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august 2012 with each generation we rethink the social contract between business and society we are in the middle of one of these transformations as millennials fill the ranks of leading companies and nonprofits and generation x begins to dominate leadership positions at these organizations to capture this moment in history over the last year i have interviewed 19 corporate leaders for the huffington post about their careers passions and the evolving relationship between business and community they range from entrepreneurs like jim koch of samuel adams to fortune 100 corporate foundation leaders like kerry sullivan of bank of america as children these leaders had many dreams none of them however were to become philanthropists much less corporate executives they wanted to be nba stars priests and famous actors but as they reflected back on their early aspirations and their paths to their current roles what bmw foundation s marcus hipp called a `red line emerged the line looks intentional in retrospect but was more commonly subconscious and driven by values and belief in the potential of others that lead their way their approaches to leadership in the field are deeply influenced by their own values and experience in the world as well as the pragmatic realities they each face working within companies of various sizes priorities and agility what they all share is a belief that the contract is changing and there is a critical need to find new and better ways to define corporate citizenship leadership 4 © taproot foundation 2012[close]
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these leaders share a higher aspiration for their work and impact they see both the need in society as well as the assets of their companies differently than the corporate philanthropists who preceded them at the heart of their visions is an awareness that coinciding and driving much of the change in the social contract between business and society is a change in the social contract between professionals and society professionals and the talents they bring in areas like marketing technology management design and finance are the currency of the service economy and are playing a core role in the evolution of corporate philanthropy and community investment the executives i interviewed are all leading this change differently many like merck and chevron are in the early stages of experimentation with this new form of philanthropy others like bain company and riggs partners have pivoted to put pro bono service at the core of not only their philanthropic approach but also their strategies to attract and engage talent this book shares the highlights of these interviews and the personalities and visions of the leaders of corporate responsibility today their collective stories provide a glimpse at the change afoot and how diverse and innovative leaders are approaching the opportunities and challenges change creates make it matter aaron hurst president founder taproot foundation 5[close]
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there is a role for all of us to play to help individuals communities i feel fortunate to have that perspective kerry sullivan bank of america we want to look for places where we don t see an answer yet to listen to think to respond quickly ellen lambert merck while time is valuable we think that talent is a multiplier bobby silton gap inc nonprofits that are able to say `this is a business partnership get the most out of a strategic partnership shannon schuyler pwc we really think about employee engagement in terms of involving our people not just logging volunteer hours paula davis alcoa we now reach over 25 countries claire dixon gsk every year that goes by we gain confidence to do more teresa coles riggs partners deloitte s pro bono commitment had support across leadership our people own it -evan hochberg deloitte we select our pro bono clients as we select our corporate clients we re going to do it in a way that creates value and that leverages our entrepreneurial nature jim koch samual adams jenny davis-peccoud bain co 7[close]
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how well do you know your corporate philanthropy leaders match the facts on the left with the corresponding corporate philanthropy leader on the right factoid aspired to be jesuit priest aspired to be linebacker was wooed to job via song first job was selling shoes worked in every sector professional actress failed receptionist fought homelessness in the uk best ideas in shower obsessed with dogs knows value of a dollar lifer not a `do-gooder deep connection to 9/11 raised two daughters to volunteer senior thesis on anorexia had an epiphany aspired to play in nba six sigma black belt 8 © taproot foundation 2012[close]
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name matt lonner chevron jenny davis-peccoud bain co shannon schuyler pwc meg garlinghouse linkedin mary o malley prudential markus hipp bmw foundation ken sternad ups tim mcclimon american express kathy hopinkah-hannan kpmg bobbi silten gap inc kerry sullivan bank of america stanley litow ibm claire dixon glaxosmithkline evan hochberg deloitte paula davis alcoa cecilia carter starbucks teresa coles riggs partners ellen lambert merck jim koch samuel adams 9 p 36 p 18 p 26 p 46 p 34 p 16 p 40 p 30 p 24 p 14 p 32 p 20 p 42 p 22 p 38 p 12 p 28 p 44 p 10[close]
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what do you have the company do to give back in the summer of 2007 we were doing one of those community service days where a lot of people in the company went to a community center in south and spent the whole day painting the people who ran the center thanked us for all the work we put in there everybody felt really good about the day but i didn t we just did this nice thing and then i thought well i m an entrepreneur i know why i don t feel good about it because we just took 30 very talented capable people with a lot of good business skills and we spent a day painting and we re not the most talented painters we probably did 800 dollars worth of painting and we probably spent 10,000 dollars worth of management time and labor why should i feel good about all the value that i today so that was my epiphany and i thought you know if we re going to do this kind of thing we re going to do it in a way that creates value that multiplies the value of our capabilities and that leverages our nature that is a big epiphany and one that 99 of companies have yet to have yeah our approach rules out giving money away through the conventional philanthropic activities many times they take money from one pocket i.e a company s pocket and put it into somebody s favorite philanthropy that might be good or bad but i had a higher all philanthropy is good but i wanted something better jim koch samuel adams so what did you end up doing we started a program called samuel adams brewing the american dream and the purpose of it is to help small businesses grow create in their communities and succeed i learned from my experience starting sam adams that small businesses desperately need loan money and nuts and bolts business advice so we designed a program to make microloans up to $25,000 available to small businesses then we provide coaching mentoring advice assistance along with a loan which makes it more likely to get paid back at the end of the day however it s not an investment the money s gone we re on our second million contributed to the program so from my point of view it is a philanthropic activity just one that is leveraged properly to create a lot of value we ve made over 150 loans affected jobs and coached almost 3000 businesses 10 © taproot foundation 2012[close]
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we probably did 800 dollars worth of painting and we probably spent 10,000 dollars worth of management time and labor why should i feel good about all the value that i destroyed today 11[close]
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what is your favorite starbucks drink and as a customer how does starbucks support your personal community engagement my favorite drink is a toffee-nut latte it s warm it s got a little sweetness to it and it makes me feel good inside i lived in connecticut for several years and every day i used to go to starbucks to get one and every day the store manager would sing to me he would sing my name cecilia which everyone recognizes from simon and garfunkel he would also tell me what they were doing in the community and since he knew i worked in philanthropy he would ask me for ideas mind you this was when i was a customer even my girls loved it there they would go after school and he would watch out for them he even knew them by name when i would come in he would tell me all about them i know that not every starbucks is in a community like that but what s important is that our store managers are delivering on that customer service aspect what skills do baristas bring to their community baristas bring a passion and leadership skill that is essential to running a business and embedding that business in the community they have a to manage they deal with labor issues and they have to maintain a community presence we at starbucks give them the tools they need to do that but it s their ability to be creative in thinking about how to apply those skills that really matters it s the kind of thing you can t teach but we have become known for having a culture that supports that passion so we are able to attract that type of employee cecilia carter starbucks how does this compare with the way you leverage the skills of your corporate hq employees in seattle our law corporate affairs department has been providing pro bono services for more than 10 years and they have spread that ethic across other departments legal inspires other teams like our hr marketing and accounting departments to connect with their clients to offer additional support we ve created a sort of hybrid model with pro bono and cash at starbucks when our executives join boards we look for approaches that go beyond just money what issues keep you up at night the impact of the global economy has created a world of the haves and the have-nots and corporations as the largest employers play a significant role in making sure that gap doesn t continue to grow as such we have a responsibility to settle the unrest that bubbles up in our youth this is something that we really see on the front lines they re the kinds of conversations that you expect to have in 12 © taproot foundation 2012[close]
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our law corporate affairs department has been providing pro bono services for more than 10 years legal inspires other teams like our hr marketing and accounting departments to connect with their nonprofit clients to offer additional support 13[close]
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you are at the top of your game and at the height of your career i wonder if most ceos would ever even consider that someone with your background would want to run a foundation that it can attract that kind of talent i tell my team all the time that my vision is that one day it s going to be a deeper part of business it s not going to be a department anymore i want to make sure all of my players keep their business skills sharp because one day they re going to go back when there are no longer functional boundaries for this work i understand how gets created on the business side i often think how do i help the business leaders understand how this work creates value for everyone and that this is an investment worth making not as a charitable cause but truly as an investment for everyone i think what has happened to hr in the last 30 years is a great parallel hr has moved from being a department to really being a way of thinking about talent management and development and most corporations have experts who are staying on top of the latest ideas and innovations how has the work of the gap foundation changed in the last few years a little over five years ago we identified our people and their talent as our greatest strengths being a company that has a lot of employees we said we have to leverage this group beyond just their time while time is valuable we think that talent is a multiplier now 100 percent of our youth-serving grants have what s called link and leverage which is they re linking to a company asset beyond cash we also leverage internal talent to get our work done as a foundation from strategic planning to surveys to website redesign employees from different areas of the company volunteer to help us meet our goals bobby silten gap inc it s been hugely transformative for our foundation to integrate skilled volunteering into our work we couldn t have the kind of community impact we are having if we only relied on our cash how do you know if this strategy is working i had a nonprofit leader call me to tell me how much she s grown as a leader because of the gap inc leadership initiative a program that helps nonprofit leaders become more effective by leveraging the talents of our hr team and some of our company s best practices on developing leaders it is a small organization but she has essentially doubled her revenue in the last four years she told me i have grown so much because of your volunteers and what you ve been teaching me as part of the leadership initiative it wasn t about thank you for the cash we gave them which i think is really 14 © taproot foundation 2012[close]
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we also leverage internal talent pro bono to get our work done as a foundation from strategic planning to surveys to website redesign employees from different areas of the company volunteer to help us meet our goals 15[close]
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