Social innovation and shared value: some value behind the hype?

Some interesting perspectives on Value Creation and social innovation in these interviews with  executives from  Western Union, Dow Chemical, Cisco, Medtronic, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The three ways of creating shared value, as explained by Mark Kramer, look particularly appealing:

1. redefining products and markets (perhaps the real innovative motor);
2. redefining productivity in the value chain (this is basically the way you build and manage your business ecosystem);
3. enabling and strengthening local business clusters (this one surprised me at first, but come to think of it it makes perfect sense since it's ensuring that local communities have a sustainable benefit from your actions).

Giving the Shared Value trends (hype) some counterweight, a recent article from The Economist criticizes Michael Porter's claim that Shared Value is the next big competitive differentiators. Well worth the read to demistify the potential hype, and to avoid costly mistakes with Shared Value programs.