Question

Select a firm for which you believe its social capital is vital to its competitive advantage and support your arguments.

Choose a company with which you are familiar. what are some of the ways in chich it uses technology to leverage its human capital?

Answer 1

The Tata Group of India has been leveraging on its social capital to maintain its competitive advantage for years. Tata Group has identified the advantages of estimating the social capital for managing risks and opportunities related to business. All decision making in the organization has a social and ethical principle viewpoint. They even became a participating member of Natural capital Coalition to leverage on its social capital. The outcomes of leveraging on social capital are as follows:

• Tata steel has been able to increase its sustainability by managing the green house gas emissions
• Tata Motors measured the impact of its cars on Natural Capital protocol to maintain the balance of product portfolio

Google is a well-known example of a company that uses technology to leverage its human capital. Some of the ways in which above is achieved are:

• The Google employees thoughtfully use a mix of technology for communication. For example: for a quick chat, they use instant messaging while for a long discussion, they use video-conferencing platforms like Hangout
• Google offers the flexibility to its employees to attend a meeting from anywhere. The only condition is that the place must be free from distractions
• Google values the opinion of its employees at all levels. The employees can voice out their opinion about a decision through spreadsheets, polls , etc.