Jane Nelson: Leveraging Public and Private Sectors to Produce Powerful Global Change

"Nation states aren't getting it right and business doesn't have all the solutions either," Jane Nelson, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Director, Business Leadership and Strategy at the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) told attendees at B·A·W·B's March 21st colloquium series.  "The key is finding new institutional structures which provide us a logical way to move forward and solve complex global issues."

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Nelson has lived in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. In addition to working in these areas, she has also worked extensively in the Middle East and Latin America.  Crediting her global experiences with helping shape her vision for a better global future, Nelson related an epiphany she had when she realized she could use her business background to help disadvantaged populations.  "I had a vision there could be so much potential to harness if we could give people solutions to their problems," she recalled.

Starting off the colloquium, Nelson, a former Vice President at Citibank, challenged the audience to come together and support a common vision of eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable environment, and celebrating diversity.  "What is your vision?  What is your dream for the future?" she asked.

Nelson based her presentation around five key trends fundamentally changing the world.  Labeled "problems without passports," the first global shift included a series of complex global challenges which transcend national boundaries, such as environmental and climate change, global health challenges, global security, and demographic changes.  "We are currently undergoing some of the most fundamental complex and interrelated system shifts in the world," she commented.  "These trends result in enormous risks but at the same time enormous opportunities."

The second major shift in the global arena was the dramatic growth of market economies and the private sector.  Increasingly, Nelson noted, the private sector is playing a dominate role in global affairs.  As a result, "the implications from an environmental perspective are enormous," Nelson said.  She touched on issues such as the dramatic increase in energy consumption in developing countries such as India and China, as well as the growth of water-stressed environments.

"The world has never experienced so much wealth created with such high levels of poverty," declared Nelson, leading to the third major trend of markedly increased inequality and jobless growth.  She noted that as the use of technology increased, the level of people who have the required skills to successfully work with the technology has not risen at the same rate.  As a result, Nelson said, "the levels of working poor, not to mention extreme poverty, have dramatically increased worldwide."

A fourth major shift encompasses growth in both the sophistication and scope of civil society, leading to an explosion of positive organizations including non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  Nelson attributes this to the increase in technology; as technology has improved, the resulting increase in communications capacity has enabled NGOs and other organizations to aid previously inaccessible areas of the world.  Consequently, "small groups of people now have tremendous capacity to bring about change," she stated.

Nelson then presented her fifth global change, the critical importance of good governance.  She believes there are a number of gaps in governance, including bad, weak, indifferent, and fragmented governance.  Because of the numerous problems plaguing governance, she commented, "civil society and business must fill the gaps."  Based on her experience, Nelson believes business can help fill the governance gaps either as individual business efforts or through strategic partnerships, both of which introduce new business models.

On an individual level, businesses can effect positive global change by following Nelson's "Four C's."   "Companies should first and foremost manage their core business activities by maximizing the positive activities and minimizing the negative areas," she suggested. 

Second, businesses need to develop positive corporate governance, including the measurement and management of corporate social responsibility.  Third, "companies need to move beyond what I term ‘checkbook philanthropy' and practice competence-led philanthropy," she said.  "By leveraging their core competencies, companies can have a greater philanthropic impact than by just giving money to a particular cause."  Lastly, Nelson stressed the need for businesses to have consistent communication and policies.  She noted that too often companies have disconnect between their stated corporate social responsibility policies and the actions actually taken.

While Nelson believed it was important for individual firms to use business to engage global problems, she spoke passionately about the immense opportunities presented when systemic public-private partnerships evolve.  Terming them "Coalitions for Change," Nelson noted, "the voluntary coming together of diverse organizations in positive ways fundamentally leads to new ways of solving the world's problems."  By leveraging the core competencies of companies, world organizations such as the U.N. and World Bank, NGOs, and the local populace, Nelson believes, "the results are much more powerful and much more sustainable."

Nelson related many examples of Coalitions for Change, including a unique initiative in the health care sector.  "We need to stop looking at the poor as victims," she said.  "Instead we need to give them opportunities and access to proper healthcare."  She recalled recent work she had done with Abbott Laboratories on a hospital project in the African country of Tanzania.  

"Abbott Labs models the way in competence-led philanthropy," she said.  "Abbott Labs thinks strategically about their core business and uses it to harness their philanthropy." 

Using their core competencies in healthcare and philanthropic funding, Abbott Labs worked with the Tanzanian government to help rebuild the capacity of a major referral hospital in the capital city of Dar es Salaam.  Not only did Abbott Labs provide philanthropic monetary donations, but more importantly, they provided desperately needed human resources, including ICT and laboratory employees who helped develop a management training program as well as critical skill sets for local hospital workers. 

By adopting a holistic approach, Abbott Labs was able to help the Dar es Salaam hospital effectively and efficiently rebuild their capacity. 

"Abbott Labs recognized it needed to take a systems approach and use the core business competencies and skills that Abbott is best at," said Nelson.  "By leveraging philanthropic money with a business' core competencies, you can create powerful change."

Through her international experiences and extensive work with institutions such as the UN and World Economic Forum, Jane Nelson is spearheading cutting edge public-private partnership initiatives that produce powerful global change.

By Leanne Shott