Explore
Search results
With a workforce of 90,000 spanning 119 international destinations and 234 domestic locales, developing effective communications company wide poses challenging questions across regions, languages, and cultures. United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz believes success is rooted in a set of values that serve employees, customers, and long-term innovation. But across such diverse cu...
The award-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato has been called the “world’s scariest economist.” Why? She challenges us to reconsider capitalism as it exists today. Focusing on innovation-led, inclusive, and sustainable growth, Mazzucato examines the critical — and misunderstood — role that governments play in fostering innovation. Her latest book, The Value of Everything,...
In the innovation process, ideation is the creation of a great idea. But that’s not enough. Scaling is required to create value for great ideas, and this stage requires skills the entrepreneur often does not natively possess. Braddock Scholars is a response to this need. This Aspen Institute program chooses promising business ventures, profit or not-for-profit, from the wi...
Bold thinking is most often seen at the margins. Organizations with small staffs and lean budgets, unweighted by habit and committed to impact, are approaching familiar problems in unfamiliar ways. They are testing new ideas to bring health care that last mile, finding creative ways to support small farmers, adapting cost-saving techniques from low-resource settings, and g...
As technology drives economic change, the discussion of the future of work seems to be binary: either dystopian or rose colored. The public policy debate has congealed around a set of silver bullet solutions — from universal basic income to coding for all — that reflect Silicon Valley’s strategy for addressing economic inequality. But what if the best strategy isn’t a sing...
Meet three disruptive business leaders — all part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network — who drive significant economic value by leveraging emerging technologies to create sustainable, inclusive, and efficient business models in drug delivery, banking, and community-focused finance. Putting values-based leadership first, they address societal needs and drive economic gro...
Cryptocurrency is largely seen as an investment vehicle in the United States, with regular reporting on its value in the marketplace. But in other countries, especially in the developing world, such currencies are increasingly used for routine transactions, displacing more traditional money. There is growing trust and interest in this blockchain-based mechanism for both tr...
The relationship between business and society in America has always been close. Today, it is perhaps closer than ever. Catalyzed by events like the murder of George Floyd and inspired by powerful social movements, many corporations have moved from tacit to far more open positions on hot-button social issues. Society, in turn, has largely moved to embrace corporations whose...
The world’s biggest banks and investors have pledged $150 trillion in assets to tackle climate change. But are these commitments actually getting us closer to net zero, considering that many of those making pledges are still profiting from fossil fuels? We know that climate change will require transformation at a scale never seen before; can the financial system propel us...
Over the past few years, companies have come off the sidelines regarding major policy issues from gun violence to climate change. For Levi Strauss & Co and Patagonia, advocating for their values and modeling good corporate behavior is right up there with selling jeans and puffy jackets. Here’s a look behind their thinking.
How companies are remaking the corporate landscape in spite of politics, and sometimes because of politics, in really interesting ways. A conversation with the CEOs of PayPal and Levi Strauss & Co.
World order is never in stasis for too long. And indeed, we seem to be witnessing a historic shift now. The relatively stable decades after World War II saw gains for global democracies, rapid economic growth fueled by globalization, and the birth of the Internet. But they also saw the speeding of global warming, widening inequality, and the scourge of transnational terror...
To maintain and build a competitive edge, some argue that the rules of capitalism need to change: we should embrace a long term view of growth that rewards capital investment, R&D, and the stakeholders well beyond traditional shareholders. Should “corporate value” be redefined?
Finance is the engine of capitalism, according to Harvard economist Mihir Desai. Finance is what makes our whole economy tick, and its 600 year history is filled with success stories. Has finance reached a point, though, where its pervasiveness has become a weakness? John Dickerson, correspondent for CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” sits down with Desai to dig into what those worki...
American pro sports make a lot of money. Had it not been for the pandemic, the industry in North America was projected to generate $75.7 billion per year in revenue, a tally that includes ticket sales, television contracts, concessions, and advertising. Less easy to calculate — but also significant — is the impact of sports on communities. Sports have a profoundly positive...
In April of 2018, two black men walked into a Starbucks in Philadelphia for a business meeting. Ten minutes later, while waiting for their colleague to arrive, a manager called the police and they were arrested. Rosalind Brewer, one of the most accomplished African American women in business had just become COO of Starbucks. In navigating how the company should respond to...
A reimagined capitalism requires a new kind of corporate leader—and a willingness to balance private incentives with public good. Today, a growing number of public company CEOs are going off the “shareholder value” script to communicate a new vision of why they exist and who them aim to serve. What can we learn from the purpose-driven CEO? What role will he or she play in...
The CEOs of two of the top apparel companies — Patagonia and Eileen Fisher — discuss their motivation to make clothing manufacturing kinder to the environment and the people who make our clothes. With the shared value of social consciousness, Rose Marcario and Eileen Fisher delve into why a holistic approach, one that goes beyond a single company and its bottom line, is es...
Can companies determined to support solutions to some of society’s larger dilemmas make the kinds of returns that Wall Street — which judges bottom-line performance above all — happy? Yes. Take a cue from Capricorn Investment Group, born from a belief that values-based, sustainable investment practices can enhance return rates. Its mission is "to deliver extraordinary inve...
Activist investors, and active employees. Climate change and drought. Battles over trade—and by #tweet. When public anxiety drives low trust, who’s on the speed dial of top business leaders? What’s the playbook for business risks not in the company’s control? Which values are bedrock—do they illuminate the path when a bold step is needed? Join a conversation with indust...