🎙️New Podcast Series: Private Innovation in the Public Interest with Anita McGahan 

How can we re-invent corporate responsibility to serve the public good? 

Join Anita McGahan and friends in a new podcast on the private sector forging the public good. 

Listen now to “Private Innovation in the Public Interest” on Spotify

Listen now to “Private Innovation in the Public Interest” on Apple Podcasts

Anita has a long history as a professor advocating for impact through the private sector. This includes serving as the George E. Connell Chair of Organizations and Society at the University of Toronto. She was President of the Academy of Management, which is the largest association of business-school professors in the world.  She currently is a Distinguished Senior Fellow and Senior Scientist at the Burnes Center for Social Change, focusing on private innovation in the public interest.

Through “Private Innovation in the Public Interest,” she brings together leading thinkers and doers to talk about how private-sector leaders are driving meaningful social change and tackle today’s pressing questions: 

– What strategies actually create positive social impact?
– Why have corporate social responsibility initiatives fallen short?
– What’s behind the widespread backlash against ESG and DEI movements?
– How can we forge a better path forward?

A project of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University, the Private Innovation in the Public Interest initiative (Pi-Squared for short) offers our best thinking on how corporate leaders can have a profoundly constructive impact both within their organizations and the communities that they serve.  

Tune in to the first three episodes now, and stay tuned for new episodes every week! 

Episode 1: Do Something! Do Anything! But Please do it with a Clear Heart and Open Mind. Professor Subramanian Rangan highlights the transformative power of humility, good intentions, continuous learning, clarity of purpose, and, above all, decisive action.

Episode 2: Let’s Right Wrongs that are Readily Fixable – And do it now. Professor Leo Pongeluppe discusses how online retailers charge higher prices in poorer areas of Rio’s favelas compared to wealthier neighborhoods just steps away. He’s optimistic that this can change – and gently demands that it should happen now.

Episode 3: Get Strategic by Scaling Up to Well-Tested Approaches. Professor and Dean Emeritus Roger Martin encourages company leaders to address critical public problems by leveraging their strengths: scaling proven solutions into profitable and sustainable business models.

COMING SOON: Pi-Squared Workshop Series launching in Spring 2025! Join Anita for live workshops on reinventing corporate social responsibility and  finding new ways that companies, NGOs, and even government itself can work together to change the world.

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