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Public Management Program

 

Public Management Initiative (PMI)

The Total Value Proposition (2003-4)

This year's PMI, The Total Value Proposition (TVP), dives deeper into conversations begun during the 2001-2002 PMI on the Double Bottom Line and poses the logical follow-on questions: Can socially responsible business practices be a source of success, not simply a complement? If so, how?

The TVP suggests that the conventional focus on increasing shareholder wealth when evaluating a company's value creation is problematically narrow. Rather than considering only economic value, the TVP includes all of the value an organization creates, including social and environmental value. The TVP is a controversial concept given the difficulty of quantifying non-monetary forms of value and the commonly held notion that corporations are not suited to create any value beyond economic value.

Thus, the overarching purpose of this PMI is to reach an understanding of the extent to which organizations can create long-term competitive advantage and profitability through core strategies and products/services that directly benefit society and the environment. (This inquiry is equally relevant to for-profit, nonprofit, and governmental "businesses.")

The goals of this PMI are for participating students, with the input of faculty, staff, and invited guests to:

 

  • Assess the potential for socially responsible strategies to create value and a competitive advantage in the marketplace;
  • Acquire the tools to evaluate the social and environmental impact and resulting economic value of individuals' and organizations' activities; and
  • Develop and apply innovative, nontraditional business models that capitalize on socially and environmentally beneficial opportunities.

Throughout the course of the 2003-2004 academic year, we will explore opportunities for leaders to out-compete their peers by cultivating economic, social, and environmental value, and analyze how to leverage the profit motive to create a better world. We will use the fall quarter to create context and a common vocabulary for participants in this year-long inquiry. We will involve thought leaders and academics in order to gain fluency with the thinking to date and to learn to use frameworks to evaluate the economic and social costs and benefits of business activities. During the fall, we will also facilitate participants' getting to know each other and identifying potential partners for TVP-related projects.

In the winter and spring, we will invite practitioners from specific industries to share with us the current state of TVP as manifested by their organizations. We will invite true believers and skeptics as well as business leaders with different takes on integrating social missions into business models. Students will use the frameworks learned in the fall to evaluate these businesses and to carry forth their TVP-related projects.

Many of the deliverables from this PMI are intended for use by faculty and students for years to come. These deliverables may include:

  • A roster of existing businesses that are successfully achieving economic and social goals. The roster will include evaluations of how each organization's social and environmental practices relate to their financial success and competitive advantage.
  • Viable business plans that exemplify the spirit and measurable achievements of the TVP.
  • A journal of reflections by participating students on the opportunities and challenges we, as future business leaders, face by applying the TVP.

Resources from this PMI are available from the PMP Office upon request.