Have you ever heard of the newly coined expression "Spoon Class Theory"? With the growing gap between the rich and the poor, many people are using two buzz words: the golden spoon, which represents children of high-ranking officials or conglomerate leaders, and the dirt spoon representing children born to less well-off families. This spoon class theory contains the bitter reality that the idea of "You will succeed if you try hard" is replaced by "You can't win if you start from behind."
Inclusive business aims to provide opportunities to solve social problems such as income disparity and discrimination, particularly within the business ecosystem, by improving exclusive growth given the tendency for dirt spoons never to become golden spoons.

In September 2015, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were declared as a global promise, including the commitment to inclusive business. Spearheaded by the United Nations, SDGs were announced under an agreement with national leaders through the agenda "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," which lays out the way the international society should take for growth over the next 15 years. Based on the concept of "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," 17 goals and 169 targets were introduced, encompassing the economy, society and environment.

SDGs aim to address all forms of inequality and poverty under the slogan "Leave No One Behind." SDGs call on cooperation of the entire world, including developing countries, to define low income countries and vulnerable classes as a partner, rather than an object of aid. This means that under this new scheme, corporations can work with vulnerable classes rather than simply providing aid, and that they will be able to have opportunities to create new markets through inclusive business practices.

The key to inclusive business is to resolve challenges by expanding the participation rates of poor and socially and economically vulnerable classes in the value chain of businesses, while at the same time sharing profits that occur inside.
Specific methods for corporations to implement inclusive business are: first, in the supply side, seeking measures to increase income by including vulnerable classes in the business value chain as a producer or supplier, and second, recognizing them as a customer and providing them with products and services related to education, health and sanitation. Now, let's take a look at the activities conducted by global companies.

Unilever declared that it would improve the lives of over 5.5 million people in the business ecosystem by 2020. In the purchase stage, it provides opportunities to peasant farmers rather than large companies and rich farmers, and in the distribution stage, it seeks to improve income by supporting small-scale sellers to enhance business skills. To contribute to job creation, which is a recent global issue, it provides young generations with education and job opportunities in the agriculture and distribution stages. Until 2015, Unilever purchased produce from 600,000 peasant farmers and has supported over 1.8 million small-scale sellers to improve income.

At the same time, Unilever focuses on women who represent more than 70% of its customers and play a crucial role as harvester, distributor and employee. In particular, the company actively supports the participation of women in small businesses as an inclusive distribution model. In India, Unilever provided sales representative training to women living in rural regions through Project Shakti and expanded the market by improving consumer awareness of sanitation and health through, for example, emphasizing the importance of handwashing.

L'Oréal spurs social inclusiveness through its "Solidarity Sourcing" program that helps economically vulnerable people find income sources and jobs. The Solidarity Sourcing program provides partnership opportunities to fair trading producers, firms with vulnerable class employees including the disabled, SMEs and firms operating in small communities. For example, in China, the company signed a packaging contract with Ruo Lin, which employs the disabled, providing job opportunities to 32 disabled people. L'Oréal is continuing its activities to achieve its goal of realizing responsible and inclusive growth by engaging over 100,000 economically neglected people worldwide by 2020.

The company is carrying out the "Beauty for a Better Life" program, which provides free beauty training to poor local communities so that people in need can become well-trained beauty professionals. Through this program, the company supports victims of domestic violence and neglected youths in over 10 countries worldwide, increasing access to beauty training for employment opportunities.

Amorepacific doesn't simply seek profits, but strives to expand the participation of vulnerable people in our business value chain to fulfill our social responsibilities as a corporate citizen. As part of our efforts to provide quality job opportunities to the disabled who are likely to be neglected in the employment market, we established the subsidiary We Dream in July 2016 whose work includes 29 disabled employees labeling Amorepacific items for export. The company's plant plans to continue to improve productivity and seek business opportunities through, for example, developing new duties based on the degree of physical disability of employees.

To realize inclusive business, corporations should create social value and economic value at the same time. They need to reduce collisions between these two values or create power beyond them through continued corporate innovations, such as creating demand by engaging in long-term perspective education, conducting successful marketing campaigns by leveraging the characteristics of local communities and improving consumer awareness. We look forward to your participation in Amorepacific's commitment to realizing a "dream community changing the world with beauty" through inclusive growth.