B4PN Weekly Announcement

Update #1 — November 19, 2020

1. St Michael’s College just released their report on their winning capstone projects — interesting to see what these students are working on — and they have a link for anyone who wants to enrol in their upcoming Graduate Diploma Program — congrats Kathryn!

2. Imagine Canada has just released their new report on Community Investment which they are calling a wake-up call — congrats Bruce

“This study exploring the business response to challenges faced in 2020 shows corporate philanthropy at its best. From loosening funding restrictions, allowing community partners agility to respond to the pandemic according to needs on the ground, to the outpouring of support for the BIPOC communities, companies and their employees have stepped up to the plate in 2020, providing billions of dollars in relief to Canadian communities.

The pandemic also ushered in new waves of innovation within our communities. But despite the new practices implemented and the outpouring of support from the corporate world, social issues — food insecurity, homelessness, mental health — are worsening, and the nonprofit sector is in crisis. Faced with unprecedented challenges in 2020, the companies that participated in our study have been engaged, responsive, empathetic, and flexible. The challenge and opportunity that lies ahead will be asking how this can serve as a wake up call to continue this effort

3. McKinsey & Company just released these reports and while mostly US-based they are worth reviewing.

This week, McKinsey experts took a step back to consider the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the economic system in which much of the world operates: capitalism. Two new reports offer complementary views. In “Rethinking the future of American capitalism,” James Manyika, Gary Pinkus, and Monique Tuin trace the extraordinary achievements of the American system and the work still to come, including the need to rectify unequal and increasingly disparate outcomes for people and places, increasing “superstar” effects, and declining investment in public goods

4. “The case for stakeholder capitalism” considers the role of business in society — a role that companies should not resist, lest they “find themselves on the wrong side of history … and also at a competitive disadvantage.” Vivian Hunt, Bruce Simpson, and Yuito Yamada examine the rising expectations for business, detail five principles for companies to follow, and offer many practical insights as they take action. One tactic is simply to publish your targets: a Danish power company put forth a ten-year plan to switch from coal to renewables; they did it in nine years, while simultaneously increasing profits by 43 percent.