Burgess COMMENTARY
THe idea of 'shared value' is very reasonable, and certainly a lot better than 'profit at any price', but it is really not good enough. The Porter / Kramer idea still has the organization at the center of the performance universe, with performance measured most by the amount of profit available for the investor owners. This model does not have people at the center. Nor does this model have clarity about impact on the environment. Rather it is merely a better way to make more profit for the organization, with these core externalities relegated to a not very important position in the performance analysis.
Peter Burgess

What is Shared Value?

Shared value is created when companies recognize that there are tremendous opportunities for innovation and growth in treating social problems as business objectives. Learn more >

The Evolution of Shared Value

In the early 2000s, when FSG began helping major global corporations think about their philanthropic strategies, we realized that they could have a far greater impact on social issues through their business practices than through their charitable giving. So we started to think about ways they could incorporate their full range of assets—their expertise, knowledge, and influence—into their philanthropic activity.

This led to our collaboration with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter on “The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy” (Harvard Business Review, 2002). With leadership from Professor Porter, we explored more deeply the relationship between a company’s success and the social and environmental conditions in regions where they operated. These insights led us to focus on the interdependence, rather than the friction and tension, between business and society.

Working together, Porter, Mark Kramer and his FSG colleagues, and long-time FSG client Nestlé articulated the concept of shared value. FSG’s consulting work with many clients over the years helped refine the concept, and in 2011, Porter and Kramer published “Creating Shared Value” in Harvard Business Review.

The article attracted international attention and, along with the work of other thought leaders, contributed to a real shift in management thinking about the importance of societal issues in corporate strategy. To support this shift, FSG launched the Shared Value Initiative, a global community of leaders who find business opportunities in addressing societal challenges. FSG continues to expand the concept of shared value through our work developing, implementing, and measuring shared value strategies for major corporate clients throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Getting Started with Shared Value

“Creating Shared Value,” Harvard Business Review Read the original article on the topic by Professor Michael Porter and Mark Kramer.

“Innovating for Shared Value,” Harvard Business Review Learn the five practices that enable companies to engage in social innovation.

Are you ready for shared value? Take the diagnostic to assess your organization’s readiness for implementing shared value.

Publications See the newest shared value publications from FSG, including articles and in-depth reports.

How FSG can help

Shared Value Initiative community
The Shared Value Initiative allows you to connect with other shared value practitioners.

Consulting
Learn more about our consulting work with clients to create shared value.

The FSG Story

THE BEGINNING

In 1999, Harvard Business Review published “Philanthropy’s New Agenda: Creating Value,” an article written by FSG’s founders, two friends who met through their children’s school. Combining the strategy expertise of Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter with Mark Kramer’s background in philanthropy, the article suggested that foundations could increase their impact by adopting more rigorous strategies that created value beyond their grant dollars. Foundations responded with interest, and in 2000, Porter and Kramer started Foundation Strategy Group in Boston, MA, to help foundations develop more effective strategies.

As FSG expanded, we began to offer a wider range of services to a more diverse clientele, including corporations, nonprofits, and governments around the world, so we shortened our name to FSG and opened an office in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2006, we became a nonprofit organization to better reflect our mission. And in 2009, we launched a strategic learning and evaluation division to help build the field through new approaches to evaluation that could better support strategy.

GROWING IDEAS AND COMMUNITIES

Through our consulting work and partnerships, several key concepts have emerged. In our 2009 Stanford Social Innovation Review article “Catalytic Philanthropy,” we outlined how philanthropy could see the big picture and do more than just give grant money. In 2006, we wrote From Insight to Action: New Directions in Foundation Evaluation, which sought to demystify evaluation for philanthropy. We expanded our view of how to make collaboration more effective against social issues in “Collective Impact,” in Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2011. In the same year, Porter and Kramer published “Creating Shared Value” in Harvard Business Review, identifying the ways that businesses could make a profit and solve social problems at the same time.

Our field-building efforts led to the development of focused learning communities to engage and support practitioners. In partnership with the Council on Foundations, we created CF Insights to benchmark community foundation operating performance. In a similar fashion, we worked with partners such as the Clinton Global Initiative and the Rockefeller Foundation to launch the Shared Value Initiative in 2012. The next year, we created the Collective Impact Forum in partnership with the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, United Way Worldwide, and many other funders and partners.

In 2015, we welcomed the addition of new colleagues from the inclusive markets world to establish FSG India, increasing our offerings to include the development of innovations in housing, sanitation, and early childhood education.

TODAY

Our team of more than 150 people includes members of diverse backgrounds who nonetheless hold to a common spirit of collaboration, dedication to analytical rigor, and sense of urgency about social change. We continue to lead with ideas by publishing reports, articles, and tools, hosting conferences and trainings, and speaking at events around the world.

Above all, we continue to work with clients and partners to unleash the full potential of funders, nonprofits, businesses, and governments to accelerate progress against the world’s most pressing challenges, such as global health, education, and poverty.

And one thing about FSG hasn’t changed: We’re as passionate about reimagining social change now as we were in 2000.