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Though my personal view gazing into the crystal ball for 2008 and beyond has some dark spots, both these guys sounded as though they’ve been drinking from the same hopeful fountain. In the world of business they can certainly count themselves as well qualified to have an opinion and some insight about what is coming down the road. Sam Zell has to make good on his belief that the Tribune Company can defy the pall that has fallen over many media companies lately, especially those tied to ink and paper. He is hopeful that good people can kick it up a notch to reach a new level of excellence by taking entrepreneurial chances under his guidance. Eli Broad is excited being an agent for change in another area. He’s giving away many millions of his dollars to support public education in many American cities through the Broad Education Foundation. In its first five years, the Foundation committed over $500 million to support new ideas and innovative leadership in the nation's largest urban school systems. Both Eli Broad and Sam Zell are tackling problems that are so prickly they have prompted other intrepid and well-meaning souls to abandon the playing field.
Among those darker spots in my crystal ball is a real hopeful sparkler that represents my favorite branch of the capitalist discipline, and that is social capitalism. Those two gents that I saw on TV in my office will directly and indirectly have social impact in their outreach and expected successes. Business changes the world--at every moment, in all kinds of ways, for good and ill. Decisions made by them in their boardrooms will set in motion either amazing progress or far-reaching unpleasantness. For example, a company such as Microsoft may tweak its software and rearrange the virtual computer desktops of millions of people, altering how they work everyday. Wal-Mart shifts its gaze, just slightly, and brings organic produce to folks whose income once limited them to sugary, fat-laden processed food.
Business is not an uncalculating brew of spread sheets and boardroom shenanigans. It can behave with intentions, in fact excellent intentions, if they are backed by dollars and smart decision making. One already apparent aspect of the 21st Century is that the era in which business leaders could blithely treat their companies as mute, dumb giants solely in search of profits is behind us. Business will increasingly shape the future and people like Mr. Zell and Mr. Broad have a responsibility to choose what that future will be.
In my view, large corporations will have to reach out to community-based social entrepreneurs to be effective in becoming real partners for change. That’s not just because they have a feeling for doing well by doing good, but because they have the street level touch and clear theories about change. And, as many clever companies are learning, they can be great partners in endeavors that are good for the world and good for the bottom line.
So, as many of us consciously shift gears to holiday thoughts instead of our daily doses of business, feelings of hope should predominate. Zell and Broad, two wildly successful guys travelling different roads to their dreams, have inspired me today to think that way.
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