Jim Skinner, Vice Chairman and CEO of McDonald's Corporation, likes to challenge what he sees as commonly held perceptions and stereotypes about his company. Number one on that list is the stereotype of "McJobs" - listed in Webster's Dictionary as a low paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement - which Skinner sees as a slap in the face for 12 million men and women working at McDonald's in the U.S.

Paul Wolfowitz, the 10th President of the World Bank Group, whose appointment to that position from Deputy Secretary of Defense was as controversial as many of the bank's activities themselves, spoke to 1,100 attendees from 42 countries as the opening keynote speaker at the 2005 annual Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) conference. In his new position, Wolfowitz is at the top of the list of those who could be most influential in eradicating poverty and dealing with other important BSR issues.

A former corporate executive at Shell Oil, Fazle Abed is now the founder and chairperson of BRAC, formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, an organization he started when he returned to his country at the end of the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. One of world's leading social entrepreneurs and change makers, Abed told BSR conference attendees he believes he is making the difference between hope and despair for millions of people living in dehumanizing conditions.

The number of interesting breakout sessions available to participants in the 2005 annual BSR conference in Washington, D.C., this month were too numerous to choose from easily. With two breakout sessions a day during the first two days of the conference and one on the last day, each packed with six to seven fascinating topic areas, people struggled to decide which session to attend. Three sessions regarding the corporation are covered here: "When the Multinational Corporation is Chinese," "What is the Purpose of the Corporation?"and "Strategies for Identifying True Stakeholders".

Quoting T.S. Elliot "only those who risk going too far will ever know how far they can go", Katherine Bader, chairman, president and CEO of NatureWorks, LLC, told participants at the 2005 BSR Conference she believes the act of questioning core assumptions and paradigms to be the agents of change. Bader's motto "Think Big or Don't Bother" fits well for a woman running the company that invented the corn-based resin technology used in packaging by companies seeking the benefits of plastics from an annually renewable resource.

Senior Fortune Magazine writer, Marc Gunther interviewed Jeffrey B. Kindler, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate compliance officer at Pfizer, Inc., regarding ethics, trust and competitiveness in the pharmaceutical industry during the recent BSR conference. Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the country, earned $52 billion in revenues last year and generated 10 new products.

Stuart Hart, the S.C. Johnson Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management, and author of "Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World's Most Difficult Problems", stressed the importance of juxtaposing the two elements in the book's title when speaking to attendees of the first 2005-2006 B·A·W·B Colloquium Series event. Hart told an audience of about 60 people "It is not about more philanthropy and shaming people into doing things because it is the right thing to do - it is about creating a new level of commerce".

Net Impact hosted their 13th Annual National Conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business November 11-13th. Jennifer Taylor, president of Weatherhead's Net Impact chapter, and other chapter members attended, joining 1,200 Net Impact members from across the globe to learn how different industries and companies are combining business skills to make a positive social impact. This year's theme, "Bridging the Gap: Leading Social Innovation Across Sectors", emphasized the need for collaboration with government, business and non-profits in order to achieve the greatest impact.

The Innovation Bank launched this summer with an impressive array of 60 diverse stories. Covering 17 areas of the globe, the Bank profiles innovative ways to address such global issues as human health, ecological sustainability, community development, human rights protection and peace making.