HOW
World Inquiry seeks to "profile" all great stories of business innovations for the betterment of society. The editorial process starts when you submit a story to the World Inquiry. An editorial team reviews all submissions and chooses outstanding examples for publication on the BAWB site.
What makes a good story? How does the editorial team select the stories to be profiled in the BAWB Innovation Bank? What are the selection criteria?
For the past year the editorial team has been working on a comprehensive,
reliable, and simple selection process. The result, presented in this document, is a set of three extensive criteria: 1) Business-in-Society Innovation, 2) Positive World Impact, and 3) Elevated Motivation or Purpose. Each area is judged according to a 4-point scale referring "not present," or "low," "medium," and "high" quality.
1. Business-in-Society Innovation
Our most essential requirement is that the story must include a focus on business innovation for societal benefit.
- Business: Does the story contain a business component? For example, does innovation go beyond mere philanthropy, is the "teaching of business" being used as the instrument of societal change, does the business product, service or practice create positive community impact?
- Society: Is the story related to a transformational social agenda?
- Innovation: Does the story discuss the context of novelty, surprise, imagination, or originality that fed a true innovation? In other words, given the context, was the story really innovative?
- Details: Does the report include sufficient details such that the reader can identify a clear storyline?
2. Positive World Impact
This area provides the basis for helping readers to assess the scope and consequence of the innovation. This impact might be measured in any of the following ways:
- Enhancement of human dignity: Does the innovation include a focus on helping people in society to become more self-sufficient, self-reliant, or act of their own accord (e.g. "Teaching a person to fish" rather than giving a handout)?
- Relational Transformation: Does the innovation transform or transcend traditional ways of relating? Are relationships in society changed in some fundamental way (e.g. business-to-community, business-to-ecology, business-to-business)?
- World Impact: Does the innovation have an effect that goes beyond the individual level, to have an impact on social or systemic structures, such as community, planet or region
- Details: Does the report include any evidence to justify the claims for impact? Are these accessible to a general audience?
3. Elevated Motivation or Purpose
Fundamental intentions are key to helping people connect or relate to the story. The search for high purpose is what brings together people from diverging worldviews.
- Sense of Meaning and Purpose: Meaningful stories help us understand intentions and purpose for action. How well does the report describe (1) an expression of a philosophical stance in relation to the larger social world, (2) the discovery of purpose or "calling" to work for the betterment of others, or (3) any other ideas that suggests a person is "speaking from the heart" when describing their association with the innovation?
- Intention: Does the report describe any intention on the part of the actors to create deep change in the social or systemic structure of business in society?
- Details: Does the report include information that would convey hese ideas in an appealing way to a general audience?
