Pape Samb believes that creating shared value could be an effective way to managing which cuts across disciplines and industries. Because of the traditional divide between economic concerns and social ones, people in the public and private sectors, have often followed very different educational and career paths. As a result, few managers have the understanding of social and environmental issues required to move beyond today’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches, and few social sector leaders, have the managerial training and entrepreneurial mind-set needed to design and implement shared value models. Most business schools still teach the narrow view of capitalism, even though more and more of their graduates hunger for a greater sense of purpose and a growing number are drawn to social entrepreneurship. The results have been missed opportunities to balance economic, social, and environmental performance through creating shared value for both companies and societies.
By creating EXELEADMEN, Mr. Samb wanted to redefine how to build sustainable enterprises and communities through shared value creation. Creating shared value (CSV) should supersede corporate social responsibility (CSR) in guiding the investments of companies in their communities. CSR programs focus mostly on reputation and have only a limited connection to the business, making them hard to justify and maintain over the long run. In contrast, CSV is integral to a company’s profitability and competitive position. It leverages the unique resources and expertise of the company to create economic value by creating social value.