RED

JIMINY
 PROJECT REPORT OF

DESIGN STRATEGY
A.A. 2018/2019

GROUP MEMBERS: PROFESSORS:

Oguzhan Dogan Claudio Dell’Era
Mohammadmahdi Silvia Magnanini
Mohammadianghovaghloo
Vincenzo Morelli
Mane Shahinyan
Livia Tenani
Table of
Contents
INTRODUCTION 4

1. SENSING 5
1.1 company introduction 6
1.2 brief description 7
1.3 trend analysis 7
1.4 case studies 9
1.5 problem definition 12

2. ENVISIONING 14
2.1 in pairs 15
2.2 circle 16
2.3 scenario map 17
2.4 preliminary solution 20
2.5 Interpreters identification 21

3. RE-INTERPRETING 22
3.1 Gaia ceccarioli: short biography and interview insights 23
3.2 Mario Calderini: biography and interview insights 23
3.3 Arianna Olivelli biography and interview insights 23
3.4 Fulvio De Giovanni biography and interview insights 24
3.5 Veronica Mainetti biography and interview insights 24
3.6 re-interpreting 25

4. PROBING 26
4.1 positioning 27
4.2 solution definition 29
4.3 system map 30
4.4 user experience 32
4.5 persona and storyboard 33
4.6 customer journey 36
4.7 stakeholders’ gains 39
4.8 Edenred’s gains 41
4.9 Network externalities 42

CONCLUSION 43
REFERENCES 44
 introduction
Edenred is a transactional two-sided platform
that connects employees’ demand with mer-
chants supplies through vouchers. Moreover,
these latter guarantee a fiscal benefit for com-
panies acquiring them. Its mission is “Build and
provide connections and value-added solu-
tions for customers through trusted
transactions”.
The expected result of the brief is to find
improvement of current solutions or a design
of a new product/service that will generate a
new revenue stream.
For this goal the research focused on the evolv-
ing needs of the employees. Results showed
that people prefer to receive suggestions
about how to use their vouchers than spend-
ing time in making decisions. Moreover, they
show an increasing trend in the willingness to
have social impact. Mostly millennials are
socially involved in impactful initiatives and
drive their decision of where to work and what
to buy according to their social consciousness.
Also, current market data suggest that
between 2014 and 2016, global socially
responsible investments grew by 25%. Only in
last year corporate spending on CSR grew by
8% reaching Rs.70.5 billion. There can be
noticed that the social investment market is
moving faster than ever, and to keep their com-
petitive edge, Edenred has to come up with
new services or solutions that improve their
experience in a unique way.
For this goal the team directed the project to a
solution that enables to come up with a
new innovative experience that combines
already existing network of Edenred with social
proposition through the platform.
The report describes the walkthrough of the
process for providing the new experience for
Edenred.
The process is divided in four phases and starts
with the sensing phases where the current
trends and hypes are described. Not only social
trend but also willingness of employee to be
involved in decisions making drive our shaping
for final solution.
After the sensing, the envisioning phases anal-
yses these trends to define new meanings.
These new meanings are different according to
two different axes we focused, gifting vs con-
suming and collective vs individual. All these
are supported by a metaphor and the match-
ing meanings will be crossed to come up with
more complete change of meanings shifting
from pairs to circle.
The third phase elaborates on the interpreting
of these meanings and thereby talking to
experts and other business people to sharp the
final idea by re-interpreting. In the last phases
the final solution is defined with a new retail
experience described. Moreover, the overall
gain for the network’s actors is described
focusing on motivation and expected results
for adapting our solution “the social vouchers”.
 01.

Sensing

New Meanings
 sensing 6

Introduction to a Company.
Edenred is a French company specialized in panies, employees and merchants,
prepaid corporate services. It is the world specializes in supplying prepaid services
leader in transactional solutions for com- intended primarily for businesses.

Mission
“Build and provide connections and value added solutions for
customers through trusted transactions”

Stakeholders and value proposition. These companies represent the target to

In the last years, Edenred clearly expressed which Edenred aims to increase the
to its ambition to be the referent of its Custom- well-being and purchasing power..
ers and to generate strong and sustainable The company firmly believes that employees’
growth. However, who are these well-being is directly connected to the
Customers? performance of the organization where
Edenred’s Stakeholders consist of three they work. In the same time, the value pro-
main group of actors bound to one another posed to the Merchants is an increase in
in a virtuous network of trust: 44 million of their revenues, while Companies can
Employees, 1.5 million of Partner Merchants optimize their expenses.
and 770 thousands Client Companies. These value propositions are embodied by
the “We connect, you win!” signature.

Vision
“Enriching transactions to create trusted human networks”

Edenred is frequently adding new services understanding changes in world “corporate”

following its vision to enrich ecosystem trends.
 7
Brief description.......................
Edenred is looking forward to bring new “trust” between Company-Merchants-
values to existing transactional ecosystem Users.
by leveraging on powerful data and The expected result is an improvement of
network. current solutions or a design of a new
Following the claim in vision statement, product/services that will generate a new
by creating new value Edenred revenue stream.
strives to enhance the “relationship” and

Trend Analysis. -2-

Before generating any new solution, it was
decided to conduct a research on current
trends. Since Edenred provides employee ben-
efits, it is of high importance to understand
what values people care nowadays and what
trends drive corporate world. Based on thor-
ough research and possibility to link to the pro-
vided challenge, several trends were
prioritized.
-1-
First trend that was identified is the way people
choose to buy and use products and services
has dramatically changed over the years.
People expect immediate connection to the
service provider and they prefer prompt
actions. They expect to spend less time to
make decisions about places to visit or meals to
have, and prefer to receive information about
possibilities that can allow them to save time
on unnecessary effort of searching.
Second trend is related to willingness of
people to have a social impact and general
raised awareness on social problems. And
the driving factor of this are Millennials.
Those born between 1980s and 1990s,
have stronger attitudes towards social
responsibilities, they are more risk-averse
and socially conscious. Studies suggest,
that Millennials are attracted and engaged
with companies and brands that discuss
social causes. Since they already represent
the largest segment in the workplace, their
preferences drive to significant changes in
corporate world. Consequently, social
responsibility has become a considerable
priority to any company or brand that
target this segment. Realizing importance
of this cultural change towards more social
responsibility, it brought necessity to
understand more the attitudes of people
and how corporations respond to this
change.
 8
This shift is so radical that it requires entrepre- -3-
neurial and financial systems to adapt ..................................................................
Another trend that was taken into consider-
to it, even change business strategy in ation is the active engagement of employees
direction in which impact to sustainable into decision making also known as
development becomes the central point. “employee voice”. It has been found that
New social trend, led corporations to integrate decisions are more effective when people
stronger corporate social responsibility pro- are more involved from the beginning.
grams (CSR). Nowadays, CSR is Moreover, when people have an opportunity
fully integrated in business strategy for two to share their voice they feel more
different reasons. From one side, consumers impactful and important which eventually
prefer to purchase from companies that increase trust towards management,
are investing in solving social and environmen- self-confidence and as a result – increased
tal issues. From the other side employees productivity. Increasing employee role in
expect that their employer to take a corporate decision making is also a source
stand on important social causes and, as of new information, employers get a balanced
consequence, they become more loyal toward understanding of the community
management. Moreover, majority of employ- views and notion of different perspec-
ees expect their employers to support tives..................................... ........................
groups and individuals in need in their
respective communities, either through Case Studies
donations or volunteering.
Between 2014 and 2016, global socially Many companies already follow previously
responsible investments grew by 25%. Only in discussed trends and implement different
last year corporate spending on CSR grew by advanced CSR programs. Several examples
8% reaching Rs.70.5 billion. Top themes for CSR which will be discussed, served as are
are rural development, education, hunger and inspirations to the project.
poverty and environmental sustainability.
However, there are many global issues in the
world that will be discussed later.
 9
TOMS Shoes

Nu Skin
Toms ShoesEnterprises, the vitamin
is a great example and
of corporate who have become more conscious about their
skin-care products
philanthropy which ismarketer,
integratedlaunched an
in their busi- spending. They are willing to spend for con-
intriguing
ness model.initiative
Companytois combat
winning hunger in
both sales sumer goods that also do some good in the
Malawi,
and a small
hearts by theAfrican country
buy one/give onestricken by
model. The world. They realized that customers want com-
severe
idea wasfamine andwhen
generated poverty. Unlike
founder of theTOMS,
com- panies to get involved in social justice issues.
company
pany was doesn't
visitingmatch
Southpurchases
America withand Another curious fact about this company is
donations, instead itwithout
witnessed children allows customers
shoes. Toms, to that it gives employees a reason to be proud.
buy andmain
besides donate nourishingstart
production, meals, called
producing Once a year company organizes a «giving trip»
VitaMeal
simple yetto hungry children.
comfortable shoes in different styles sending employees to travel and work directly
and colors and promised customers that for in the field where the shoes are donated. The
every pair of shoes they bought, another pair idea is to share the experience and be part of
would go to people in need. TOMS just hap- impact creation........................
pened to intersect with the rise in consumers

Nu Skin
Nu Skin Enterprises, the vitamin and skin-care
products marketer, launched an intriguing
initiative to combat hunger in Malawi, a small
African country stricken by severe famine and
poverty. Unlike TOMS, company doesn't match
purchases with donations, instead it allows
customers to buy and donate nourishing
meals, called VitaMeal to hungry children.
10
Customers can purchase VitaMeals and choose
to donate them to a charity partner, who in
turn, can distribute them to people in need.
Furthermore, the company matches every
five-bag option with another bag, providing an
additional 30 meals. The initiative helps feed
100,000 children daily.

Target
Target Corporation is the eighth-largest
department store retailer in the United States.
It created opportunities to foster economic
development everywhere they operate. Since
1946, Target has been committing more efforts
and assets toward local and environmental
support for the communities in which they
have stores. Over the past several years, the
company’s efforts—from growing sustainable
practices to educational grants—have
amounted to 5 percent of its profit going to
local communities.
11
That’s $4 million each week. In the area of edu-
cation alone, Target has donated more than
$875 million since 2010. They invest in local
needs, as well as organize community events
to engage their team in community works. The
goal is not only social impact created but
proud employees and clients who prefer to
shop in Target due to responsible brand image.
The financial return of either can be many
orders or magnitude.
 problem definition 12
Most of the CSR programs are decided company assets? Employees are the most
and managed by company’s management, important asset of any company. Not only are
employees are sometimes engaged as they the gears that generate revenue, but they
volunteers (as some in the cases discussed can act as valuable channels for public rela-
above) however they are not decision tions and marketing, as they are the most gen-
makers. Then why engaging employees in uine representatives of brand.
corporate social impact is good for

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care
of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”
- Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Group)

Research has shown that properly engaging covering range of social issues starting from
employees has a positive effect on many busi- global issues such as climate change and envi-
ness objectives (e.g. productivity, customer ronmental pollution to local community needs
relations, brand enhancement, and human as enhancing education and supporting local
resources, to name a few), which in turn posi- homeless people or refugees. The scope and
tively impact profitability and growth. scale of programs depend on the size and
Nowadays, CSR programs are power of the company.
 13
Relying on Edenred network in Italy we focused our resench in understanding how these
channels could be used to create new opportunity in the local market. Moreover, to point out social
issues that could be covered by new service, several current social challenges in Italy will be
discussed.

During the economic crisis, the rate of home-

lessness tripled in Italy. In 2014, homelessness
in Italy was estimated at 48,000 people, 70% of
whom were homeless. Official statistics by
ISTAT (National Institute of Statistics) shows
that it increased to over 50.000 people.
The majority of homeless people live in the
North of Italy (56%). 23.7% reside in the center
of the country, and only 20.3% in the south.

The number of people living in poverty in Italy

climbed to its highest level for more than a
decade in 2017. Those living in “absolute pov-
erty” rose to 5.1 million last years, or 8.4 percent
of the population, despite a fourth consecutive
year of modest economic growth. ISTAT
defines absolute poverty as the condition of
those who cannot buy goods and services
“essential to avoid grave forms of social
exclusion”.

Increasing number of refugees is another chal-

lenge for country. Italy received the second
highest number of asylum applications in the
European Union – 130,119. Currently, 6,827
people have refugee status, and 20,166 are
under humanitarian protection. Majority lives
in camps, or temporary shelters while others
are homeless living in shacks or streets. Some
receive food from charity organizations, how-
ever majority is suffering from malnutrition.
 02.

Envisioning

New Meanings
 envisioning 15
Based on the most relevant trends and needs where the criticism of someone else was criti-
of the society, changes to the meaning of the cal to develop a better meaning. After pairs
ecosystem of Edenred had to be conducted. developed their meaning, through sharing the
Each member envisioned a new meaning of ideas, the circle was created with the pairs
what to change about the current meaning of inside the team, comparing the two meanings
the transactional ecosystem of Edenred. After and merging them into one defined meaning.
that, possible new meanings for Edenred were Changes of meaning are explained below.
continued to be explored in pairs,

in pairs

-1-
From… Offering various meal options for employees
To… Make an impact on societal change

In the old meaning, meal vouchers of employees to help restaurants/Non-Govern-

Edenred were used in various restaurants, ment Organizations (NGOs) prepare
and supermarkets by employees choice. and serve people meals for the people who
Employees use their tickets are in need such as homeless, refugees or
either to eat lunch with their colleagues or the impoverished. This way, the unused
or to the supermarket. Due to the restriction of amount can be meaningfully redistributed
the tickets given by Edenred, sometimes in the society, and Edenred can be the
unnecessary amounts of the tickets enabler of this action. Not only it will help
are used inefficiently. If the employee has a the people in need, but also it will enable
ticket for 10 euros, and they end up purchasing and make the employees fulfilled and satis-
something with 9 euros of value. fied by their actions. Taking a part in having
For this reason, employees would buy an impact with just a small input will be
unnecessary items. In the new meaning, meaningful for them. A healthier society for
unused amount of the ticket vouchers(or this cause is important and it will also raise
whole voucher) can be used by the awareness.

-2-
From… Passive Increase of Customer base
To… Active Engagement of Customer base
In the old meaning, Edenred is seen as a
salesman that has an employee network.
Merchants join the network to increase
their customer base, taking advantage of
the solutions of Edenred to reach more
customers. Edenred wants to provide employ-
ee benefits for the merchants that are
same-for-all. The heterogeneity of the
employee base is not considered when
determining the benefits. In the new meaning,
Edenred instead is seen as a consultant
that gives the possibility of active engagement.
After defining new meanings in pairs, it was
necessary to understand the meaning and
value of each and merge the solutions.
However, due to significant difference
between vision of the solutions and after
workshop with professors it was decided to
select one of the solutions and work on it.
Significant research on trends in corporate
world as well as research on customers,
helped to shape the preference towards
more impactful solution - solution offered
by first pair.
16
of the customer base to the merchant. This
way, merchants join the network to increase
their customer base, while also taking advan-
tage of the heterogeneity of the employee
base by offering customized solutions to them.
Not only it will give possibility to understand
more the employees, but also it will increase
the loyalty of the employees and merchants.
Automatized analyses of data will enable this
one-to-one marketing action and unique
experiences for the types of users will be
provided.
To justify the choice the circle started
researching on Edenred, to understand if
the company would be interested in such a
new value proposal and it was identi ed
that Edenred has already implemented
social initiative in sense of donating the
amount of expired vouchers to Red Cross
Franch branch. This cleared the doubts,
and circle started working on identifying
possible solutions considering the trends
researched and network of the company.
 scenario map
Several possible scenarios for the strategy
were defined. These four scenarios are
presented in two axes. On one axis, the
spectrum is from individual use and benefit
COLLECTIVE
HAVE VOUCHER TO EXPRESS PREFERENCES
‘Share your voice’
I want a solution that enables me
to share my views and participate in the
creation of impact
because
I want to be heard.
CONSUMING
VOUCHER FOR PERSONAL BENEFIT
‘Consuming’
I want a solution that enables me
to use vouchers to eat outside of the office
where it is possible,
because
I want to spend my lunch time in the atmo-
sphere less official
INDIVIDUAL
Importance of the gifting nature of a new strat-
egy was the driving force for the ideas as the
meaning behind it was stronger than any other
idea. However, looking at the solution at an
individual level for the issue of corporate social
responsibility is too limiting, and does not cap-
ture the essence of society.
17
to collective use and benefit. On the other
axis, the spectrum is from consuming the ben-
efit to gifting the benefit.
PARTICIPATE ACTIVELY IN THE IMPACT
‘Be the impact’
I want a solution that enables me to
participate in the decision making of meaningful
social events in my local community,
because
I want to provide the same benefits to others
and make a bigger impact.
GIFTING
USE YOUR TICKET FOR HELPING OTHER
‘Sharing is caring’
I want a solution that enables me
to use my voucher in buying meals for people in
need,
because
I care about the community and helping makes
me feel fulfilled.
People need to share their voice and partici-
pate in helping people in need. Most of the
time many companies spend their corporate
social responsibility budget without taking
into consideration, the opinion of their
employees.

Despite the importance of the growing need to
engage employees in decision making process,
other solutions proposed were eliminated
based on the thorough research
information received by professionals.
One important barrier that eliminated the
"Sharing is caring” solution, is the fact that
vouchers were not transferable according
to legislation. Thus, this direction had to be
eliminated.
First proposed solution "Share your voice”
suggested the employee to be able to
donate so called social voucher to any
organization as a donation. However, this
raised several problems, first of all it will
require high level of security to assure legit
transfer and high level of organizational
efforts.
18
Edenred would have to checked all transfers
separately, to make sure that the donations
made to reliable organization. This will be both
and time consuming and will include level of risk,
that is not the goal of the project.
Solution called “Be the impact” in opposite to
first solution, suggest to engage companies
and employees in local impact creation. This
solution will allow to be part of social events
organized by NGOs to solve local problems.
The control over reliability of the transfers will
be justified by the fact that it is organized by
the local organizations..
Based on this analysis and understanding the
trends, selected solution is “Be the Impact”.
Employees want to be decision makers and
they want to bring change in their own
community.

COLLECTIVE

HAVE VOUCHER TO EXPRESS PREFERENCES PARTICIPATE ACTIVELY IN THE IMPACT

‘Share your voice’ ‘Be the impact’

I want a solution that enables me I want a solution that enables me to
to share my views and participate in the participate in the decision making of meaningful
creation of impact social events in my local community,
because because
I want to be heard. I want to provide the same benefits to others
and make a bigger impact.
CONSUMING GIFTING

VOUCHER FOR PERSONAL BENEFIT USE YOUR TICKET FOR HELPING OTHER
scenario selection
‘Consuming’ ‘Sharing is caring’
I want a solution that enables me I want a solution that enables me
to use vouchers to eat outside of the office to use my voucher in buying meals for people in
where it is possible, need,
because because
I want to spend my lunch time in the atmo- I care about the community and helping makes
sphere less official me feel fulfilled.

INDIVIDUAL
 change of meaning 19

FROM... BENEFIT FOR EMPLOYEES

TO... BENEFIT FOR COMMUNITY

After considering all the options, ‘Be the creating the impact. The world is changing and
Impact’ was selected as the best idea for opinions of every employee matters at some
Edenred due to the important of its impact and capacity and they want their voice to be heard.
actively engaging the employees in
 preliminary solution
Before defining final solution, it was decided to
define the preliminary solution that can be
tested while interviewing professionals of the
industry.
Solution proposed is to provide new service,
that will allow companies to implement their
corporate social responsibility programs
through Edenred. Most of the companies in
the network of Edenred in some level are
engaged in CSR, and this will be a new value for
them gained from collaboration with Edenred.
This is not only a tool to transfer money to
other organizations, but a method to engage
employees into impact creation. Employees
who are already using employee benefit
vouchers will get a new experience of partici-
pating in corporate decision making.
The goal is to provide employees a way to
share their preference, since some people may
care more for environment while others will
care about homeless people issues or helping
refugee community. People have different
priorities and in most of the cases, employees’
preference play little role in management
decisions.
To implement this solution, Edenred will need
to engage a new player in their system - NGOs
or any organization that is involved in social
issues.
20
After starting working on the defining solution
in details many questions have arisen.
Specifically, they were related to the
unclear benefit for Edenred. Except of social
reputation that will be increased due to
impactful initiative, the financial revenue
was unclear.The problem was related to the
fact that Edenred receives revenues on
commissions from used vouchers in partner
merchants. Adding NGO as a partner who
will receive companies’ CSR budget money
for social programs, will make it impossible
to receive commissions from those
transactions.
Trying to resolve this doubts, the idea of
engaging government in stakeholders was
considered. Due to social value the solution
bears , it might be possible to receive subsidiz-
es that will cover the cost of lost opportunities
to make money on suggested new experience.
To understand the value of the solution and
implementation problems it was decided to
interview selected number of professionals in
different fields.
 interpreters identification 21

Interpreters with a significantly different profile professionals were selected and divided into
from the ones in Edenred’s existing network groups: direct players, professional interpreters
are relevant to stimulate process and improve and cultural experts, coming from both
capability of envisioning potential features for Edenred’s industry and outside.
Edenred. Starting from the model proposed
during the lectures, number of

OUTSIDE OF DAVIDE
MARIO VERONICA
THE NETWORK CORIELE
CALDERINI MAINETTI
(REVOTREE)

GAIA
ADJACENT
CECCARIOLI
INDUSTRY

FULVIO DE
INDUSTRY GIOVANNI
(PAYPAL)

ADJACENT
INDUSTRY

OUTSIDE OF PAOLO ALESSANDRO ARIANNA

THE NETWORK ROZERA PEREGO OLIVELLI
(UNICEF)

DIRECT CULTURAL
PROFESSIONALS
PLAYER INTERPRETERS
 03.

Reinterpreting

New Meanings
 insights from interpreters 23
Gaia Ceccarioli
33 years old, Gaia Ceccaroli is a PR, communication and events manager in
the non-profit space. Gaia is a person who spends the largest part of her
time helping unfortunate people through the management of non-profit
events. She is the right professional interpreter of our idea, and she helped
us to understand how the world of charity works, which are the different
existing charity foundations - from the smaller to the bigger ones - as well as
to what extent people are committed in charity.

"Participation in social impact creation and charity makes people feel fulfilled and helpful”
“People like to see the impact of their actions,a tangible effects of their initiative"

Mario Calderini
Professor of Social Innovation, director of Tiresia - Center for Impact
Finance and Innovation.He sits in the Italian Government’s Advisory
Group on Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Measurement and he
contributed to promote the social innovation agenda in Italy. He is a
professional interpreter for proposed idea due to his tremendous
experience in social impact creation. His suggestions helped to
shape the stakeholders network of the solution.

“Employees engagement in CRS decision making will raise the brand image”
“NGOs and Foundations will be interested to have a new source of financing
for their social programs”
Arianna Olivelli
23 years old, Arianna is a curious, determined researcher with a great
passion for environmental and social sustainability. She is focusing
her research on the spatial distribution of marine debris along the
coasts of Australia. Arianna was selected as cultural interpreter for
two main reasons: she is very young and she is very passionate in
social sustainability. Interview with her helped to identify the target
market, and understand their needs.

“Millenials are more willing to participate in social initiatives and

they push sustainable development"
"Involvement of millenials in social initiatives increase their loyalty to the company"
 24

Fulvio De Giovanni
36 years old, Fulvio takes care of digital payments and recently has
gone aboard PayPal. This latter facilitates charitable giving in several
different ways, including its “PayPal Giving Fund”, which allows
non-profits to process donations without fees or deductions – plus,
PayPal adds an extra 1 percent to Giving Fund donations made during
the holiday season. Fulvio, as a professional interpreter, could help us
to understand the technical mechanisms underlying donations.

“Today promoting social responsibility is simply part

of the company's broader business plan”
“In terms of time, cost and knowledge, it is not expensive to design,
build and manage an app to transfer money”

Veronica Mainetti
38 years old, Veronica is a conceptual photographer, using ethical
minded art and wellness activities in continuation of her background
as a sustainable developer. Her personal work continues in the
expression of the dualities of nature & humanity, drawing heavily
from her commitment to improving the way we live through environmen-
tal awareness, activism and sustainable practice. Mainetti has
been a be very inspiring cultural interpreter, providing valuable informa-
tion about the effect that CSR commitment of a CEO has on the
company’s employees.

“About half of employees feel more loyal towards CEO that looks a
stand on a contentious issue”
-
“If you do well, also people close to you want to do well and viceversa: it’s
a virtuous cycle. It’s important that also your shareholders,
suppliers and the other stakeholder are committed in social impact.”
 reinterpreting
Interviews with interpreters allowed to define
better the scope of the solution.
Insights helped to understand who will be the
target users, on whom the solution should be
focused and tested. Interviews confirmed the
research finding that Millennials are the driving
force towards increased social awareness and
responsibility..
Important doubts about the players were clari-
fied as well. As Mario Calderini fairly stated -
Government will not be interested in subsidiz-
ing commercial initative even if it bears social
impact. And this raised a question to identify
the source that will bring also financial value to
Edenred. And it was decided to bring back into
the solution existing network of the company -
partner merchants..
The solution is reframed in a following way.
The offered social events to employees consid-
eration will be related to organizing events
when people in need will be provided with
meals in merchant restaurants or will
25
be provided with necessary supplies that are
possible to obtain in supermarkets of
merchant partners.
Reframed solution helps to preserve the reve-
nue stream for Edenred, and actually will
increase those streams due to increase number
of transactions.
Decision to preserve existing network of
Edenred also make sure that the most valuable
asset of the company is used in creation of new
experience and in enhancing the relationship
between partners. As well as the fact that the
transactions will follow already existing mech-
anism, the risk of unreliable payments will be
eliminated.
All interpreters interviewed stated that all play-
ers will be interested in engaging in this new
experience since it will raise their social image,
and for NGO’s it will be a new source of fund-
ing. Edenred will not only create a new method
of social impact creation but will also receive
financial benefit from it..
 04.
Probing
New Meanings
 probing 27

In reframing the direction, the focus was merchants’ supplies.

laid on the partner merchants' network of In this way, employees will be able to recognise
Edenred. These latter are strongly attached where and who is using their social vouchers
in the community and it was decided to exploit and they could witness the impact. It’s import-
their value to pursue a small local ant to underline that to organise these kinds of
impact in each area of interest. Thus, for impact NGO’s will be introduced in the
example, in Milan area the ‘benefit for the network. They will take care of planning and
community will be reached merging local creating social events that employees can
companies’ CSR budget with local donate to.

positioning
The solution will provide a potential new The new service will be based on current tech-
meaning addressing social issues. Caring for nologies, as Edenred app. The idea is to add a
local communities and social responsibility feature to the already present application.
embed new values that will be associated to Thus, the social voucher will be used in the
Edenred. dedicated area of the app.
However, the solution will target the current In conclusion, the solution will propose new
network of Edenred companies and mer- archetype: new meaning explored by the
chants (restaurants, supermarkets, etc.). development of cultural trends.
TECHNOLOGIES

CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES
technologies current NEW

adopted that need a ARCHETYPE

constant improvement MEANINGS

CURRENT SEGMENT POTENTIAL MEANING

current segmet, emerging values and
evolving needs lifestyles

SEGMENT

Positioning and Uniqueness of the Solution
Compared to Competitors:
Many corporate social responsibility projects
were conducted in similar nature to this proj-
ect. The strength of this project comes from the
strong collaborative efforts by the employees
and the meaning behind it. Main competitors
of Edenred are:
• Up group • Aramark
• Sodexo • G&K services
• Wex • Unidine
• Fleet core • Comdata
One of them is one of the main competitors of
Edenred, Sodexo. Sodexo have Social Vouchers
in their business idea, however they do not
partner with NGOs to deliver the value and
choose to help charities directly. In Edenred’s
Social Vouchers, the advantages of including
NGOs in the network is leveraging on their
expertise on social causes and appropriately
charging Edenred for the social events. Other-
wise, If Edenred were to donate directly to
charities, it would be as inefficient as the
current offer, where the employees don’t have
a voice in the corporate social responsibility.
Up Group also similarly does social innovation
as a part of the corporate social responsibility.
In their offer, they don’t have partnerships with
NGOs, and employees don’t participate active-
ly in their activities. Their social commitment
includes fair crowd work and responsibility.
Fleetcore surprisingly didn’t enter social corpo-
rate responsibility in helping the people in
helping people in need.
28
Aramark has invested considerable in commu-
nity involvement as a part of their CSR. They
encourage employee volunteering for meeting
critical community needs. They also have a
philanthropic program that enriches and nour-
ishes people on the local level, which is also
another idea that Edenred project is in line
with. Similarly, they also partner up with other
companies in CSR. However, their type of com-
mitment mainly comes as a part of their vision.
Edenred Social Vouchers is a new service, that
can significantly alter the transactional ecosys-
tem of Edenred by connecting different actors
and giving possibility to the employees to play
a role in helping people easily.
Other companies have also found ways of
incorporating donation-based services to
make social impact easier.
Satispay is a secure payment system that
allows users to use the Satispay app as an easy
money transferring service. Differently than
prepaid corporate services, Satispay makes the
user use their own money to easily transfer
money in stores, online payment etc. They also
have a donation function in their app, that
selects a number of NGOs to donate to easily,
similar to the Edenred Social Vouchers. Howev-
er, difference is that Social Vouchers given to
employees are not comprised from their own
money and they personally choose causes to
donate within the app.
 solution definition
Proposed solution is to create "social vouch-
er" product provided by the company to
employees through Edenred application.
These vouchers will be another ‘product
distributed by Edenred. Companies can
acquire the amount they want with part of
their CRS budget. Through the app social
vouchers are distributed and appear in the
employees’ personal page.
In this latter they see different pitches for social
events and they can vote where they
29
want company’s money to go to. In this way
they will participate in the impact created by
the company by sharing their voice. Further-
more, they will select the cause they feel more
important and the change they want to see.
Moreover, employees will have the possibility
to actively participate in the different cam-
paigns by enrolling as volunteers and also will
be able to see photos and results of the events
done by their donations.............
 system map 30

System map allows to analyse the connections of the network, highlighting financial, informa-
existing between different players tion and material flows in between.

CSR budget money Data of participation/preferences

Virtual Social Vouchers

Events and Schedule

Order of events
NGOs

Food/supplies
COMPANIES
Virtual Social
Vouchers

APPLICATION
Virtual Social Vouchers

List of social events

Commisions from transactions
EMPLOYEES PARTNER MERCHANTS

Information Flow Material Flow Financial Flow Data Flow

Information flows:
This flow starts from NGOs, that will organize employess of the companies.
and schedule the social events based on mer- Another flow will be between NGO's and part-
chants’ availability. The schedule will be ner merchants. Merchants will be notified
uploaded as a pitch on the application by about the scheduled event and will receive the
Edenred and will be available for the order.

Financial flows:
A first flow is from companies that decide to Also, as is happening now Edenred will pay
allocate part of their Corporate Social Respon- merchants for catering foods and supplies,
sibility (CSR) budgets to Edenred. charging them with commissions.

Material flows:
When companies pay Edenred for the service,
they will be provided with personalised virtual
social vouchers which they will distribute to
employees. After employees will make selec-
tion vouchers will be
donated to specific event. Vouchers will be
Data flow:
Valuable data about participation level, and
employee preferences and opinions will be
provided by Edenred to NGOs.
31
virtual, available only as an amount on applica-
tion. The last flow is provided by merchants
that supplies material to NGOs for event imple-
mentation if the happens outside the
merchant facility.
This data can be used to improve the organized
events, also analyze and leverage on the pref-
erences and engagement level of the partici-
pants...................................................
 User

Experience
 persona 33

As explained before, sensibility to social issues be engaged in this new proposal, persona will
and motivation to have an impact is a strong be discussed to underline the different motiva-
ongoing trend. However, to better understand tions and barriers that will drive them to enter
why employees will be eager to the new experience.

ANDREA
28, Junior IT consultant in IBM

PERSONALITY
ANALYTICAL CREATIVE

INTROVERT SOCIAL

ROUTINE EXPLORE

SELFISH ALTRUIST

WORK TIME SPARE TIME

friends
family
dog
sport

Andrea, 28-year-old IT-consultant living in the For all these reasons she would be interested in
suburb area of Milano. Being a young woman, something that allows her in keeping helping
she is more sensible to social issues, particular- people of her community. However, she has
ly to problems in her local community where always preferred to do something instead of
she witnesses poverty. Moreover, she already just donating as she felt herself more useful
volunteered when she was at university and and see the results with her own eyes.
had more time.
Motivation and Barriers

SOCIAL SENSIBILITY TECH-FRIENDLY MILLENIAL NO TANGIBLE ACTION SMALL IMPACT

COMMUNITY ENGAGED VOLUNTEERS NATURE LOVER NO TRUST IN THE SYSTEM

storyboard 34

1 Andrea receives an email from her

company that they made a
yearly donation to School of
Ballet as part of their CSR.
She is upset about the choice !
She feels that there are more
important issues to address.

2 Everyday, on her way to work

she passes by homeless
people on streets and
she feels powerless.

3 Company introduces
Vouchers by Edenred: a new
Social

way to contribute to social

impact by sharing the responsi-
-
bility of decision making.
 35
30

4 She enters the app to see

available social events and
select the one more important
for her.

5 After some time she receives

the notification about the
impact of her donation.

6 She volunteerly decided to

participate in one of the social
events organized in the refugee
camp.

7 Andrea decided to share her

experience and satisfaction of
helping others and being a
part of a change that her com-
pany and Edenred created !
 customer journey 36

The following Customer Journey shows Awareness:

which are the actions, touchpoints and In the first phase employees will take part
emotional response of customers in the to an internal company meeting where
proposed solution. It is divided into 3 parts: social vouchers are introduced. In this session
Awareness, Core Experience (evaluation, companies will explain how to use
decision, use) and Loyalty. them, the frequency and the amount
selected for each voucher. Once they will
receive the notification from the app about
the charge of a new voucher, they can start
using.
 37

Core Experience: Loyalty:

At first employees accessing the app have After donating they can see how the pitch is
the possibility to evaluate and check the going and once reached the target the
different pitches. They will be shown for event can take place. Thus, on the app they
each event the goal of vouchers needed, a can watch impact of their donation with
brief description of the place, NGO, people photos comments and a brief description of
and date of the event. After the evaluation the impact created. Also, they can share the
the employees compute the decision and result on social medias. Furthermore, seeing
donate their social vouchers. They can also feedbacks and results of their decision will
share their donation and comment the motivate them to donate again in future.
initiative.
Furthermore, employees can participate
to the event they donate voluntarily.
This will increase level of fulfilment and
satisfaction of employee because they
participate actively.
Gained

Values
 stakeholders’ gain 39

The aim of this section is to describe in a are Companies, Employees, Partner Mer-
synthetic way what is the gain for each chants and NGOs.
stakeholder. In our solution, stakeholders

Engaging in Trust of the

decision making employees

Sharing the Fulfillment

COMPANIES
Social
Social responsibility
Increase of
Vouchers
Vouchers brand reputation
Donating
Feeling
Participation in Important EMPLOYEES
organization of
social events Boosting
APPLICATION
Self-esteem
Social
Social Word of
Events
Events Mouth New revenue
streams PARTNER MERCHANTS

Offering
new events Increase of
awareness
Data Analysis Useful data
NGOs

WHAT
WHAT HOW
HOW WHY
WHY WHO
WHO

Companies: Employees:
In order to increase brand reputation and For achieving the feeling of importance in
build trust among employees, they will company and society, boosting self-esteem
decide to share the responsibility and and fulfillment thanks to participating in help-
engage them for making decision. ing underpriviliged people, they will start to
Thanks to social vouchers, companies can donate their social vouchers for performing
create feeling of participation and committed events which NGOs by Edenred application
among employees. Since employees offers them.
can make decision about events, they will
motivate for collaborating. it will build trust
about company among employees also,
collaborating for holding social events can
help to company for increasing reputation
of their brands.
 40

Partner Merchants: NGOs:

Benefits for Partner Merchants is about finan- For increasing awareness among people
cial and marketing subjects, for increasing of about impact of helping people in need
brand reputation and achieving and gathering useful data which catch from
to new streams of revenue, they will employees and other users, NGOs will
start to participate in organization of social participate in this system.
events. In addition, this event is one kind of
advertising and marketing for merchants For achieving to these benefits, they will start
which people can introduce them to others to offer new social events for preparing meals
(word of mouth). to people in need. Also, they will provide infor-
Also they have bilateral financial cooperation mation about scheduling and planning events
with Edenred. Merchants provide for Edenred's appliction.
Foods and other supplies for events according
to Money that was taken from Edenred
and they will payback its commission to
Edenred.
 Edenred's gain
-1-
Increased revenue due to increased transac-
tion for merchants. Since for providing
social events merchants should prepare
foods and other supplies, Edenred will pay
from the CSR budget provided by companies
for social events to merchants and
merchants have to pay commissions from
transactions to Edenred.
-3-
Possible increase of partner merchants due
to brand image increase in social responsibility
which we mentioned as a second value. Even
small players are not exempted from the influ-
ence of incresed importance of social responsi-
bility. As research suggested the consumers
prefer to use services and products from
responsible producers. Based on this, new part-
ners will be interested to join the network of
Edenred.
41
-2-
Increase of brand image due to social
impact created. New social product will
strengthen the social image of Edenred.
Considering current trend towards social
responsibility, this new experience will
enhance company's reputation and will bring a
new meaning to a company previously known
as prepaid corporate service provider.
-4-
Possible increase of companies in a network
due to social initiative. Companies that already
are engaged in CSR or ones that want to get
involved will be interested to collaborate with
Edenred, since they will be provided with
already well organized and trusted programs,
which will allow them to save efforts managing
whole process by Themselves. Not only their
brand reputation will increase but also this will
be a way to engage employees and gain their
trust.

Network externalities:
Value of the platform is related to the number
of people of 2 different sides. The
increase of players on companies’ side, as
interested in involving employees in CRS
spending, will increase the value perceived
on merchants and NGO’s side. These latter
will be affected by the direct network externali-
ties: access to more consistent budget for their
campaign and an increasing valuable data
collection. Hence, through E-ethnography they
will be able to enhance their ability in creating
awareness of their proposal and challenges,
thus, to engage people onboard of their proj-
ects. Merchants instead are already affected by
indirect network externalities. However, they
will have access to a broader and controlled
revenue stream with social events. Moreover,
they will increase the value of their
product by increasing their brand image.
42
Client as a source and target:
Edenred with our solution will exploit the
overall value of their customer network includ-
ing the employees. Understanding the value
of the data created by each employee is possi-
ble to create an ongoing understanding of
what is happening in terms of perceptions
(voting, sharing, commenting) about social
propositions. All these data are incredibly
interesting for NGOs that, for their core busi-
ness,deal with teh importance of effective
advertising, champaign and fund raising.Thus,
set client as target the solution will give them
the possibility to structure their proposal rely-
ing on real data provided by Edenred. More-
over, they can also study the behaviour of
people in using social vouchers. However, for
merchants the employees are still sources of
revenues and NGOs social events of additional
revenues.
 conclusion
Edenred is a major player in the world in
prepaid corporate services, and their influence
on the world can be either really positive or
really detrimental. The focus of this project was
to realize a strategy for Edenred to adopt to
improve their transactional ecosystem through
participating in social local causes.
Generation of the idea came from a long pro-
cess following the theory of the Design Strate-
gy course. First part was about proposing indi-
vidual visions on meanings made by each
member of the team simultaneously. After
that, next step came about comparing the new
meaning to the existing one, where the pairs
were identified. Limitations of the project relat-
ed to Edenred were also taking into account at
this point, and many ideas were exhausted
such as splitting the Edenred vouchers into
social donations. Pairs continued to explore
their ideas as well as sharing them with the
group. When the circle identified the main
focus area of the strategy, interpreters were
identified to interact and get constructive criti-
cism to deepen the new meaning. At the end,
finding the context of use was crucial to identi-
fy the feasibility and realize how the solution
would work inside the application.
Explaining the probe through the use of a
customer journey and a storyboard was useful
to see the solution in action. Throughout the
process, one key aspect that every member
wanted to give weight to was giving the power
to the employees to make an impact.
The result of this project is a new innovation
with a strong social impact, sustainable from
an economic point of view and it brings a lot of
value for all the actors and opens many possi-
bilities to corporations and environment. Each
stage of the process was backed up with criti-
cism, which made the strategy stronger. Rather
than following one definitive idea, many ideas
came and went after careful discussions and
research on the topic.
By all counts, and with foresight, it is not diffi-
cult to imagine Edenred using this solution as a
part of their transactional ecosystem.
 references 44

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 LITTLE THINGS
MAKE BIG
THINGS HAPPEN