Sectors - Articles

Diana McLain Smith - How Great Teams Turn Conflict into Strength

The key to success in any team or enterprise is to develop good working relationships. In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, consultant Diana McLain Smith, author of Divide and Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict into Strength, shows how those who care about performance and relationships can simultaneously nurture both. She offers tips for seeing work relationships in new ways, and practical suggestions for enhancing them.

Hau Lee - Boosting Profits Through Social Responsibility

Companies can indeed make money while operating in socially responsible and environmentally friendly ways. It just takes what supply chain expert Hau Lee calls the Triple-A approach—having agility, adaptability, and alignment. Closing the Stanford 2008 Responsible Supply Chains Conference, Lee describes how small to mid-sized companies in China, India, and Israel boosted profits while shrinking waste and pollution and providing a fair workplace for employees.

Panel Discussion - Strategies to End Hunger

A food crisis is upon us. Prices are rising, supply is shrinking, and petroleum prices are spiking, all leading to increasing demand and instability regarding food in countries the world over. In this panel discussion, Robert Hormats, Helene Gayle, and Jacqueline Novogratz discuss what the financial sector, NGOs, and small farmers must do to reverse this alarming situation.

Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains Conference - Strategies for Improving Product

Not a week goes by without a product safety incident splashed across the headlines. As companies face increasing layers of suppliers, the task of monitoring the many links in the chain becomes a formidable challenge. The situation is particularly troubling for social entrepreneurs, who are especially vulnerable. In this panel discussion from the 2008 Responsible Supply Chains Conference, executives who have experienced product safety challenges share what they have done to address these challenges head on.

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Shades of Green

By Andrew J. Hoffman 3

Social networking tools reveal that there is an intricate web of relationships between business and environmentalists, which if developed could benefit the environmental movement.

Panel Discussion - Skoll World Forum: Replication and Scale

How can an innovative player in social entrepreneurship enable her exciting new idea to fulfill her dream of changing the world? This panel discussion of successful innovators examines the challenges of replicating and scaling ideas into massive realities of social change. Experts share their varied experience in identifying the important considerations that can grow a successful neighborhood social program into a global social venture.

Dan Henkle - Gap’s Progress on Corporate Social Responsibility

The Gap monitors 2,000 garment factories in 50 countries and conducts about 4,000 inspections annually to make sure its suppliers are operating under ethical guidelines. Dan Henkle, the executive who oversees this inspection process, as well as the company's community investment and environmental affairs efforts, outlines The Gap's corporate responsibility programs in this audio lecture recorded at the 2008 Responsible Supply Chains Conference.

SkollFest Wraps

By Marcia Stepanek 1

This blog is the last of Marcia Stepanek's coverage of the Skoll World Forum 2009 at Oxford University.

SkollFest

By Marcia Stepanek

Reporting from the 6th annual Skoll World Forum for social innovation.