This call to the nation is also a call to American business. The price and promise of citizenship is at the heart of the reconfiguration of business that is currently playing itself out in the midst of the most critical economic crisis in several generations.

The concept of business having responsibilities to society has been going through its own transformation for the past 10 years. Indeed, a great deal of rethinking and recalibrating corporate responsibility has been taking place, positioning citizenship at the heart of the enterprise. As Lee Scott, the chief of Walmart, said this month speaking to the National Retail Federation: “Let me be clear about this point. There is no conflict between delivering value to shareholders and helping solve bigger societal problems.”

But just as President Obama is challenging all of us as citizens, the private sector has to take this challenge seriously both as a key component of business success in the 21^st century and as a citizen responsible for doing its part creating a sustainable society. As Lee Scott emphasizes, the two are not mutually exclusive and in fact are intricately entwined with each other.

So what are the implications of the price and the promise of citizenship?

For too long we have been aware of the price that business has paid by not taking citizenship seriously, and especially by not seeing it as a critical component of sustainable business. The plummeting loss of trust in business – sparked by obsessive attention to profits and short-term gains, disregard of environmental standards and excessive executive compensation – built a reputation that dispelled any notion of meaningful citizenship. The attempt to use charitable contributions and visible community involvement in the midst of core misbehavior and callousness was laid bare by Enron, among others. So the price for ignoring citizenship has become quite clear in recent times.

Today’s price for companies will mean a more significant engagement and involvement that will clearly manifest to all stakeholders that business contributions to society will be deeds and not words, leadership and not follower-ship, and active and visible engagement, not simply checks and boosterism.

It will require a significantly deeper engagement of the tough social problems that Mr. Scott referenced, from education to health care; from creating an energy independent and sustainable country, to insuring affordable health care for all. It will require putting brands aside and holding hands together in a new spirit of collective leadership and citizenship.

The price of citizenship will be to create a new capitalism that values business and social sustainability in the same breath. The hardcore measure of profits will have to be tempered by progress in citizenship, and a new belief that one feeds the other.

The price of citizenship will be to create new measures of business success, to find new ways to use the total assets of a company to address social problems. The price of citizenship will be to reinvent citizenship within the firm, embed it throughout the business in its relationships with stakeholders, its products and services, and in the very processes of conducting business. 

While paying the price will involve more than the cost of a simple makeover, the value of citizenship’s promise will far outweigh its price.

Just start with your employees. It is clear that most employees are looking to be part of an enterprise that has meaning beyond its profits. The Cone Millennial Cause Study found that about 75 percent of those entering and moving up into today’s work force want to work for a company “that cares about how it impacts and contributes to society.”

Growing evidence from the consumer movement and the green revolution clearly point to a new set of expectations of a company’s citizenship that not only cares about social and environmental issues, but walks the talk in terms of its practices and its products. Companies are judged less by how they minimize any harm from their footprint of their operations, and more by the lasting handprint they leave through positive contributions to communities and society.

Indeed, the promise of corporate citizenship is bright. Despite the current doldrums resulting from our collapsing economic system, there is little doubt that whatever the way out is, and whenever it is, the role of business will have to look quite different than that of the previous decade.

The spectacle of Bernie Madoff can no longer be the prevailing face of business, and the aspirations of Lee Scott and others will find a much more promising set of results for both business and society. The vision and voices of a new capitalism will find a much more engaged business and a greatly energized employee base. Luckily we have had a beginning base forming over the past decade with new innovations in social entrepreneurship, collaborative business partnerships, and many examples of companies using their innovation to spark breakthroughs and major contributions to the larger society.

Sometimes it takes a crisis such as the one in which we are deeply mired to find and articulate the promise of the new day. But the seeds of change are spread across a wide spectrum, and the desire to create a new society is no less real for President Obama than it is for our corporate leaders.

Now is the time to lead, innovate, commit and create. This is the promise of America and American capitalism.

Let citizenship thrive!