Top international business magazine Fortune
included Philippine mobile leader Smart Communications in its list of 50
companies around the world that are creating "important social
impact".
Smart placed 36th in Fortune’s second
“Change the World” list, joining the ranks of global business giants like
GlaxoSmithKline, Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Unilever. Smart is the only
Philippine company and the only telco on the list.
The annual rankings aim to showcase the
power of companies to improve the human condition by making an important social
or environmental impact through their business strategy and operations.
“The best businesses, of course, have
always put purpose at the center of their strategies. But members of this new
group realize that restoring public trust is essential to their long-term
success. Increasingly, they are building intentional efforts to address social
problems into the core of their business plans. It is these efforts that we
highlight in our second annual Change the World list,” said Fortune Editor Alan
Murray.
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Through the SWEEP Innovation and Excellence
Awards, Smart encourages students to develop innovations that will help solve
common problems.
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Smart was particularly cited for its Smart
Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP), under which the company
partners with colleges and universities to improve engineering and information
technology education in the country. The program, which was launched in 2003,
also aims to help schools produce industry-ready graduates and future
technology entrepreneurs.
“We are honored to be included in this
prestigious global list, and are happy that Fortune recognizes Filipinos’
efforts to use technology for development. We thank our partner-schools for
working hand in hand with us to provide quality engineering and IT education to
Filipino students. We hope that by doing so, we are encouraging and equipping
them to create innovations that will improve the lives of our countrymen,” said
Smart Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan.
Improving IT, engineering education
Under SWEEP, Smart provides schools with
up-to-date telecommunications equipment, as well as hands-on trainings,
seminars, and internships. Smart also sits in annual curriculum reviews to
provide inputs on industry trends, helping schools ensure that their course
offerings are relevant.
To date, more than 30,000 teachers and
students from all over the Philippines have directly benefited from trainings
organized by Smart. About 1,000 students from partner-schools have been hired
into Smart’s technology group.
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Smart has been partnering with schools to
provide hands-on training to engineering and IT students, helping them get
ready for the ‘real world.’
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Innovations platform for students
In 2004, Smart launched the SWEEP
Innovation and Excellence Awards, a competition encouraging students to create
mobile and digital innovations that will help solve common problems. Student
teams whose entries are deemed to have market potential are offered seed
funding, mentoring, and the runway to convert their school projects into actual
commercial products. Schools of teams that make it to the finals, in turn,
receive grants that they use to set up Innovations Centers.
So far, Smart has received more than 1,000
entries from schools in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Some of these student
projects have been turned into actual commercial products. An example is
TimeFree, a finalist in the 2010 SWEEP Awards, which is now a startup offering
a virtual queuing solution to businesses and government agencies.
The Fortune citation is not the first time
for SWEEP to be recognized by an international organization. In December 2012,
the GSMA, which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide,
published a case study citing SWEEP as an example of how operators could help
address barriers in education.
“SWEEP has lasted for nine years,” the GSMA
said then, “because it adds real value to both Smart and the partner schools,
mainly through the investment in the continuing education programme.”
It added, “Young people have many new ideas
ranging from simple yet practical to holistic and elegant. The key to
harnessing them is to provide a ‘playground’ where they can express and develop
their ideas freely, working as partners to come up with tangible and viable
applications or solutions.”
More information on SWEEP and on Smart's
other corporate social responsibility programs can be found in the Smart
Communities Facebook page.
Business strategy with social impact
In assembling the “Change the World” list,
Fortune partnered with consulting firm FSG, global organization platform Shared
Value Initiative, and Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter to solicit
and assess nominations.
A team of journalists from Fortune then
conducted an investigation of each candidate. The final 50 were selected and
ranked by Fortune editors.
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