Date: 2024-04-20 Page is: DBtxt001.php txt00018994
Activism / Shared Value (FSG)
Shared Value Initiative info@sharedvalue.org via e2ma.net
ZOOM ... Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire ... Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School // Mark Kramer, Co-founder and Managing Director of FSG // Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder in Residence of PolicyLink
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Recording Now Available: Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
Shared Value Initiative info@sharedvalue.org via e2ma.net
2:05 PM (27 minutes ago)
to me
On June 3, the SVI hosted the first event in our 2020 virtual speaker series, Resilience Reimagined. We heard from Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School, about her new book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire and Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder in Residence of PolicyLink, in a conversation facilitated by Mark Kramer, Co-founder and Managing Director of FSG. It was a lively discussion about the role companies play not just in reimagining capitalism but in creating a more equitable and just society that works for everyone.
Watch the Recording
Companies around the world have an opportunity to re-examine their purpose and practices in this moment based on the insights from a range of powerful reminders that underscore that we cannot sustain our way of doing business. From the global pandemic and the related economic fallout to racial inequities and violence against people of color to raging wild fires driven by climate change, the imperative for change is here. Our conversation last week, while grounded in the ongoing racial violence against the Black community in the United States and the disproportionate economic and health impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color, builds on our belief that the concept of reimagining capitalism is a universal one and is relevant to business and communities around the world.
If you were not able to attend the webinar live, we hope you will get an opportunity to view the video. To provide a glimpse of the spirit of the discussion, here are excerpts from our two guest speakers that we hope entice you to view the entire session.
We are at a pivotal moment where there is a moral, democratic and economic imperative to build a world that works for everyone. And business has an important role to play.
As Angela put it:
“Corporations have hijacked democracy, and now have outsized influence in society. They have replaced civil society’s ability to move government to act on behalf of the people. Therefore, businesses have an outsized responsibility right now to step into this moment and create the kind of society that we need. In addition to good business practices that encourage full inclusion and stop discrimination, business leaders must also step into the public policy realm. [Typically we would have] civil society pushing in a robust democracy, but we don’t have a robust democracy anymore.”
Rebecca underscored Angela’s point by reminding us that business cannot thrive in a broken society:
“We need to make it very clear that business thrives when society thrives. And that’s when democracy serves everyone. 70% of Americans think the political system is biased against them – is rigged. More than 56% of people worldwide say capitalism is not working for them. They say that because they feel shut out and excluded. As capitalists we’ve put our head down and made money and that’s fine, but we need to remember that without a healthy society and a healthy system we will not thrive. We need to lend our voices to those pushing for a truly balanced world.”
In order to truly emerge stronger and better from the COVID-19 crisis and the civil unrest that has gripped many parts of the world, we need to rebuild our society to make it more equitable and just and include new voices in the work to realize this reality.
Our Resilience Reimagined series aims to do just that. Over the coming months we’ll be hosting more conversations that get to the heart of the issues and systems that need to be reimagined for a new and better world.
Recommended Reading
Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire by Rebecca Henderson which gets to the heart of what’s wrong with modern capitalism and provides a pragmatic roadmap for how business can help to catalyze the systemic change we need to build a capitalism that works for everyone.
COVID-19 & Race a compendium of resources from PolicyLink that aims to ensure medical care, emergency relief, and longer-term recovery efforts target the people and places in greatest need by advancing an intersectional equity policy agenda for federal, state, and local leaders.
The 10 Commitments Companies Must Make to Advance Racial Justice by Mark Kramer and published in Harvard Business Review, which lays out 10 clear and potent actions that companies around the world must take to progress towards racial equity.
Ways to Engage, a post from our sister initiative, the Collective Impact Forum, which provides several ways individuals and organizations can address systemic racism and injustice directly.
The Future is History – Race & Labor in America, an opinion piece by Nicole Trimble and Sam Wollak of Talent Rewire, our other sister initiative, which looks at the inextricable link between labor and economic prosperity in America and racial violence.
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This email was sent to peterbnyc@gmail.com.
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