How to achieve the promise of corporate purpose
Sarah Kaplan writes for Rotman Management Magazine that pursuing corporate purpose can’t just be in the words but must be in the deeds.
Re-Imagining Traditional Stakeholder Theory: A Roundtable Discussion
Sarah Kaplan participated in a Sorenson Impact roundtable on corporate purpose and being a business in the 21st century.
The best books about stakeholder capitalism
Sarah Kaplan describes for Shepherd 5 great books about stakeholder capitalism that you should read.
Svilupparsi anche dai conflitti
The Italian edition of 360º Corporation is reviewed by the Pirelli Foundation.
Rotman School Professor Honoured with Governance Achievement Award from The Governance Professionals of Canada
Sarah Kaplan is recognized for impact on corporate governance reform with the Peter Dey Governance Achievement Award.
360º Governance: Leadership Guidelines for a World in Crisis
Sarah Kaplan and Peter Dey write in the Rotman Management Magazine about governance in the 21st century.
The purpose of a corporation is not simply to make money
Sarah Kaplan and Peter Dey write for the Globe and Mail that Corporate boards cannot afford to be laggards in a changing governance landscape. As boards of directors reconvene in person and emerge from their virtual boardrooms, they will be well-advised to review and update the purpose of the corporation to reflect the realities […]
Capitalism and Management Research: The Worst of Times, The Best of Times
The 360º Corporation reviewed in the Academy of Management Review!
More than 5,000 enrollments to date! The 360º Corporation: Tools for Achieving Corporate Purpose
Check out my new course on Coursera that will give you the tools you need for sustainability and social responsibility. If you’ve heard the terms stakeholder capitalism, or sustainability, or ESG, corporate social responsibility, conscious capitalism, sustainable development goals, shared value, corporate citizenship, or purpose-driven company but don’t know exactly what they mean—or don’t know […]
Sarah Kaplan Presents at the 2021 HBS Gender and Work Symposium
Sarah Kaplan discusses “Race, (Stakeholder) Capitalism, and Democracy” at Harvard University.
Teaching Complex Management Challenges
Sarah Kaplan is interviewed about her Aspen award-winning course, The 360º Corporation.
TVO’s The Agenda: Where are the directors in a world in crisis?
In the mid-1990s, corporate Canada adopted a new set of guidelines to inform the structure of their boards of directors. A quarter century on, and amid mounting emergencies such as COVID-19, climate change, inequality, racism, and ongoing gender gaps, is another overhaul needed? Steve Paikin discusses this with Veena Ramani, senior program director, Capital Market […]
Where are the directors in a world in crisis?
Peter Dey and Sarah Kaplan write for the Globe and Mail about the new competencies required for boards of directors in the 21st century.
Path-breaking report! 360º Governance: Where are the Directors in a World in Crisis?
Peter Dey and Sarah Kaplan propose 13 guidelines for corporate boards to address the challenges of the 21st century.
The 360º Corporation course wins Ideas Worth Teaching Award from Aspen Institute!
The Aspen Institute awards courses that have an impact on business and society. They have long recognized the power of business school teaching to influence the culture within capitalism. These awards celebrate visionary faculty and the courses that tackle society’s largest, most embedded challenges of our time. These learning experiences equip leaders of tomorrow with […]
Financial recovery goes hand in hand with social responsibility
Sarah Kaplan and Rod Lohin write for The Toronto Star about how company health is not just financial.
What it means for businesses to ‘build back better’ after COVID-19
The health and economic crisis has prompted pro-employee changes at some companies. Sarah Kaplan argues in Fast Company
Administrative Science Quarterly reviews The 360º Corporation!
For those interested in an overarching, approachable, and engaging overview of corporate social responsibility, and particularly a stakeholder approach, this is a great read.
How To ‘Build Back Better’ after COVID-19
Sarah Kaplan explains how, in the midst of the pandemic, companies need to redesign, reorient, and realign.
Why Social Responsibility Produces More Resilient Organizations
Sarah Kaplan writes for Sloan Management Review that companies have more staying power when management decisions consider a diverse range of interests.
Are we letting this crisis go to waste?
In this editorial in The Hill Times, Sarah Kaplan writes that we can use this crisis to create our own rebirth. This article appeared in The Hill Times on August 17, 2020. The full piece is available here. We are in the midst of one of the greatest health and economic crises in more than […]
360 gradi: oltre la responsabilità sociale dell’impresa
Great review of L’Impresa à 360º in Sviluppo & Organizzazione describing it as a pragmatic approach to combining shareholder and stakeholder interests. See the full review here.
Brazilian edition! A Empresa 360°
Como Levar em Conta os Interesses de Todos os Stakeholders e Conduzir Sua Empresa Por Um Caminho de Transformação
Deck Chairs On The Titanic: The Impoverished B-School Response To A Changing World
Sarah Kaplan writes for Poets & Quants that business schools are not adapting to new social realities. Our society is in crisis: even before the Covid-19 pandemic, racism was already unleashed around the world, rising seas were already flooding communities, pollution was choking cities, the AI revolution was creating major dislocations as jobs are replaced […]
Business Models for a better world. A Disruptive Conversation with Sarah Kaplan.
Sarah Kaplan talks with Keita Demming for the Disruptive Conversations podcast.
Build Back Better After COVID-19: Why Corporations Need a Radical Redesign
Sarah Kaplan appears with Soo Min Toh and Ken Corts to talk about how the COVID crisis creates opportunities for radical change. Summary from Rotman news stories. As we navigate this global pandemic and make plans to move forward, we’re realizing that striving for ‘back to normal’ or ‘business as usual’ isn’t good enough. “As […]
The Work Ahead: Business Confronts the COVID-19 Challenge
Sarah Kaplan appears in an Atlantic Live event to discuss COVID, inequality, and building back better.
Fare il bene per lavoro: Per crescere serve coinvolgere tutti, questa è la lezione per le aziende del futuro
Non si possono fare solo compromessi: servono iniziative in grado di produrre cambiamento. Perché, come spiega Sarah Kaplan in “L’impresa a 360°” (Egea) la responsabilità sociale non è solo un ornamento bensì un obiettivo finale
Italian launch of L’impresa à 360º!
Egea Editore launches the Italian translation with a new preface by Gianmario Verona, Rector of Bocconi University. Le imprese oggi sono chiamate a rispondere alle richieste, crescenti e pressanti, di stakeholder diversi: i consumatori vogliono prodotti socialmente responsabili, i dipendenti chiedono lavori che diano loro un senso, gli investitori vagliano i criteri ambientali, sociali […]
The 360º Corporation featured in Corriere della Sera
Full page feature previewing the launch of L’Impresa à 360º. “Sostenibilità: Cambiare costa la responsabilità tra paradossi e compromessi.” See the feature here.
What it means for businesses to ‘build back better’ after COVID-19
The health and economic crisis has prompted pro-employee changes at some companies. Sarah Kaplan argues in Fast Company that they should keep them and do even more.
The upside of trade-offs
“strategy+business” features The 360˚ Corporation: about how leaders can turn stakeholder scrutiny to their advantage
Claims on the Corporation: Directions for Stakeholder Research in the Field of Management—Beyond the Business Case for Social Responsibility
New piece for Academy of Management Discoveries.
Pandemic should force corporate boards to think beyond the bottom line
Peter Dey and Sarah Kaplan write that maybe this crisis is, when it comes to corporate governance, a blessing in disguise.
It’s 2020 and the world is on fire — it’s time for business to propose radical climate change solutions
Sarah Kaplan writes for the Toronto Star that companies need to act more urgently to pursue social justice. Australia’s apocalyptic bush fires make the dystopian future of “Mad Max” look tame. The World Economic Forum recently reported that it will take another 100 years to achieve gender equality at the current pace of progress. Garbage […]
The latest business essential? Social Purpose
Sarah Kaplan is quoted in the Director Journal about what it means for companies to pursue “purpose.” Companies will face their own learning curves through the transition. For example, some may need to develop funding models that take into account a growing number of stakeholders, says Sarah Kaplan, a professor of strategic management and distinguished […]
End Growth, Save the Planet?
Sarah Kaplan appears on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin to talk about the environmental risks of economic expansion. From TVO: “What are the consequences of endless economic expansion? To discuss the potential risks, we welcome Chris Ragan, director of McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy; Celine Bak, president of Analytica Advisors; Atif […]
The 360º Corporation is a finalist in Association of American Publishers PROSE book awards for scholarly excellence!
The annual PROSE Awards recognize books of extraordinary merit that make a significant contribution to a field of study each year
Why the ‘business case’ for diversity isn’t working
Sarah Kaplan writes for Fast Company that the business case leads only to incremental, not transformational change
World’s biggest money manager sees profit potential in climate change action
Sarah Kaplan speaks on the CBC Front Burner podcast about corporate social responsibility.
Creating A Purpose-Driven Corporation
In Forbes: The 360º Corporation is “a more realistic road map for creating the corporation of the future.”
Financial Times reviews The 360º Corporation!
Addressing these paradoxes is at the heart of Kaplan’s book, a guide that aims to topple economist Milton Friedman’s dictum that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits”.
4 mistakes companies make in corporate social responsibility
This video clip from the Toronto book launch of The 360º Corporation highlights the solutions for companies seeking to become more socially responsible. Not knowing how business models create trade-offs Organizations are not having enough conversations about their stakeholder trade-offs. For example, do delivery companies recognize the increased pollution and poor labour conditions that come […]
SiriusXM interview on The 360° Corporation: Using Trade-Offs as a Source of Innovation
In this interview, Kaplan says, “The first mistake that companies make is not knowing what their trade-offs are.”
Sarah Kaplan presents to Ivey Business School about The 360° Corporation
Kaplan’s talk focused on the role businesses have played in creating global problems and the necessity and opportunity they now have to help fix them.
Porchlight Books highlights The 360º Corporation as an “Editor’s Choice”!
Sarah Kaplan explains why social responsibility, rather than being an add-on or ancillary consideration, must be baked into the business model.
A Better Way to Be Better
Interviewed by Liisbeth, Kaplan argues that the business case for social responsibility justifies the status quo. It leads to complacency as opposed to outrage.
How good deeds can boost your company’s stock price
Sarah Kaplan is quoted in The Globe and Mail saying that expecting corporate CSR to justify itself financially is asking the wrong question. “That will only take you so far.”
The limits of the pursuit of profit
The Financial Times consults Sarah Kaplan on how companies in search of greater purpose can innovate around trade-offs.
Book launch event in Toronto!
Full house on Sept. 26 for a launch event and reception for The 360º Corporation. “We have a lot of crises – gender equality crises, climate crises – that we are all facing. And we need to have a better way to have a conversation about these issues inside organizations. That’s what this book is […]
TVO’s The Agenda: The end of shareholder primacy
Sarah Kaplan participates in a panel discussion on The Agenda about the US Business Roundtable announcement repudiating the primacy of the shareholder and what it means for Canada. Last month, some of America’s top business people released a statement saying, among other things: “CEOs work to generate profits and return value to shareholders, but the […]
TVO’s The Agenda: A holistic view of corporations
Sarah Kaplan appears on The Agenda to discuss The 360º Corporation and the transformational possibilities of engaging with all stakeholders. Corporations are critical players in Canada’s economy – they create the wealth, jobs, goods, and services we all need. And increasingly that’s prompted people to see them as more than commercial enterprises, but as key […]
The Business Roundtable has repudiated shareholder primacy; where does Canada stand?
Sarah Kaplan writes for The Globe and Mail that corporate Canada may be slipping behind on social responsibility. This is a reprint of the Globe and Mail editorial on September 16, 2019. The full version is viewable here. Recently, the Business Roundtable – a lobbying group made up of the chief executives of more than […]
Press release on The 360º Corporation
New Book Provides a Roadmap For Companies to Address Demands from Multiple Stakeholders.
The 360° Corporation will give leaders the confidence to start and follow through with a transformative change
Rotman School features “The 360º Corporation”: stakeholder trade-offs as creating the potential for transformation.
How corporations are stepping up to tackle crises when governments won’t
Sarah Kaplan writes for The Conversation that corporations can be part of the system of checks and balances for social good.
Capitalism under pressure: Why CEOs rethink corporate purpose
The Christian Science Monitor consults Sarah Kaplan on how CEOs who recently embraced a “stakeholder” business model are following a wider movement.
Are companies right to abandon the shareholder-first mantra?
Sarah Kaplan is invited by the Financial Times to explain why the Business Roundtable announcement is a good first step for change. Are companies right to abandon the shareholder-first mantra? Yes — Balancing interests will spur companies to be more innovative The Business Roundtable, an association of leading US chief executives, last week announced plans […]
Review in SSIR: How Corporations Can Balance Demands From Shareholders and Consumers
Stanford Social Innovation Review notes: The 360° Corporation is [a] comprehensive guide for managers, CEOs, and corporate leaders to learn how to negotiate the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders—from workers and consumers to government regulators and civic groups—that corporations must serve today. Reconciling these different conflicting interests, Kaplan maintains, is the “crucial task for […]
Taking stakeholders, rather than Milton Friedman, seriously: Beyond “shared value” approaches for corporate social responsibility
My Stanford Press blog post on The 360º Corporation. “For decades, we have mythologized Milton Friedman’s 1970 dictate that corporations have a primary responsibility to deliver financial returns to their shareholders. But, the winds are shifting. Former Unilever CEO Paul Polman is calling for “heroic chief executive officers” to achieve sustainable development goals such as […]
The 360 Corporation is on the BizEd July-August Bookshelf!
“Today’s corporations must consider the stakeholders that surround them from all sides, writes the University of Toronto’s Sarah Kaplan—and to serve them, companies will need to follow one of four modes of operation. In Mode 1, corporations realize that every business model involves tradeoffs; for instance, just-in-time delivery creates efficiencies but might increase pollution and […]
Zen And The Art Of Small Town Revitalization
Forbes discusses the value of creating a 360 Corporation for rural economic development.
Inequality as an innovation challenge: preview of The 360º Corporation
Speaking at Rotman Management Magazine’s “Short Talks: Art of Change” event in May 2019, Sarah Kaplan discusses her latest book, The 360° Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation, and how businesses can approach inequality as an innovation challenge.
First Review! “The 360º Corporation: Sarah Kaplan on embracing stakeholder trade-offs to achieve social good”
Review by Peter Chadwick of IEDP: “…finding ways to innovate around these trade-offs can be a source of organizational resilience and transformation…” Excerpt: “In her new book, The 360º Corporation, Sarah Kaplan, Distinguished Professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, suggests that achieving perfect shared value is unrealistic and that the shared […]
Thought Leader Interview: Sarah Kaplan
“Every business model — from the corner store to a large corporation — contains implicit trade-offs between different stakeholders, whereby one group benefits and another is hurt in some way.”
Stanford University Press book page
Thrilled that Stanford University Press is publishing The 360º Corporation!
Corporations: Defenders of Democracy?
Sarah Kaplan appears on TVO’s The Agenda to discuss the role of corporations in society.
Sneak peek of the book @ AOM 2019
Great “Meet the Author” event at the Academy of Management meetings in Boston on August 11 at the Stanford University Press booth. We offered sneak peek copies before the official September 3 publication date, had a book signing, chatted about the ideas! More about The 360º Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation here.