Management in Practice

What obligations does a corporation have to society? The way that question is answered has evolved over time. So have the tools of those working to expand the role of corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

The highly visible chancellor of the New York City Public Schools from 2002 to 2011, Joel Klein recently returned to the private sector as the CEO of News Corporation's education division, Amplify. Klein talked with Yale Insights about applying his approach to leadership in a new role.

Will the rising tide of mobile ad spending lift all media-company boats? Or will only the shrewd and the quick be able to capitalize on the trend toward more media consumption on mobile? Facebook’s Carolyn Everson describes how the company has made itself mobile-first.

Former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero discusses Spain’s long, difficult recovery from the global economic crisis and the lessons of the crisis for the future of the European Union.

Green tech investors want to put their money behind firms with the potential to disrupt their industries and bring both positive environmental impacts and financial success. But what’s disruptive is by its nature unprecedented and unpredictable. How do investors assess the potential of a green technology company?

Sustainability leaders often have to interact with a wide range of stakeholders with varied interests and incentives. They need to figure out the best way to engage, communicate, prioritize, and implement—in other words, to persuade. According to a panel of sustainability executives, that can mean sidestepping the language and baggage of sustainability entirely.

The theoretical possibilities for big data are limitless, but putting so much information to good use requires big thinking. Unilever’s Gina Boswell explains the principles that the global company uses to effectively mine its data troves.

Millions of government workers in the U.S. are relying on pension plans for retirement, and yet these plans are underfunded by at least $1 trillion. Asset manager Ranji Nagaswami ’86 argues that addressing this challenge is about more than assets and liabilities—we have to look at how funds are run and, critically, how they think about risk.

How do companies with rapidly evolving business plans and a constantly shifting competitive landscape hire the right people for tomorrow, let alone next year? While education and training still matter, Laszlo Bock, head of people operations at Google, says that the company looks for people with the ability to learn, solve problems, and step in when leadership is needed.

Social enterprises seek to make profit while having a positive impact on communities. As a nascent and hybrid form of organization, social enterprises are vaguely defined. Might a certification process provide benefits for such organizations? Andrew Kassoy of the B Lab talks about the potential of the benefit corporation, or B Corp, to change the way business is done.