Public Management Initiative focuses on the "Double Bottom Line"
GSB student examine the link between promoting profits and public service
Marya Hill-Popper, MBA2
Issue date: 10/29/01 Section: News
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Most GSBers are familiar with the Public Management Program (PMP), but even students actively involved in the PMP are often confused about what exactly is the Public Management Initiative, or PMI. Every year, the PMI student leaders select an issue within the sphere of public and nonprofit management and explore it in depth through a series of speakers, BBLs, independent study projects, articles, and collaborations with local and national organizations. The initiative is co-led by Damon Vangelis, Laura Loker, and Marya Hill-Popper, all MBA2s.
The focus of the 2001-2002 PMI is The Double Bottom Line: Promoting Profits and Public Service. Specifically, the PMI will address four key questions about double bottom lines, with each event or publication tied directly to one of these four areas.
Should businesses pursue a double bottom line?
Most for-profit organizations view their primary responsibility as creating shareholder value, and many persuasive arguments can be made that this alone is sufficient. By maximizing shareholder value, businesses create jobs, raise standards of living, discover scientific and medical advances, generate tax revenues, and create the wealth that, in turn, funds science, health, and education. However, many business leaders today believe that wealth creation is too narrow a goal for the modern company.
What obligation, if any, do businesses have to the communities in which they operate?
To the welfare of their employees? To preserving the environment? The PMI will address these questions through public debates and panel discussions. We do not expect to reach a single, definitive answer, but rather to engage the GSB community in a thoughtful debate about what the role of business should be.
What are the most effective double bottom line business models?
The heart of the PMI will explore the different models for pursuing double bottom lines. Many businesses concern themselves solely with creating shareholder value, leaving shareholders themselves to decide how best to direct surplus wealth to charitable causes. Others infuse the cause of social responsibility throughout the entire organization, making it an integral component of corporate strategy, decision-making and day-to-day operations. Still others make substantial philanthropic contributions to community groups, cultural institutions, and charities.
What are the pros and cons of each of these approaches?
How can business leaders advance the double bottom line as managers and CEOs? The PMI will explore these questions through a series of case studies, public speakers, and small group discussions.
What are the international implications of double bottom lines?
What challenges and obligations do multinational companies face in promoting profits and public service, particularly when their operations span both developed and developing countries? Does it make sense to talk about a double bottom line for companies in developing countries with explosive population growth, less extensive environmental and labor regulations, and greater political and social instability? How do government policies in different countries help or hinder the pursuit of double bottom-lines? The PMI will work with study trip participants to explore how these issues play out in foreign countries.
The issues raised by this year’s PMI apply to all of us at the GSB—as future leaders of for-profit, not-for-profit and public organizations, as potential philanthropists, and as active citizens in our home countries. You don’t have to be involved in Public Management Program, nor do you have to participate actively and regularly in PMI events, to get something out of the PMI. Even if you attend just one speaker or read a single article, our hope is that it will provoke questions, stimulate debate, and contribute a different perspective to the way you think about your professional and personal role at the GSB and beyond.
The focus of the 2001-2002 PMI is The Double Bottom Line: Promoting Profits and Public Service. Specifically, the PMI will address four key questions about double bottom lines, with each event or publication tied directly to one of these four areas.
Should businesses pursue a double bottom line?
Most for-profit organizations view their primary responsibility as creating shareholder value, and many persuasive arguments can be made that this alone is sufficient. By maximizing shareholder value, businesses create jobs, raise standards of living, discover scientific and medical advances, generate tax revenues, and create the wealth that, in turn, funds science, health, and education. However, many business leaders today believe that wealth creation is too narrow a goal for the modern company.
What obligation, if any, do businesses have to the communities in which they operate?
To the welfare of their employees? To preserving the environment? The PMI will address these questions through public debates and panel discussions. We do not expect to reach a single, definitive answer, but rather to engage the GSB community in a thoughtful debate about what the role of business should be.
What are the most effective double bottom line business models?
The heart of the PMI will explore the different models for pursuing double bottom lines. Many businesses concern themselves solely with creating shareholder value, leaving shareholders themselves to decide how best to direct surplus wealth to charitable causes. Others infuse the cause of social responsibility throughout the entire organization, making it an integral component of corporate strategy, decision-making and day-to-day operations. Still others make substantial philanthropic contributions to community groups, cultural institutions, and charities.
What are the pros and cons of each of these approaches?
How can business leaders advance the double bottom line as managers and CEOs? The PMI will explore these questions through a series of case studies, public speakers, and small group discussions.
What are the international implications of double bottom lines?
What challenges and obligations do multinational companies face in promoting profits and public service, particularly when their operations span both developed and developing countries? Does it make sense to talk about a double bottom line for companies in developing countries with explosive population growth, less extensive environmental and labor regulations, and greater political and social instability? How do government policies in different countries help or hinder the pursuit of double bottom-lines? The PMI will work with study trip participants to explore how these issues play out in foreign countries.
The issues raised by this year’s PMI apply to all of us at the GSB—as future leaders of for-profit, not-for-profit and public organizations, as potential philanthropists, and as active citizens in our home countries. You don’t have to be involved in Public Management Program, nor do you have to participate actively and regularly in PMI events, to get something out of the PMI. Even if you attend just one speaker or read a single article, our hope is that it will provoke questions, stimulate debate, and contribute a different perspective to the way you think about your professional and personal role at the GSB and beyond.