The New York Times: Creating Shared Value Gains Momentum

Column from Steve Lohr: "First, Make Money. Also, Do Good."
Aug 17, 2011 10:55 AM ET

From The New York Times: First, Make Money. Also, Do Good.

Creating Shared Value continues to influence the conversation on Corporate Social Responsibility.  This week, The New York Times business writer Steve Lohr differentiates Creating Shared Value from “triple bottom line” (people, planet, profit), “impact investing” and “sustainability”—all corporate initiatives that address social concerns.  He writes, "The shared-value concept builds on those ideas, but it emphasizes profit-making not just as a possibility but as a priority."  He quotes FSG co-founders Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, who advocate that shared value moves toward "a more sophisticated form of capitalism,” says Porter, in which “the ability to address societal issues is integral to profit maximization instead of treated as outside the profit model.”  Mark Kramer weighs in, “This is not about companies being good or bad...It’s about galvanizing companies to exploit the market in addressing social problems.”  Examples of corporations leveraging Creating Shared Value include General Electric, I.B.M., and Intuit.  Please refer to the full article on Creating Shared Value here.  

 

About FSG

FSG is a consulting firm specializing in strategy, evaluation, and research, founded in 2000 as Foundation Strategy Group. Today, FSG is a nonprofit firm that works across all sectors around the globe, partnering with foundations, corporations, nonprofits, governments, and agencies to develop more effective solutions to the world's most challenging issues. FSG helps organizations, individually and collectively, achieve social impact by discovering better ways to solve social problems.

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