The future of business: digital and with social impact
The 4th session of the Emprèn Entrepreneurship Series took place on Thursday, 27 October, in an online session from the UIC Barcelona Aula Magna, and was organised by the Department of Alumni & Careers and the Vice-Rectorate for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Research. On this occasion, guest speakers spoke about the social impact that businesses can have
Purpose-driven entrepreneurship aims to generate change in society by inspiring others with the actions and vision of a purpose-driven entrepreneur. In this line, the new session of the Emprèn Entrepreneur Series wanted to talk with entrepreneurs who have founded and run businesses with a clear social purpose, who work for the inclusion in society of people with functional diversity or who have been excluded.
Guest speakers were: Laura Moreno, general manager of EarthPulse, a business data analytics company that seeks to help businesses adapt to climate change; Cristian Rovira, vice president of Grupo Sifu, leading company in Spain and France in creation for people with disabilities; and Marga Maldonado, vice president of the Human Resource Management Department at Qida, a company specialising in the home care of people in need.
Marta Mas, dean of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, opened the round table discussion by introducing each speaker, who explained to what extent their work has a social impact and how to have even more influence from their own point of view. In this sense, Cristian Rovira, Business Administration and Management (ADE) Alumni (1997), said that “in the near future, businesses will be digital and have social impact, because the market itself will make it happen.”
For Rovira, who runs a company, with 4,500 employees with some type of disability, has a direct impact on people, being the leading company in Spain and France, in creating opportunities for all kinds of people. But there is also an environmental impact as is the case of EarthPulse, or another directly personal one, such as Qida: “Let’s look at the future with optimism, with a three-fold objective: more people who can live longer and with a better quality of life in their own home,” Maldonado said.
In fact, with Qida, UIC Barcelona has the QIDA Classroom for Comprehensive Home Health Care, promoted by the University Institute for Patient Care that studies the models of care necessary to satisfy, in the usual residence, the needs of people who require health care and attention in terms of the social aspects derived from the loss of health affecting them.
The key to success, as the dean summarised, “lies in the alignment with the company’s mission, which is taken on from the beginning, that is built together, day by day”.