May 20, 2013
The death of over 800 people in the collapse of Rana Plaza, a building with garment factories in Bangladesh, spurred widespread outrage over working conditions in offshore factories. In the search for blame, many commentators point to the absence of building codes, lack of workplace...
May 10, 2013
Let's say you believed deeply in the importance of sleep health, and you wanted to start a movement to change people's attitudes and behavior. Maybe, like Arianna Huffington, it's a personal crisis that convinces you. Or maybe it's a key...
May 6, 2013
Speaking at the recent Global Philanthropy Forum, Toyin Saraki — founder and president of the WellBeing Foundation Africa — articulated her evolving approach to giving. Whereas her Nigerian parents tended to give indiscriminately to poor people, with religion as the driving motivator, Saraki has embraced a more structured, purpose-driven approach to giving. "I didn't take it up from the...
May 2, 2013
Every time there's a tragedy — be it 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, or the Boston Marathon bombing — there's an expectation that corporations will do something to aid the victims. "Something," however, has gotten ever more complex. After all, how do you support those affected without looking like you are cashing in? And, in the case of Boston, who are you raising money for?...
The collapse of the building with garment factories that killed more than 400 people in Bangladesh last week brings a hideous sense of déjà vu. We've seen this before, and we know that it will happen again. The rich billion of us who live lives of material luxury unimaginable to the vast majority of the world — and beyond the dreams of our own recent forebears — pause...
May 1, 2013
Three people die every minute from tuberculosis — a treatable and largely preventable disease. Resistant forms continue to thrive, and increased travel makes the global threat very real. We face a public health emergency.
Without adequate financing, ministries of health and even private hospitals in developing countries often don't have the resources needed to purchase diagnostic equipment, train workers, and ensure access to appropriate treatment. These obstacles make it...
April 23, 2013
After it failed to meet for nearly a year, President Obama disbanded his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness at the end of January. An elite group of business leaders, the Council met only...
April 4, 2013
If you had told me, when I was attending college during the height of the Vietnam War, and the heyday of the counterculture, that several of the most inspiring days of my life would someday be spent with a group of CEOs of large companies, I would have said you were nuts. But that's exactly what I experienced last week, at a small gathering sponsored by an organization called Conscious Capitalism Inc. and held at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
Even today, "conscious"...
March 7, 2013
The smartest minds in social innovation are increasingly committed to engaging with the private sector to make significant changes in areas like health, education, and poverty. As Steve Davis, former lead in McKinsey's Social Innovation practice and president of the global health NGO, Path, has said: "The best social innovations are not necessarily widely adopted. The 'iPods' of poverty alleviation and literacy have likely been invented and put to use by small organizations in some corner of...
