With many sustainability focused conversations speaking to the role of consumer habits, resources, and waste, in this session of Beyond Business As Usual, we will look at several cases of where firms have begun a process of recalibrating their business models through the (re)design of product, process, and people. A process for each firm that will have begun with a single catalyst, but will hav…
If there is one thing that teaching a project-based course to 205 MBA students in China, it is that we have to recalibrate how students are engaged, incubated, and engaged, and in this presentation, I spend 30 minutes speaking to how I have attempted (and at times succeed) in doing this. 5 years into this process now, for me the greatest lessons that I myself have learned are: 1. Sustainabilit…
As firms look to recalibrate the mission of a firm, many believe that it will be external stakeholder that is the primary barrier. That suppliers won't be willing to adhere to new expectations, or that consumers won't pay the premium that may be required. It is a belief that in many cases turns out to be secondary to the fact that internal stakeholders may actually provide the greatest barrier.…
One of the major issues that I have been speaking about is the fact in outsourced supply chains accountability and responsibility have been largely independent. That when things went wrong on the factory floor, the brand could hold itself above the issue by saying that it was their suppliers who were the ones who were legally responsible for the failures. A position that many consumers, particu…
Join us on Thursday, June 13th for our upcoming Social Entrepreneurship Lecture Series - Beyond Business As Usual - Recalibrating Business Models through Design, Process and People. Get inspired by the sharing from Ms. Erin Meezan, Vice President of Sustainability at Interface Inc., on how this global company incorporates design, quality, business strategy to achieve sustainability. Date: 13…
Garment factory collapse could leave reputations in tatters. Here are seven principles that foreign companies operating in low-cost, outsourced production markets should follow to better protect their reputations: 1. If the workplace health, safety and environmental regulatory framework of your sourcing market is less stringent than in your home country, find suppliers that are prepared to acce…
Are you the type of person who is looking to donate money to a good cause it is unsure where you should begin? You have heard that there are a lot of organizations that "spend too much money" on overhead, and you want to make sure that ALL "your money" goes to the "cause." If so, I'd like to ask you to not be "that donor." A donor whose only concern is the efficiency of "your money," and not the i…
The 5.12.08 Sichuan earthquake that left 90,000+ Chinese dead was seen by many as a turning point in philanthropy. It was an event that brought the country together in a way that I have not seen at any other time in my 12+ years here, and it was a time when the best of China showed through as the seeds for a culture of philanthropy were planted. Part of this experience (for me), was defined by…
