15.06S: Managing Sustainable Businesses for People and Profits Spring 2013 Tuesdays 4-7 p.m., E51-149

Transcription

1 15.06S: Managing Sustainable Businesses for People and Profits Spring 2013 Tuesdays 4-7 p.m., E Thomas A. Kochan, George M. Bunker Professor of Management & Co-Director, Institute for Work & Employment Research Barbara Dyer, President & CEO, The Hitachi Foundation Objectives Managing Sustainable Businesses for People and Profits is a full term course about social sustainability. At Sloan sustainability means realizing the fundamental alignment between healthy businesses, healthy environments, healthy societies, and an economy that serves human needs. Through readings, cases, simulations and class visits from industry leaders, students will explore the underlying principles and business practices that help to secure that alignment between business health and societal wellbeing. This course looks at the opportunities and challenges in building and growing businesses that achieve high financial performance and returns to society. Work, the workplace and forces that influence the actions of employers will be a centerpiece of this course. We will concentrate on firms that achieve high levels of performance and financial returns while generating and maintaining high quality jobs and career opportunities. We take a global value-chain perspective to these issues, mapping the social footprint of the firm. We review the research evidence on how to build and sustain high performance systems that reinforce social sustainability. We look at how to integrate technologies and innovations in product development and service delivery with human resource and organizational strategies to get the full return on these investments, and we explore strategies for diffusing these types of practices more broadly across industries and the economy. The course is an elective that counts toward completion of the Sloan School s Sustainability Certificate. Deliverables and Grading 1. Individual Project: Each student will develop recommendations for strengthening the social sustainability curricula at Sloan using interviews with students and faculty at MIT and beyond along with their direct experience in this and other classes. (40%) 2. Team Project: Teams of 3-4 students will each develop a comprehensive social sustainability strategy for a client business, synchronized with each of the three blocks of this course. At the end of block one, teams will develop a firm-specific framework for social sustainability and a map of the firm s social footprint. At the end of block two,

2 students will produce recommendations for implementing practices that would benefit people and profits. At the end of block three, teams will assess the larger environment that influences the firm to identify opportunities and threats to incorporating/spreading social sustainability. Students will tie the three parts together in an integrated report and a presentation to the firm. (40%) Due Dates: Block one write up: March12 Block two write up: April 23 Final Integrated Report: May Active participation in class discussions. (20%) Class sessions are organized into three blocks Block 1: What is social sustainability? How do we map the social footprint of a firm across its full value chain? Block 2: What does it take to create and manage a socially sustainable business? Block 3: How can we diffuse social sustainable organizations across the economy? Block 1: What is Social Sustainability? Class 1 Feb. 5: Introduction: What is at stake here and what issues do students want to address in this course? Is the American Dream at risk for future generations? How about around the world? What will it take to build sustainable jobs, careers, companies, and economies? How is social sustainability viewed in the different cultures from around the world represented in this class? What questions about social sustainability do class participants want to address over the course of the term? What do we really want? A Manifesto for the Organizations of the 21 st Century. The MIT 21 st Century Manifesto Working Group, Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value, Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb, Thomas Kochan A Jobs Compact for America s Future, Harvard Business Review, March, 2012,

3 An article that presents a global view Data and Reference Material for Review: Lawrence Mishel, et al, The State of Working America, 2012 edition, chapter 1 Class 2: Feb. 12: The Context for Social Sustainability Short-termism /shareholder primacy/globalization/conventional wisdom/societal norms/industry norms Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, and Dan McMurrer, Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era. San Francisco: Berrett Koehler, 2011, Chapter 6, Ranking Companies. A reading in defense of shareholder value maximization Guests: Jason Baron; Add a skeptical investment analyst. Tuesday Feb 19: No Class Monday classes held today Class 3: Feb 26: Mapping the Firm s Social Footprint What targets might firms set for strengthening their contributions to social well-being? Cases: Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (A,B), N. Smith and R. Crawford, Guest: Phil Mirvis Class 4: Mar 5: Applying the Principles in a Global Supply Chain Richard Locke, The Promise and Perils of Globalization: The Case of Nike, in Kochan and Schmalensee, (eds.) Management: Inventing and Delivering Its Future, MIT Press, 2003, Richard Locke, Concluding Considerations: Collaborative Buyer-Supplier Relations as a Possible Solution? in The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy. Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press.

4 Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, In China, Human Costs are Built into the I-Pad and Compliance by the Numbers, New York Times, January 26, Scott Nova and Jesse Shapiro, Polishing the Apple: Fair Labor Association Gives Undue Credit for Labor Rights Program, Economic Policy Institute, November 8, Review Various Other Media Responses TECHNOLOGY February 13, 2012 Bits: Apple Asks Outside Group to Inspect Factories _should_ditch_its_troubling_labor_practices_and_reinvent_gadget_manufacturing_.html David Barboza and Keith Bradsher, Foxconn Plant Closed after Riot, New York Times September 24, Guests: Aaron Kramer, Business for Social Responsibility; Scott Nova, Worker Rights Consortium; Arnold Zack, Past President, National Academy of Arbitrators Block 2: What does it take to lead and manage a socially sustainable business? Class 5: March 12: High Performance Work Systems and High Road business Strategies Applying the High Road Strategies in Manufacturing Eileen Appelbaum, Jody Hoffer Gittell, and Carrie Leana, Workplace Innovation and Labor Policy Leadership, November 23, http// Meet the Best Owners in Football, Business Week, November, Case: Integrated Packaging Corp, A and B: Struggling to do the right thing Hitachi Foundation Manufacturing Pioneer Employers

5 Guests: Sloan School SIP Week: March Spring Break: March Class 6: April 2: Applying the Principles: Health Care Thomas Kochan, Adrienne Eaton, Robert McKersie, and Paul Adler, Partnerships the Future, in Healing Together: The Kaiser Permanente Labor-Management Partnership, Chapter 12, pp Hitachi Foundation Clinics Cases John August blog, Review: Lisel Blash et. al, High Plains Community Health Center Community Center Expands-Redesigns Medical Assistant Roles Lisel Blash et.al., South Central Foundation Nuka Model of Health Care Provides Career Growth for Front Line Staff Guests: John August, Executive Director, Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and Donna Lynne, Regional President, Kaiser Permanente Colorado/ Add Clinic Leader panel??? Class 7: April 9 (Applying the Principles: Retail Zeynep Ton, Why Good Jobs are Good for Retailers, Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb, Case: Quiktrip Tues April 16: Patriots Day No Class Class 8: April 23: Social Sustainability from the start - Entrepreneurship What do entrepreneurs need to know and how can these principles be built into their organizational designs, values, and strategies right from the start?

6 Review materials on entrepreneurship on the following three websites and the Optimax case study: Video: 2011 Panel Discussion of Sustainable Entrepreneurship James Baron and Micheal T. Hannan, Organizational Blueprints for Success in High Technology Startups, California Management Review 44, 3, Spring, 2002, Optimax Systems Inc. Case: Vecna Guests: Debra Theobald, Vecna Founder (and/or someone from Hitachi s Young Entrepreneurs, or Tim Rowe from Cambridge Innovation Center?) Block 3: Adoption and Diffusion Strategies: Or If this is so good, why doesn t it spread on its own? Class 9: April 30: Activism and Voice Workers and Consumers Can we get there without strong advocacy? What model for worker voice fits with a Sustainable Firm? A Primer on labor relations Kochan, Collective Bargaining: Crisis and its Consequences for American Society, Industrial Relations Journal, 43, 4, 2012, Christopher L. Erickson, et al, Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiation, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol 40, 2002, Guest: A panel of local labor and community activists Class 10: May 7: Alternative Models of Corporate Governance and Strategy

7 B-Lab: Building a New Sector of the Economy. HBS Case Ben Schrekinger, Virtue Inc.: Can the new Benefit Corporation Charter give Companies a Conscience, Boston Globe, November 25, Add: a reading on employee ownership Review: B-Lab Website: Video: We the Owners Guest: Bart Houlahan, Co-Founder, B-Lab Mary Ann Beyster Class 11: May 14 Wrap-up: Lessons for Sloan; Lessons for Sustainable Businesses Student team and individual reports on: 1. How to engage and educate a broader cross section of Sloan students on the social sustainability perspective, leadership and management practices, and 2. Actions needed for organizations to continue to be successful by following sustainability principles and practices.