These days there seems to be an ever-growing list of global challenges facing governments, civil society, businesses and citizens of the planet. From cybersecurity threats to income inequality to extreme weather to homelessness to food and water insecurity, the range of problems is broad, and the issues, in many cases, are deep.
You can get depressed just thinking about all the challenges, and if you are a business leader you know these are not ideal conditions for any company to thrive. But there are a growing number of companies that are not only rising to the occasion to address these problems, but are doing so in a way that creates value for the business. Now in its fourth year, the Fortune Change the World list celebrates the changemakers—those pioneering business leaders who look at social issues material to their long-term success and say, “We can do things differently.” They’ve embarked on a strategic shift towards shared value, a smarter business model that reimagines the way companies build new markets, innovate, create distinction, and contribute to a thriving society and planet.
[See the more than 50 companies on this year’s Fortune Change the World list.]
In 2011, Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter and Mark Kramer, co-founder and managing director of FSG, a global social-impact consulting firm, co-authored Creating Shared Value. Little did they know they would start a rumble that would turn into a revolution. It comes in the form of the global retailer that builds a talent pipeline to create opportunity for underserved communities that actually delivers more productive employees; the multinational utility that seeks to end energy poverty while it creates new markets; and the shipping company that’s transforming its fleet to be more fuel efficient, saving money and lowering its carbon emissions. Today, many of the world’s biggest and most innovative companies are engaged in initiatives that can contribute to the betterment of society and the environment while they drive their businesses.
Business’s virtuous cycle
One of the reasons I find the publication of this list a cause for celebration is that I know first-hand how hard this type of change can be. I was a corporate practitioner of shared value for over a decade, before it was known by that name. I referred to it as the “virtuous cycle,” but it was the same idea. In fact, the idea was inspired by the early works of Porter and Kramer and it proved to be a new and smarter way of thinking about how a business can address societal challenges. And because I’m such a convert to this way of thinking, I recently signed on as the leader of the Shared Value Initiative to build on this respected global platform by contributing my practitioner’s point-of-view to help advance the practice of this transformative approach.