Impact Measurement & Management: What does best practice look like?

Kantar's Sustainable Futures podcast features YSB's impact measurement & management basics.

February 7, 2023

Impact Measurement and Management: What does best practice look like?

In today’s world, it is not enough to try to deliver a positive impact, it is necessary to measure and prove that the impact is indeed positive, attributable, and long-term.

Best practice dictates that an Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) approach is the most effective way to do this but to date, IMM remains a constantly evolving area which many find both confusing and daunting.

In the latest edition of Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation podcast, Jonathan Hall, Managing Partner of Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice, talks to IMM specialist Nora Praher, a Strategy and Impact Manager formerly at Yunus Social Business (YSB) about how to get started on implementing a simple yet effective Impact Measurement & Management Strategy. YSB is a Berlin-based social innovator that uses the power of business to solve global issues through 2 ways: first, it invests in social businesses and helps them to scale, and second, it also works with large corporations to engage in purpose transformation.

“When we talk about impact, it's basically how one action triggers or initiates another one. Where it gets complicated is that that one action, for example, investments into social businesses, can create all sorts of impact. It can be directly caused by the action or indirectly. It can be positive, but there might also be negative impacts related to it. It can be what we intentionally do, but there are often also unintentional impacts that we're not aware of, if we don't measure and manage correctly,” Praher explains.

Ultimately, IMM is a process that starts with strategy and being specific about the kind of impact you really want to achieve. You then implement it by putting elements in place at each step of your operation that hold you accountable to that strategy. 

This podcast offers simple and actionable steps, practical industry tools, and experienced advice on getting started with your IMM strategy implementation. Give it a listen and reach out to YSB for more information on IMM! 

To listen to the podcast here.

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