Faculty
Professor Susan M. Hanson
Objectives
This course investigates program- and project-driven collaboration between for-profit business and non-profit organizations. Our objective is to evaluate the path and potential for win-win outcomes. We explore value creation at the intersection of business and the social sector, and how capacities, constraints, and strategies might differ from the perspectives of business managers and their non-profit counterparts. We use a number of frameworks for analyzing cross-sector collaboration, to identify the range of challenges that confront business and non-profit partners over the partnership life-cycle. Throughout, we embrace the larger question of how differences among partners may or may not drive learning and transformation of the partners themselves.
Overall, the course seeks to develop a better understanding of the risks and challenges that are characteristic of cross-sector collaboration, especially as partnerships reach globally, across boundaries of markets and of cultures.
Underlying the course are current debates regarding the role of firms in society. We embrace a range of motivations for cross sector partnering, including product innovation, market competition, market access to public goods, corporate responsibility, and stakeholder management.
The cases and readings selected aim to develop an appreciation of innovative partnership models and how they link firm, society, and public interests. Readings and class discussion seek to develop an appreciation of the range of viewpoints that might be expressed by different actors – from the business manager, to the non-profit manager, the social entrepreneur, and the public sector actor.
Requirements
Organization of the Course
Cases are selected in order to provide a broad terrain for discussing cross-sector collaboration and stakeholder engagement. Throughout, we will explore partnership management challenges from the perspective of both for-profit and non-profit partners.
Speakers
During the course, one or two managers will be invited to speak with the class, in place of an assigned case (TBA), to give students a chance to discuss the on the job challenges with managing cross sector partnerships.
Materials
Tuck Honor Code
The Tuck Honor code and social norms applies to this course. Regarding the Final Project: the group work is independently managed by the group members and I trust that all members will come to an understanding early on, regarding the goals and parameters of the specific project, a shared timeline, and a fair division of labor.
Laptop Policy
Laptops are not to be used in class.
Grading
PARTICIPATION 25%
Class Participation and Attendance
GROUP ASSSIGNMENTS 75%
Partnership Audit (2 page format, due session 5. Template will be distributed in class) = 20%
Partnership Analysis Project (8-10 page report, due session 9, along with 10 minute in-class
presentation) = 55%
Schedule
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 1: Laying Out the Concepts
Case: Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1)(C2)
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, “From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as Beta Site for Business Innovation,” Harvard Business Review, (May-June 1999).
Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal, “Part I: Getting Started – Introduction and Exchanges,” Common Interest Common Good, pp. 3-26, (Harvard Business School Press, 2000).
The case describes Bell Atlantic’s efforts to identify an appropriate site for testing emerging telecommunications technology and its eventual decision to approach the Union City School System as a potential technology-in-education partner.
Study Questions:
Who are the partners? What are their motivations? What assets do they bring to the table, and what is the division of labor? How did this partnership begin, and how did it end? What challenges emerged along the way? Does this case offer a good model for a cross sector partnering?
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 2: Learning v. Leverage
Case: Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impact of Business on Poverty (A) and (B) [2008]
This two-case series chronicles Unilever and Oxfam’s groundbreaking 'learning project' begun in 2003, with the goal of examining the role of business in poverty reduction, specifically by studying Unilever's operations in Indonesia. The cases describe how the collaboration came about and provides background on Unilever, Unilever Indonesia and Oxfam. It also examines the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and outlines the challenges of tackling poverty in developing countries.
*Philip Kotler, “The Case for Doing at Least Some Good,” from Corporate Social Responsibility pp. 1-21 (2005).
Study Questions:
Why do these parties decide to collaborate? How do the different parties view ‘poverty alleviation’? How does the collaboration begin, how does it unfold, and how does it end? What kinds of challenges emerge along the way? Is this a good partnership model?
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 3: The Partnership Portfolio
Case: "Moving the World: the TNT-UN WFP Partnership": 'The TPG-WFP Partnerships: Looking for a Partner' and 'The TPG-WFP Partnership: Learning How to Dance' (2006)
Mark Kramer and Michael Porter, “Strategy and Society: the link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility,” Harvard Business Review, pp. (December 2006).
The case narrates the internal processes of choosing and implementing a CSR initiative. It illustrates the process of choosing a cause (a global cause, in this case), selecting partners, creating a working plan, and finally getting the company's executive board's commitment.
Study Questions:
What is strategic philanthropy? And is TNT doing it right? Explain your answer. In terms of philanthropy, what kinds of options did they have? What sort of risks do they face throughout this engagement? How has the partnership evolved? How would you evaluate TNT’s decision? Would you have engaged in this partnership if you were TNT’s CEO? How important is the CEO to the life of the partnership?
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 4: Brokers and Middlemen
Case: Global Impact - Managing Corporate Giving [2008]
Global Impact is a US registered non-profit organization dedicated to 'assuring help for the world's most vulnerable'. Representing more than 50 of the most respected US-based global charities, including CARE, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres and World Vision, it raises funds for its charity members in workplaces across the US and overseas. The case examines how this non-profit organization re-positioned itself between the corporate world and the global charity community, developing services to meet the needs of its new private sector-based donors, while continuing to serve its overall not-for-profit mission.
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 5: Contracts and Multiparty Partnerships
Case: Chad-Cameron Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project
Michael Warner and Rory Sullivan, “Building Blocks for Partnerships,” pp. 24-33 and “Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, Nigeria: Partnering and environmental impact assessment,” pp. 36-54, Putting Partnerships to Work: strategic alliances for development between government, the private sector and civil society (2004).
*Ros Tennyson and Luke Wilde, “The Guiding Hand: brokering partnerships for sustainable development,” (The United Nations Staff College and the Prince of Whales Business Leaders Forum, 2000)
*Dani Rodrik, “Getting Institutions Right,” pp. 184-192, excerpt from One Economics, Many Recipes, (Princeton University Press, 2007)
What is the goal of the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project? What is this model of cross-sector collaboration? What kind of actors are involved? and what roles do they play? What are the incentives that drive the model? What are the outcomes? Is this model sustainable? Are the goals met? What are the challenges? What lessons might be learned from this case?
Study Questions:
What is the goal of the Chad-Cameron Pipeline Project? What is this model of cross-sector collaboration? What kind of actors are involved? and what roles do they play? What are the incentives that drive the model? What are the outcomes? Is this model sustainable? Are the goals met? What are the challenges? What lessons might be learned from this case?
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 6: Products Development, Access & Partnering Across Sectors
Case: Procter & Gamble PUR: Purifier of Water ™: developing the Product and Taking it to Market [A] [B]; and Procter & Gamble and Population Services Intl (PSI): social marketing safe drinking water [2006]
C.K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, (2004), chp. 1.
Ted London and Stuart L. Hart, Reinventing strategies for emerging markets: beyond the transnational model, pp. 350-370, Journal of International Business Studies, (2004).
Study Questions:
In Case A, what drove the innovation of this new product? What challenges did the product champion face? How did he meet those challenges? Could you have imagined a different outcome for the product? Would you have done things differently in this case? Is this a model for product innovation for the base of the pyramid? For strategic CSR? In Case C, evaluate the partnerships that P&G engages around this product – from a corporate strategic philanthropy perspective? From a social impact perspective? How do the metrics line up? Is it a win-win partnership?
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 7: Social Entrepreneurship and the Challenge of Going to Scale
Case: Kiva versus MyC4 [2009]
John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan, “Creating Successful Business Models, p.29-54, The Power of Unreasonable People John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan (2008).
David Bornstein, “The Emergence of the Citizen Sector,” pp. 264-279, How to Change the World, Oxford University Press, (2004).
Kiva and MyC4 are peer-to-peer lending organizations that share the goal of eradicating poverty worldwide through micro credit. Kiva was founded in 2005, based in San Francisco. MyC4 was founded in 2006 as a joint venture between Mads Kjaer from the Danish Kjaer Group and Tim Vang, an entrepreneur. This case explores the different models, as they were constructed, their missions, and their evolution through until 2008.
Study Questions:
How are these models different? How does mission impact the business model in these two enterprises? What challenges do these entrepreneurs face? How are their partnerships with non profit and for profit businesses managed? What lessons might be drawn from these models?
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 8: Global Partnerships for Health
Institute of OneWorld Health
The Institute of OneWorld Health (IOWH) is a non-profit pharmaceutical company dedicated to producing drugs for neglected diseases globally. Founded in 2000 by Dr Victoria Hale, IOWH takes expired and donated patented compounds and develops them through all the stages of clinical testing and approval into drugs to fight the world's most destructive diseases, usually occurring in Third World countries where perceived profitable markets did not yet exist.
Study Questions:
What kind of business model does Institute OneWorld Health develop in order to make drugs accessible for its target populations? What role do cross-sector partnerships play a role? What is their partnership strategy? How sustainable is this business model. What are its limits?
DATE SUBJECT TO REVISION - DRAFT ONLY
Session 9: In Class - Project Presentations & Discussion
