Net Impact

12th Annual Net Impact Conference

Business Leaders Building a Better World
Columbia Business School
November 11th – 14th, 2004

Columbia Business School

 
 

   

Breakout Session 6 and Off-Site Visits

Saturday November 12, 2004 — 4:00 to 5:30pm

Off-Site Visits and “Concert of Ideas” with Creative Leaps International
Continuation from Breakout Session 5

Warren Hall
Room 209

Revenue-Generating Ventures for Nonprofits
Kevin McQueen, Partner, Brody Weiser Burns
Diane Browning, Founder and President, Appalachian By Design, Inc.
Beth Bubis, President and CEO, Social Enterprise Alliance
Chris Council, CEO, SylverBeach Foundation
Melissa Krinzman, Founder, Venture Architects LLC

Revenue-generating ventures for nonprofit organizations are an exciting and rapidly growing source of funding for nonprofits. These ventures are designed with social and financial goals in mind – often creating both a social and financial benefit for the organization and its mission. From gift shops at museums to job-creation programs, nonprofit ventures support nonprofits’ missions and provide a stable source of funding. This panel will provide a general overview on non-profit ventures and discussion will focus on both the logistics and challenges of developing a revenuegenerating venture and on the growing debate surrounding the relative importance of financial and social returns in such ventures.

Warren Hall
Room 208
*Advanced

Assessing Social Impact
Edward P. Henry, Associate Dean for Finance and Administration, Columbia Business School
Cheryl Dorsey, MD, MPP, President, Echoing Green
Laura Goodman, Sponsorship Manager, KaBOOM!
Peter Kennedy, Managing Partner, Fulcrum Funds

This panel will cover the issue of how social impact is assessed within various institutions. How is it assessed and communicated differently in these institutions, ranging from foundation, fund and non-profit? Each organization will discuss how it assesses social impact and how this ties in with their daily business practice. Professor Ed Henry will lead the discussion into an analysis of how holistically, "assessing social impact" is important for the maintenance and upkeep of these organizations.

Uris Hall
Room 142

The United Nations Global Compact
Sandra Navalli, Program Manager and Research Associate, Social Enterprise Program, Columbia Business School
Michael Hougård Pedersen, Sustainability Adviser, Novozymes Sustainability
Development Center

Georg Kell, Executive Head, United Nations Global Compact Office
Ursula Wynhoven, Special Assistant to the Executive Head, United Nations Global Compact Office

Shaping the business agenda of the numerous CSR standards, certifications and initiatives that have emerged over recent years, the Global Compact (GC) is perhaps in the best position to influence mainstream business agenda. As the personal initiative of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the GC enjoys the ability to attract the attention and participation of the most influential companies all over the developed and developing world. The GC calls business leaders to incorporate ethical principles relating to labor, human rights and the environment into their business strategy. In this session, Georg Kell, the Global Compact Director, will outline the vision that drove the initiative, and reflect on its potential to influence business thinking and strategy into the future.

Warren Hall
Room 311

The Envisionary Project: Overcoming Systemic Barriers to Sustainability
Aaron Bielenberg, Associate, Corporate Section, Baker Botts LLP
Ari Wallach, Alchemist of Alliances, Transformers

In July 2004, some 50 thought leaders from major corporations such as Ford Motor Company, BP, Coca Cola, and Nike came together with members of Transformers to identify systemic barriers to meeting the sustainability challenge. This event marked the first step in the Envisionary Project (www.envisionary.org), through which we are engaging student and professional leaders from across the globe to envision the sustainable future that we know is possible. This is your opportunity to participate in the second phase of the project, during which we will focus on identifying the leverage points we can push to overcome these barriers and how we, as future leaders, can work together throughout our careers to make it happen. Transformers is a cross-disciplinary community of graduate students and young professionals intent on creating a sustainable planet through education, celebration, and positive action. We aim to build high-quality connections between like-minded graduate students, and urge all Net Impact members with an interest in ecological and social sustainability to attend this breakout session. Download Envisionary Project (.doc) here.

Warren Hall
Room 207
*Advanced

China: Is the Economic Boom Sustainable?
David Beim, Professor, Columbia Business School
Lawrence Delson, Principal, Delson International, Inc.; Assistant Professor, New York University
Benjamin Liebman, Director, Center for Chinese Legal Studies, Columbia Law School
Nancy Yao, Vice President, Goldman, Sachs & Co.

China has experienced a dramatic transformation from a tightly controlled economy to a major player on the world economic stage. In order to sustain its rapid growth, China has to address pressing currency, banking and macroeconomic reforms. How far will these changes go, and will they be enough to preserve China's transformation into an economic power?

Uris Hall
Room 301

Balancing Profit and Social Impact
Gerri Willis, Finance Editor, CNN Business News
Richard Cacciato, Partner, Blue Iceberg LLC
Natasha Deganello, CEO and Co-Founder, Papilia
Charles Hamilton, Partner, SVT Consulting
Joe Hunt, Founding Partner, RelationshipLink Business Advisors LLC

Survival of the fittest: Can social capitalism prevail in a fiercely competitive environment? What trade-offs do entrepreneurs encounter when starting and operating double-bottom-line ventures? For this panel we debate the merits of divergent approaches to capitalism.

Warren Hall
Room 310

Manipulation 101: Pursuing a Values-Based Agenda When Logic Doesn't Work
Stever Robbins, Professional Speaker, Facilitator, Executive Coach

We are at the Net Impact conference because we believe passionately that business can be a positive force in the world. But how do you pursue a good cause when the Forces of Evil do not even pay lip service to rationality? Join Stever Robbins for a heavy-hitting interactive workshop on persuasion, influence, and how to win people to your cause. Bringing together techniques from leadership, psychology, and business, you will walk away with immediately usable skills:

    • Detecting people's "hot buttons" and pushing them to boost or diminish buy-in
    • Using social psychology to get people to commit more and more over time
    • Bypassing logic by building beliefs for people directly
    • Framing the debate to change others' interpretation and actions around important issues (so whatever happens, you win)
Come prepared with your ideological issues, strongly held beliefs, and deep convictions. We will address them head-on, and develop tactics for helping you examine them, package them, and bring them to the world in the most persuasive, effective way possible.