Can and should companies be in the business of doing good? This long-running debate was graced earlier this year by a new contribution from Michael Porter, one of the world’s leading management gurus, and his sometime sidekick, philanthropy consultant Mark Kramer. In a headline article in the Harvard Business Review they both took a swipe at […]
Time has come for closing arguments in our debate with Felix Salmon. In his final shot he offered up the typically provocative (and false) assertion that ‘Philanthrocapitalism coddles CEOs’. This came as a bit of a surprise, since we have written extensively about the failings of corporate bosses to grasp the scale of the challenge […]
The news that $4.3 billion of new money was pledged on June 13th to vaccinate children in the developing world against several deadly diseases is worth celebrating. The money was promised at the first ever pledging conference for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which exceeded its target of $3.7 billion. That means […]
There was much soul-searching at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. Matthew, who was there covering the event for the Economist, was struck by the mixture of gloom and optimism: gloom, because the recovery of the world economy is still fragile at best; optimism, because there is a will to build a better economic system. One […]
We have had the impressive spontaneous outpouring of generosity in response to the crisis in Haiti and the fine words about building back the small Caribbean nation better than it was before. The question now is ‘how’? That is going to be one of the hot topics for the leading brains of government, business and […]
“It’s the Davos for 25-year olds,” was how David Jones, the CEO of global advertising firm Euro RSCG, described the company’s new initiative launched today, the One Young World summit to be held in London in February 2010. This “global exercise in collaborative creativity” is going to bring together 1,500 delegates from around the world to […]
“Philanthrocapitalism and Davos Make Me Sick,” emotes Rodney Schwartz on the Catalyst blog. In a video he goes even further, complaining that we created as ghastly a word as philanthrocapitalism without even having the excuse of being American (which he seems to be). Which is fair enough. He goes on to make two serious points, […]
The bosses of the world’s biggest companies should each give a year’s salary to support social entrepreneurship and a better use of resources in the social sector during this time of economic crisis. This collective act of contrition and generosity would demonstrate their commitment to the well-being of society at a time when, with jobs […]
“Pray the Devil Back to Hell”, an extraordinary, hopeful documentary about the role that the women’s movement played in ending the civil war in Liberia, was screened in Davos on Saturday. Afterwards, the issues it raised were discussed by a panel, including the film-makers, Nick Kristof of the New York Times (a fan of the […]
The biggest gathering of philanthrocapitalists each year takes place in the Swiss mountain village of Davos, at the World Economic Forum. As we write in the book, in our chapter on the “New Plutocrats”, Davos is the centre of many a conspiracy theory, though we think these are largely unjustified. At this year’s Davos, the […]