Educate

The New Purpose of Business

In August 2019, through the Business Roundtable 181 CEOs released a new Statement of Purpose for a Corporation. Over the past decade many had debated whether business should operate for profit or a triple bottom line? Whether stakeholders should matter in profit generated decision making? Is this all a fad or is business changing? These CEOs made a clear statement to “commit to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders.” This commitment was not one that is agreed upon lightly, and the impacts have been clear. From a drive to have a net zero carbon footprint by 2030 and reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to utilizing Environmental, Social and Governance metrics as the primary driver for investmentbased decision making; how a business operates has genuinely changed. This statement has echoed from small organizations to larger corporations in all industries. We feel energized and optimistic when we see the bright future that businesses will lead us into with these new commitments to excellence. Our teachings at CSVC have evolved. We need to be able to educate all Terps on this new evolution of business purpose. We have been doing this through some old ways and many new ones.

Newsletter

This past year we have devoted many hours of research, design, and thought leadership to provide informative biweekly newsletters. Our Here and Now Newsletter has been completley redesigned graphically to educate, engage, and empower the Smith Community. We continue to highlight our partners, and other centers in the Smith School of Business. We are excited to spotlight the amazing research and studies our faculty have conducted to move forward business’s leadership in social value creation. Our Key Three Newsletter an interactive opportunity for us to engage our community with important updates in weeks where we are not utilizing our Here&Now newsletter.

Focus Areas

• Corporate and Sustainable Development Goals • Climate Change • Finance and ESG Metrics • Supply Chain and Circularity • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion • COVID-19 Relief • Black Lives Matter

Transitioning to an Online World with COVID-19

As a result of our world transitioning to a largely virtual environment in 2020, many organizations, experts and thought leaders offered rich content on sustainable business, DEI, and more in the form of webinars. Recognizing the increased digital load students were burdened with during this time, but wanting to support their learning on these important topics, CSVC began the Webinar Webinar Write-Up series. By digesting the webinars and highlighting key messages via the recaps, students could engage and learn from the content without needing to attend hours of webinars themselves. Organizations highlighted in the recaps included The Aspen Institute, Sustainable Brands, Refinitiv, and others. Seen below are two examples of our weekly webinar write-ups.

CSVC Now on LinkedIn!

In addition to finding creative ways to engage students in an online world, we are now excited to connect through LinkedIn as well. In the past few weeks we have been able to grow our platform to have over 300 followers. We are hopeful that this platform will be widely used amongst our alumni, faculty, staff, students, and donors. We have also connected with our Coalition for Better Business Partners, Tata and PwC. Make sure to connect with us if you have not already. We can easily be found as an affiliate for the Smith School of Business LinkedIn account. Happy connecting!

Instagram Live Series

“When CSVC Director Nima Farshchi reached out to ask if I could participate in an Instagram Live session, I was so excited to support him and CSVC, and more importantly, have the chance to connect with undergraduate students. One of my favorite things about Smith was the community that I was able to build - not only the relationships with my classmates and peers, but also faculty, staff, and alumni. Getting the chance to reminisce about my time at Smith and talk about my journey after UMD helped me realize how pivotal my time at Smith was to my leadership development, confidence, and the start of my career. The students who joined the Instagram Live Session asked such thoughtful and intentional questions - about building a community and making a positive impact in the world - that made me proud to be a Smith alum. Constantly learning from our peers is one of the greatest benefits of being part of Smith, and I was able to connect with individuals through this Instagram Live that I wouldn’t have met otherwise!” — Snigdha Rao ‘15

Social Enterprise & The Emergence of the Specialty Chocolate Industry: Past, Present, and Future with Social Innovations Fellows

“I got to attend Social Enterprise & the Emergence of the Specialty

Chocolate Industry and participate in the chocolate tasting as the TA for the Social Innovation Fellows program. Learning how chocolate makers are taking one of my all-time favorite treats and making it healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable for the farmers who produce the cacao needed to make it was extremely interesting and completely changed the way I think about finding a snack to reward myself with during my grocery runs. Carla Martin, from the Fine

Chocolate and Cacao Institute at Harvard, made the panel discussion extremely engaging with her expert mediation and interviewing skills, and I learned a lot about the global economics for chocolate and how changing the way we approach one of the globe’s favorite sweets, we can truly build a better world through business.” Watch the recording here. — Steven Ioannidis, Junior