Societal Intelligence: From Risk to Innovation

This book aims at analyzing how multinational corporations can better take into account the rise of civil society at the age of digitalization of business. The book will therefore analyze societal risk management tools and strategies as well disruptive innovation processes based on co-creating business with civil society organizations.

Companies face currently a major shift in the way they conduct their business. They do not only have to optimize shareholder value but also take into account an increasing number of stakeholders expectations. At the same time, societies seem to have become more innovative that traditional companies with the rising power of digital start ups, democratization of innovation (Fablabs, etc) and a new way of doing business. The book “societal intelligence – from risks to innovation” allows to understand how to decipher societal trends to not only ensure a social license to operate but to generate for existing large companies disruptive innovations based on new eco-system of partners.

Many books have looked at how companies should better engage civil society organizations and external stakeholders to ensure their social license to operate. At the same time, an increasing number of books are analyzing open innovation strategies. But there is no comprehensive book on societal intelligence that relevantly articulates the two sides of the relationships between civil society and corporations: risk management and innovation. This book provides corporate practitioners and academics with a new definition of societal intelligence and a better understanding on how companies could use it to create value.