Corporate social intrapreneurship in global public health

Guided by THNK Faculty, program participants spent two weeks in South Africa doing ‘Sensing‘, a phase in THNK’s Innovation Flow, defined as “an immersive exploration of a topic, combining rational analysis with intuitive and associative inquiry to gain deep user insights.”

As part of the Sensing process, we visited (youth) clinics and orphanages. We conducted interviews with over 20 experts in the field. We facilitated workshops with over 60 adolescents to better understand their worlds and, in particular, their attitudes toward (safe) sex and HIV. The human-centric, intrapreneurial Sensing-to-Scaling approach deployed by THNK led to breakthrough concepts that ultimately could play a role in reducing the incidence rate of HIV.

At the end of the program in February 2017, participants presented their concepts to senior executives of J&J. Adrian Thomas, VP Global Public Health and Market Access, the program sponsor, noted: “THNK has been a creative partner in bringing a structured methodology to an immersion-based program to tackle some of the largest problems in global public health.”

As facilitators of creative leadership programs, this program simultaneously challenged and inspired us. On the one hand, it was confronting to see at close quarters the human consequences of HIV and all its associated “cousins”. Stigma, shame and loneliness, poverty, sexual abuse and gang violence. On the other hand, we also saw a ‘story of hope’. Alongside Program participants, we met and listened to the stories of the young people who have flourished through extreme adversity. These stories energised us to think about the possibilities of making a real difference in this situation and others of similar complexity.

THNK is proud to be working with J&J. Our experience in working together closely is that it is an organization that is putting the interests of patients and communities first, as noted in its Credo. The leaders that we work with have big ideas and big heart. And as an organization, J&J has the corporate resources and commitment to make a difference in health outcomes across the world.