A highly interactive and wide-spanning discussion ranging from the futility of approaching political-economy from dogmatic extremes, need for changing the nature of partnerships between governments, businesses and non-profits to address the plethora of problems facing society and the power of social value investing marked the launch of a new book, Social Value Investing: A Management Framework for Effective Partnerships, co-authored by Prof William B. Eimicke, who was in Hyderabad for delivering a talk.
Sharing his experiences of co-authoring the book, Howard W. Buffett, and their rigorous research, Prof Eimicke, Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs and founding-director of the Picker Center for Executive Education of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, “this is one lifetime learning from Warren Buffet I have received — by their very nature people want to make profits in business and also want to make a difference to society and other people. Social value investing fuses the two. The book provides a comprehensive framework to enable this transformation — with people, process, place, portfolio and performance.”
Stressing on need to forge creative partnerships between difference agencies to solve pressing problems, he explained the concept at work with examples drawn from real-life case studies from the Indian experiment with Aadhar, Apollo Hospital’s tele-medicine forays, Summer Olympics in Brazil, the turnaround of the Central Park in New York, among others.
The panel and audience, comprising economists, policy makers, entrepreneurs, investors, political leaders and students, were enthralled by lucid responses by the author, who established as an unimpeachable truth — the time has come for people to invest along the aspirations and values of the millennials — who prioritise impact over profit, and time has to come redesign companies and investment priorities too.
