Even with the financial crisis to handle, President Obama knows that improving our education system cannot wait until some sense of economic stability returns. On the contrary, the plight of education has reached a mission critical state and the time for corporations to step up has never been more urgent. Read the rest of this entry »

For me the most promising sign that spring has arrived is the Center’s annual conference that will be held March 29-31 in San Francisco. While the weather here in Boston is an unreliable indicator, the conference is a sure bet and is an event that never fails to exceed expectations. This year will be no different. Read the rest of this entry »

You don’t have to be a half-empty type of guy to feel that clouds of doubt and uncertainty and the fear of the future are starting to descend all around us like a dense fog. There doesn’t seem to be any safe harbor for either our investments or our frayed nerves.

This is starting to feel a little bit like my visit to Argentina in the spring of 2002, right after the unthinkable happened. One of the most prosperous countries on the globe – a can’t-miss poster child for the glories of globalization that at one time fed much of the world – suddenly imploded. Read the rest of this entry »

These times are certainly not for the timid or small thinkers. Confronted with perhaps the greatest challenge of our lifetime, we face the urgent task of reinventing the future for our businesses and our society. Read the rest of this entry »

Today marks a new chapter for business. Our government is willing to be a partner, not a patsy, in stimulating the economy. In return the financial sector needs to substitute old, often patronizing behavior for genuine partnership.

My advice to business:

1. get used to more public scrutiny;
2. listen to the sensible folks on Main Street;
3. show a little humility;
4. get to work rebuilding the trust of the public and the economy of the country. Read the rest of this entry »

Leaders in the public and private sector are scrambling to put America’s disheveled financial house in order, but perhaps they should pay more attention to the cracks starting to show in the house’s capitalist foundation. Read the rest of this entry »

In last week’s Inaugural Address, President Obama left no doubt that citizenship was going to form the bedrock of his philosophy on rebuilding America. “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – recognition on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world. Duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining to our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and promise of citizenship.” Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve been watching the brinksmanship going on between Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom and the European Union, I am reminded of a seminar I participated in a few months ago with 20 Russian oil executives representing privately-owned enterprises.

As I reflect I think of how corporate citizenship is playing out. Frankly, with Gazprom, it seems they are being driven by self-interest and political clout. That is very different than what is motivating the Russian oil executives I met at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development training center. Read the rest of this entry »