Overview

Can corporate leaders embrace a social purpose in ways that actually deliver both positive social impact and better economic performance?

This course offers an expanded vision of competitive strategy by incorporating social purpose as a source of new business opportunities, improved productivity and competitive differentiation using the framework for creating shared value, developed by Professor Michael Porter and Mark Kramer.

Rather than viewing social impact as a matter of corporate social responsibility or license to operate, this course offers corporate leaders practical guidance in driving business results through measurable social impact, using Professor Porter’s competitive strategy frameworks to connect social purpose with competitive advantage.

We examine both purpose-built companies and the delicate balancing act required for large public companies to re-invent themselves around a social purpose in response to changing societal and shareholder pressures. We also devote a module to shared value investing, exposing the flaws in ESG ratings and linking social purpose to alpha. In addition, we will examine the ways companies perpetuate inequality and structural racism, confronting controversial questions about whether we can rely on capitalism to create an equitable and sustainable world.

At the end of the course, students should have an understanding of how social impact can be a source of competitive advantage and a framework for implementation. This course is relevant for anyone who recognizes the growing importance of social issues to corporate success and the power of companies to change the world.

Course Content and Organization

The course includes 12 recent cases along with supplemental readings and inspiring guest protagonists.

The cases provide a clear and actionable framework for building social purpose into strategy and putting the concept of shared value into practice in both large multinationals and smaller entrepreneurial companies across a wide range of industries, in both developed and emerging markets. All cases demonstrate the power of corporations to gain an enduring competitive advantage by measurably improving stakeholder outcomes at scale on issues such as health, education, poverty and the environment. We will explore what it means for a company to adopt a social purpose, and the challenges involved in shifting organizational culture and processes, measuring social impact, engaging investors, and managing public-private partnerships. We will also explore the way public-private partnerships among businesses, NGOs and governments can amplify value for all three sectors, employing the collective impact framework. A module on investing covers the shortcomings of current ESG approaches and offers newer thinking that can deliver alpha.

Supplemental readings will include excerpts from books and articles that raise questions about the darker side of capitalism, structural racism in the United States, and the immorality of markets that undercut the potential for capitalism to deliver positive social impact.

Target Audience

P&P is intended as a mainstream strategy course for future corporate leaders and entrepreneurs who want to understand how social purpose intersects with corporate strategy to create new opportunities for competitive advantage. The course is also suited to students who aspire to work in government or social enterprises that partner with businesses to deliver social impact. A limited number of cross-registrants from other schools will be accepted to enrich the class discussions.

Course Evaluation and Grading

50% of the grade will be based on class participation and 50 % on a final project that will be due approximately 1 month after the last class. The project assignment is to draft a memo to the CEO of an existing company, or a summary business plan for a start-up company, in an industry of the student’s choice articulating (a) the strengths and weaknesses of the company’s current purpose as a source of competitive advantage, if it has one, or (b) if it does not have a serious purpose, why you believe the company would improve its performance by adopting one. The project should be specific about the social or environmental issue to be addressed and how the company can affect that issue at scale through its operations. It should also consider what is needed to bring the purpose to life throughout the company.

This course is part of a portfolio of courses relevant to Social Enterprise. For a full listing, see the Social Enterprise Initiative website.

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