麦肯锡-衡量经济赋权_公司如何使更多人受益（英）-2025.1_24页_1mb

Economic Empowerment Made-to-Measure: How Companies Can Benefit More People

Core Content

The article explores how companies can effectively contribute to economic empowerment by understanding and addressing the unique challenges faced by different populations. It introduces the empowerment line, a metric developed by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) that defines the minimum cost required for a decent quality of life, based on essential goods and services such as housing, healthcare, food, and transportation.

The empowerment line varies significantly across countries, depending on local costs and income levels. In lower- and middle-income economies, GDP growth is the primary driver of empowerment, while in higher-income economies, income inequality and the cost of essentials become more critical barriers. In 2020, about 60% of the global population (4.7 billion people) lived below the empowerment line, and even in higher-income economies, 20% of the population remains unempowered despite rising GDP.

Main Views

Empowerment Challenges Vary by Context

• Connections: Companies should identify which stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, communities) are unable to afford essentials and understand their specific needs.
• Contexts: Different countries face distinct empowerment challenges, even at similar GDP levels. For example:
  • In higher-income economies like the US, Germany, and Japan, housing costs are a major factor.
  • In middle-income economies such as China, Brazil, and South Africa, food and transportation costs are more significant.
  • In lower-income economies like India, Egypt, and Vietnam, labor force participation and informal employment are key issues.
• Capabilities: Companies should leverage their core products, services, and operational strengths to design initiatives that effectively support empowerment.

Empowerment Impact as a Unifying Metric

• Companies can use empowerment impact as a metric to measure the benefits provided to people in need, such as increased spending power or reduced costs of essentials.
• This metric helps companies compare and prioritize initiatives based on their cost efficiency, which is calculated using a cost-to-impact ratio.
• A cost-to-impact ratio of 1.0 means that a dollar spent by the company delivers a dollar in empowerment benefits.
• Ratios below 1.0 indicate cost-efficient initiatives, while above 1.0 suggest less efficiency.

Key Initiatives for Economic Empowerment

The article identifies 70 types of initiatives that companies can implement to support empowerment, grouped by stakeholder type:

Employee Initiatives

• Entry-level opportunities
• Hiring policies
• Flexible work policies
• Childcare support
• Living wages
• Profit sharing
• Stock ownership
• Nonwage benefits
• Training and education support
• Pathways from apprenticeship to full-time employment
• Formal employment upskilling

Supplier Initiatives

• Supplier development and support
• Supplier diversity programs
• Living wage pledges
• Ethical sourcing
• Collective bargaining

Customer Initiatives

• Childcare solutions
• Clearinghouse for jobs
• Technology for job search
• Technology for remote working
• Products for training and upskilling
• Mobile readers for card payments

Community Initiatives

• Workforce reentry
• Community investment
• Training and upskilling support
• Local organization partnerships
• Local hiring
• Living wage advocacy
• Social housing
• Building space donations
• Land donations
• Land supply unlocking
• Food donations
• Food access grants
• Local agriculture support
• Ride sharing
• Energy-efficient vehicles
• Public transit support
• Healthcare awareness support
• Well-being support
• Health insurance
• Pooled healthcare
• Grocery stipends and discounts
• Free or subsidized meals

Cost Efficiency and Prioritization

• The empowerment cost curve is proposed as a tool to help companies assess and prioritize initiatives based on cost efficiency.
• Cost-to-impact ratios are calculated using:
  • Total cost borne by the company
  • Total empowerment benefit accrued by beneficiaries (based on targeting effectiveness, intensity, and duration)
  • A discount rate, typically 2% for social initiatives and 8% for business-related ones
• Cost efficiency varies depending on the initiative and the company, and the article highlights that cost-to-impact ratios are more sensitive to discount rates when benefits are realized over a longer time horizon.

Conclusion

• The private sector has a significant role in promoting economic empowerment through both core business activities and CSR initiatives.
• By leveraging the empowerment line, connections, contexts, and capabilities, companies can design more effective and tailored initiatives.
• A unified empowerment impact metric allows for better comparison and prioritization of initiatives, helping companies to maximize their social impact while managing costs efficiently.