”) and social innovators (“bees”) to foster social innovation through combined creativity and resources. .jpg)
Mrs Rebecca Yung, Ms Jennifer Liu, Ms Winnie Chiu, Mr Bernard Chan, Mrs Carrie Lam, Mr C H Tung, Dr Joseph Lee, Ms Ada Wong, Mrs Eva Cheng, Mr Simon Wong, Mr Bosco Law, and Mr Jimmy Tao. OHKF had launched the “Bees & Trees Alliance” earlier this year and received positive response. Out of the applications from eighty start-up enterprises, six teams were shortlisted after two rounds of competition. The service scopes of these shortlisted teams include organising babies and young children to cheer up lonely old people, caring for old people with the aid of mobile phone apps, providing information for retirees to help them go on doing useful work for the community, recruiting university graduates as teachers at grass-root schools, training marginalised youngsters to be boxing coaches so that they can return to the mainstream of society, and recycling and reusing discarded old wood materials. These six teams were then paired up with business leaders to enhance their potential for growth. At the finale today, each paired team made a presentation of its project and BSG members casted their votes to select the winners of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards. The Gold Award went to Teach4HK with HK$100,000 as Prize for Growth, the Silver Awards went to Doctor BB and Woodrite with HK$60,000 for each as Prize for Growth, and the Bronze Awards went to Easycare, Elite Thai Boxing, and Happy-retired with HK$30,000 for each as Prize for Growth. In the year ahead, the research team of OHKF would monitor the progress of the winning projects, which would serve as a reference for the future study on the cooperation between business community and social enterprises. |
|
