Where Do We Go From Here?

After talking with scholars about the failures in delivering on the promise of Corporate Social Responsibility, Anita turned to the question of where do we go from here. In this section, we discuss what it will truly take for companies and non-profit organizations to engage with governmental actors to solve public problems. The first major theme that arose from prior discussions is that trust must develop through longer-term conversations between leaders from different sectors. This takes time because the foundations for taking action in the public and private sectors are so different. In the private sector, experimentation and learning are valued. Flexibility and pivoting are important. In the public sector, stability, transparency and accountability are valued. Equanimity in the treatment of citizens means that experiments are difficult to design and implement. Learning must occur before doing rather than by doing.

A second theme reflects the logic that leads to the engagement of the private sector at all in solving public problems in partnership with government. Why and when is it necessary to involve private-sector actors?  Good answers to this question generally revolve around the expertise, capabilities, targeting, learning and ultimate scaling that can occur privately. Less good answers generally involve access to money and/or particular individuals. Indeed, many of us over index on the wealth of the private sector as compared to the enormous monetary resources and scale of the public sector. Overall, because collaboration across sectors is so costly and cumbersome, it’s important to make sure that the potential gains make the risks and costs worth incurring.

A third theme involves the importance of keeping the goals narrow so as to sustain engagement on both sides over time. Broad goals are a killer. Local, well-scoped impact projects that generate early “wins” are often critical for building collaborations that last.