MISSION OVERVIEW

Introduction The Center for Social Innovation (CSI) was established by Stanfords Graduate School of Business (GSB) in 2000 to prepare leaders and organizations to address increasingly complex social problems. The Center represents a cornerstone of the Schools multidisciplinary approach to management and leadership education. As an institution, the GSB believes that business schools have a responsibility to teach students from all sectors to be innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world. This paper presents an overview of the Centers mission and programs and offerings. In sharing this overview, our hope is to engage you more in the work of the Center as it moves forward.

Purpose, Vision, and Approach

Context From the challenges posed by climate change to poverty and population growth, our world is faced with increasingly complex and pressing social and environmental challenges. At the same time, lines between sectors are dissolving, as government outsources service delivery to forprofit and nonprofit partners, as businesses become more socially motivated, and as nonprofits adopt business based skills and concepts to improve their effectiveness. Pressure is on public corporations to behave more responsibly, not just avoiding fraud and misconduct, but actively contributing to social welfare through their environmental, labor, and social practices. Social-purpose businesses, such as Patagonia and the Body Shop, represent one end of this continuum. But even mainstream companies, such as Target and American Express, have found it good for their image, bottom line, and social impact to sponsor cause-marketing partnerships and to adhere to corporate social responsibility standards. Many businesses have engaged in strategic philanthropy by supporting social causes that benefit their core business. Others have leveraged their core assets to effect social change. Moreover, companies are realizing that in order to grow into new markets, innovate with new products and services and be sustainable in the long-run, they must respond to a host of off balance sheet trends. Goldman Sachs announced it will begin assessing environmental and social risk factors in its investment portfolio; Wal-Mart has launched an initiative to green its operations. These are just two of the countless examples of firms that recognize the benefit of incorporating social and environmental factors into their strategic business decisions.

-1-

In the public sector, government has begun to outsource public services to for-profit and nonprofit companies that are often more nimble and accountable to the customer. Examples of the devolution of services include nonprofit charter schools, for-profit education management companies, welfare-to-work programs that combine public-private partnerships, and community development financial institutions that use market principles, such as microlending, to alleviate poverty. In the nonprofit sector, many organizations are morphing into social enterprises as they pursue hybrid business models based on earned-income streams, or adopt management practices from the for-profit sector. An entire subfield has developed around the field of social entrepreneurship. Myriad organizations are entering this arena, and new academic programs are being created to facilitate the understanding and development of the social enterprise and entrepreneurship field. The Center for Social Innovation was created to understand and foster innovation occurring at the intersection of the nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors in order to solve critical social and environmental challenges. Few institutions are focused on how the blurring of sector boundaries effects social change; CSI has the opportunity to frame our understanding of this phenomenon and to bring together leaders to foster cross-sector innovation to address social problems. The Center can draw upon the wealth of resources across Stanford University and is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the forces propelling growth in social innovation: the rise of new forms of philanthropy and wealth-creation (much of which is on the West Coast); the role of technology and innovation in social change; and the intellectual frameworks needed to support cross-sector, multidisciplinary global thinking. Future Direction University centers play an important role in addressing societal challenges through research, journal publications and articles. CSI demonstrates that universities can not only impact academic theory, but impact the lives and practices of students, alumni, scholars, and the broader community on an ongoing basis.

Approach Break down boundaries and promote the mutual exchange of ideas and values across sectors, across disciplines, and between theory and practice
The Centers approach is guided by the underlying philosophy of breaking down boundaries. Working in a one-dimensional environment limits us to a narrow perspective. Reaching across boundaries and bringing disparate views to bear on social problems allows us to leverage multiple experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds, leading to new insights and new solutions. By promoting mutual exchanges and lifelong learning among all of its stakeholders, CSI encourages people to address problems in the context of new opportunities and shared responsibilities.

-2-

Purpose Strengthen the capacity of individuals and organizations to develop innovative solutions to social problems
Building on the core competencies of the GSB, CSIs contribution to social impact stems from its ability to build the capacity of individuals and organizations to be both entrepreneurial managers and catalytic agents of social change. The Center accomplishes its mission on multiple levels: Creating knowledge: Through research and the dissemination of ideas (e.g., academic articles, cases, publications, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and podcasts), CSI increases awareness of social problems and provides frameworks for thinking about and solving these problems. By bringing new knowledge to bear on social issues, we contribute innovative ways of achieving social impact. Building skills: Through teaching and other educational offerings (e.g., MBA curriculum, executive education, workshops, and conferences), CSI builds the skills and ability of its participants to move from theory to practice. As an individuals skills are developed, he or she is better equipped to be an effective change agent. Forming a change agent identity: At a deeper level, by providing transformative experiences for students, executives, faculty, and alumni (e.g., internships, service learning trips, and consulting), CSI supports the belief that individuals can be active agents of change in their workplaces and communities. Creating an identity as a change agent is the critical link that ensures that an individuals knowledge and skills will continue to be utilized.

Vision A networked community actively building a more just, sustainable and prosperous world
The worldwide CSI community encompasses a variety of stakeholdersincluding alumni, students, GSB faculty, scholars, and leaders from across the sectors who are interested in social innovation. This community is both the ends and the means of social transformationit is a vibrant network that empowers individuals and organizations to have an even greater impact in their careers and lives. We believe that social change does not happen in a vacuum but requires individuals connected to larger networks and communities. The CSI community will be grounded in: Social Networks and Connection: All Center offerings are infused with the goal of connection so that CSI participants are linked with others who share similar values and goals. The Center will provide ongoing support to nurture the network, providing content that promotes lifelong questioning, learning, and problem solving.

-3-

Action: By providing individuals with an increased awareness of social problems, knowledge, skills, identity reinforcement, and a supportive community, we equip them to go back to their organizations and communities as effective agents of social change.

WHY STANFORD GSB?

Stanford Graduate School of Business has two existing assets that are important to CSI. First, the GSB is a world-renowned management school with top-tier faculty, research, and teaching models. The GSB generates research and teaching frameworks that provide a foundation for lifelong personal and professional learning. Moreover, the Business Schools 30-year commitment to public and nonprofit management reflects its leadership in promoting a crosssector approach to social change. Second, the GSB and Stanford have a long-standing robust network of students, alumni, faculty, and others that can be leveraged to further social change. Stanford Business School alumni include leaders in every sector and in numerous countriespeople who already have, or eventually will have, prominent leadership roles that provide the platform to change organizations, influence policy, and act as role models. The reach of the Center and the School can have an exponential influence, as the leaders we teach in turn teach others with the frameworks, ideas, and solutions they develop. CSI will combine high-quality educational interventionsthrough the two-year MBA program, week-long executive programs, and one-day conferenceswith the development and nurturing of a robust network. We are engaging people in a variety of roles across the sectors to build a network that provides the provocative ideas, tools, and experiences to create solutions. We want to inspire people and provide a foundation for them to remain change agents over the long term.

NEXT STEPS
We are working to build on the Centers growth, international visibility, intellectual contributions, and demonstrated impact to take CSI to the next stage in its development. As part of this process, we are reaching out to a wide range of stakeholders from alumni, donors, and leading thinkers in the field of social innovation to the broader community to help identify opportunities and focus our programs and activities to grow our impact. We invite you to be a part of this process.

-4-

PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES - OVERVIEW

Knowledge Creation Through the discovery of new ideas, the Center increases awareness of social problems and provides frameworks for thinking about solving these problems. The Center brings academic rigor to research that enhances our understanding of social innovation. It is often at the edges and intersection of disciplines and sectors that experimentation occurs and innovation can be fostered. In addition to contributing to important basic research, the Center is committed to bridging the "knowing-doing" gap, by conducting applied research that translates academic ideas into useful and accessible formats in our publications, case studies, and books. Cases Books Research/Teaching support grants Center driven research (Stanford Project on the Evolution of Nonprofits - SPEN) GSB Faculty research support

Education The Centers education activities include vehicles to get important ideas to a vast global community as well as intensive learning opportunities - all designed to improve management skills for social change. When people are educated and trained to recognize good ideas and given the skills and tools to take an idea to scale, social change thrives. The Center is committed to ensuring that its knowledge and ideas are disseminated globally; reaching students, scholars, and innovators, championing social change. Social Innovation Conversations podcasts Stanford Social Innovation Review Speaker events Conferences, workshops Executive Education Board Fellows PMP Certificate Joint Degrees

Resources in Action In addition to the creation of knowledge and teaching we provide a bridge between the academic community and practice. A number of our offerings have a direct social impact in the world. Center Consultation Service Learning Trips Summer Internships Community Partnerships Alumni Consulting Team

-5-

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT A GLANCE: 2000-2007

Since its founding in 2000, the Center has been a critical force in formalizing and cultivating the field of social innovation. The Center has created knowledge, educated thousands of future and current leaders, and put its resources into action, helping organizations create social change across the globe. This past year, over 50 GSB faculty and 13 faculty from across Stanford engaged with the Center in its work. Below is a snapshot of some of the Centers major accomplishments:

Knowledge Creation
104 cases created 8 SPEN publications produced and 5 working papers drafted 37,468 SPEN reports downloaded 26 faculty research/teaching projects supported 18 GSB faculty on average financially supported every year

Education
190,000 podcasts downloaded; 50% of listeners are international 12,000 circulation of Stanford Social Innovation Review 72% of SSIR readers share their copies with others 87% of SSIR readers rate the quality of writing as good/great 1,278 Executive Education participants from 40 countries 4.65 (out of 5.0) average rating for CSI Executive Education programs 10,970 conference attendees 4.08 (out of 5.0) average rating for CSI conferences 611 Public Management Program (PMP) certificates earned; average of 21% of MBA class; 83 from class of 2007

Resources in Action
224 Alumni Consulting Team (ACT) projects completed Over $13MM in consulting value delivered by ACT 69% of students reported that Service Learning trips greatly affected their understanding of how business skills can be applied toward solving social problems. 215 summer internships focused on social impact Over 100 consultations to organizations and universities across the globe yearly

Stanford GSB was ranked #1 in the 2007-2008 Aspen Institute survey Beyond Grey Pinstripes for its integration of social and environmental stewardship issues. In 2007, the Centers website averaged 3,454 hits per day. The Centers work was cited in 66 media publications in 2007.

-6-

Testimonials
This inaugural event far exceeded my expectations. Im already looking forward to the next Supply Chain Management conference. The diversity of perspectives present today (both in the audience as well as among the panelists) really added to a deeper understanding of some of the challenges we face. -- 2007 Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains conference attendee

After 20 years of conferences, this by far is the best. Extremely comprehensive and excellent speakers. Simply outstanding and worth every penny. Every time I have the opportunity to attend something at Stanford, I am reminded what a beautiful gift we receive as participants. -- 2007 Nonprofit Management Institute attendees

The East Africa Service Learning trip created in me a new sense of personal imperative to try and do something about the pervasive inequities of our world. Such an imperative I think can only stem from a personal connection made in a context like this trip. -- Pontus Pettersson, MBA 07

I felt so privileged and influenced by the course, the content, the caliber of instructors, and also the quality, integrity and richness of learning from my fellow colleagues. -- 2006 Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders attendee

-7-

PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT

Sustainable Business Approaches Explored In New Executive Program

September 2007 STANFORD SIERRA CONFERENCE CENTER With the pristine Fallen Leaf Lake as backdrop, a Stanford Graduate School of Business executive education class spent a week in the Sierra Nevada trying to answer some of the toughest questions facing businesses today: How can companies operate without doing harm to the environment? What will it cost? Is it worth it? It was an uncommon gathering of people who would not typically expect to sit together to grapple with these issues. ________________________

advocates from The Nature Conservancy and Ocean Conservancy. One participant was the founder of a Panamanian nonprofit promoting eco-tourism. Another, an eco-strategist for a Chicago-based global advertising agency focused on environmental sustainability. The Business Strategies for Environmental Sustainability Program, an executive offering done in conjunction with the Business School's Center for Social Innovation, underscored an important business trend: More companies in a variety of industries are looking hard at the way they do business to see how to do the least harm to the environment. They do so because of growing public awareness about environmental damage, because their competitors are doing it, and because it is good for business in general. But as the program, led by William Barnett, highlighted, going green isnt always easy. The biggest issue is cost. If we increase efficiencies without incurring increased costs, we dont have to pay more, said Barnett, the Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations at the Business School. But to the extent that were looking at improvements beyond increases in efficiency and they require bringing in costs, the price will go up. Thats just the way it is.

This program was an amazing opportunity to think through some of the toughest environmental issues of the day with a dedicated group of professionals from industry, government, and nonprofits, guided by brilliant faculty."
BSES Participant ________________________ The 31 participants (including a CEO, five vice presidents, and more than a dozen managers) tackled these concerns by delving into the experiences of specific businesses and organizations. The case studies raised important questions. How should a successful supermarket offering organic food products respond to criticisms from advocacy groups arguing that it is not green enoughand to the growing challenge from bigger competitors moving steadily into its niche market?

Bill Barnett, Business Strategies for Environmental Sustainability Program Director

________________________ There were executives from Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and Conoco Phillips. There were

-8-

How can a California lumber company hoping to become the leading supplier of environmentally friendly building materials deal with the pressures of competition, diverse customer tastes, and changing building standards? How has a major coffee retailers decision to buy high-quality beans only from farmers who are not exploited by their trading partners and who use environmentally sound farming methods affected its bottom line?

Business Schools Thoma Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology. With the growing public awareness of global warming and other serious environmental problems, many companies have found that being green, either by maintaining an environmentally sound supply chain or reducing energy consumption, pays off.

Some of my fellow students don't exactly have a warm spot in their hearts for activist groups that pursue radical or semi-radical actions to speak truth to power, Mark Powell, vice president for fish conservation at Ocean Conservancy, wrote in his blog. http://blogfishx.blogspot.com He argued that it is important for environmental groups to work with major corporations because that allows these organizations to effect positive changes and reach a broader audience. Kenneth Siegler, worldwide director of Hewlett-Packards Green Initiative Program, affirmed this, saying: Im really concerned that if we dont have a two-way street or an open door policy, we will not be able to implement a lot of these processes. But the puriststhe groups who set the highest standards for environmental sustainabilityalso have a role to play, some participants agreed. We need some purists not working with [corporations], keeping us honest, said George Leonard, senior science manager for the Seafood Watch program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Plambeck underscored this point. We need the critics as well as the collaborators.

With the

growing public awareness of global warming and other serious environmental problems, many companies have found that being green, either by maintaining an environmentally sound supply chain or reducing energy consumption, pays off. - Hau Lee
- Hau Lee

Erica Plambeck, associate professor of operations, information, and technology, stressed the importance of providing credible information and standards about ones efforts to go green. Businesses must find a way to create a willingness among customers to pay for environmental quality, she said. They must establish credible information about the environmental attributes of products. For environmental advocacy groups, the business worlds ongoing bid to go green presents opportunitiesbut also challenges. One is the inevitable tension between the purists and the pragmatists in the environmental movement.

This is a dimension that will be important in business. This is a dimension that people care about. Lee is the

-9-

Rich Kelleman, vice president and eco-strategist for Rivet, a Chicago-based marketing company, said the program offered a ton of opportunity in exploring sustainability in the marketing/communications world. Not only in communicating steps that our clients are taking, but in fundamentally rethinking the way that an agency works/operates and the canvases that we use for our creative product. This program was an amazing opportunity to think through some of the toughest environmental issues of the day with a dedicated group of professionals from industry, government, and nonprofits, guided by brilliant faculty." While the program explored issues that have been discussed and debated for years, Powell wrote in his blog, The program definitely took me to new heights on this line of thinking. I heard specific case studies of people building alignment where there was once no alignment, to real advantage. I heard business leaders in the class groping for solutions, just like me. Did you hear that? They were looking for solutions, just like me. What do ya know?! As they say where I come from: Well, shut my mouth. And maybe, once or twice, I did. The program, he added, changed his attitude toward business schools which have typically been viewed as a place where people learn how to make money.

Why can I learn so much from a business school perspective? he writes. Simple really, the study of business strategies is just the study of change, and Im in the business of promoting change. ... I guess I have to admit that a business school perspective isnt actually evil. Thats a surprise since business schools are viewed as the brain trust of capitalism, the place where people go to learn how to make money, and environmental dogma has sometimes held that money and capitalism are the enemy. On the other hand, another participant, Paul A. King, vice president and sustainability executive of Bovis Lend Lease, said the program gave him an opportunity to see business and environmental issues through the eyes of nongovernmental organizations. Your new perspectives on business mirror my new perspective on NGOs, he said in a comment on Powells blog. Professor Barnett pulled off something wonderfully stimulating and motivating here. Powell said his biggest takehome message from Business Strategies for

Environmental Sustainability was that change advocates can learn a lot from studying business strategies. Kudos to organizer Professor Wild Bill Barnett and his team for a truly great learning experience. This very strong program is in its first year and deserves to continue. Ben Pimentel

-10-