AIR AND SPACE: GLF participants enjoyed cocktails and dinner at the popular Washington museum.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANUTA OTFINOWSKI

There has never been a time when there have been as many challenges facing this country as there are now, nor a time when we have as many of the structural advantages that we now enjoy,” Richard Haass told some 640 alumni and guests at the HBS Global Leadership Forum (GLF) in Washington, D.C., in June. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, was the first among a wide array of Washington insiders at the three-day conference who repeatedly referred to the unique juncture at which the United States now finds itself, with many speakers urging their audience to get involved in the issues of the day. The event also featured some twenty sessions led by HBS faculty on a variety of subjects related to the GLF’s title, “The Private Sector and the Public Interest.”

Declaring that nothing could be more important in the 21st century than the forum’s theme, Dean Jay Light recalled in his opening remarks that the School’s founders conceived of HBS as “a school of public service and business” intended to train students “with an intellectual respect for business as a profession, with the social implications and heightened sense of responsibility that goes with that.” Said Light, “This is an important aspect of HBS, and has been since our founding.”

The conference, led by Alumni Chair Charles Rossotti (MBA ’64) and his HBS classmate, Faculty Chair Malcolm Salter, consisted of four tracks: Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship; Business and Society; Financial Markets; and Leadership in Public and Private Organizations. The purpose of the conference, in Salter’s words, was to consider “the implications of the public-private nexus, especially for decision-making and leadership, in these overlapping public-private realms.”

Speaking at luncheon, on the opening day of the conference, Haass, a former State Department official, posited three possible scenarios for the world’s future. At one extreme he foresaw an era of peace and productivity based upon international cooperation; the opposite extreme, Haass said, would be a modern Dark Ages of failed states and disharmony. But he speculated that the most likely scenario would be the rise of a Cold War–style competition between the West and Asia. To achieve positive outcomes, Haass declared, American policy needs to become more multilateral, and globalization must be shaped by the international community “to resist the negative aspects and leverage the positive.”

Richard haass: The former State Department official met with GLF participants after his presentation.

Haass concluded with a call to the business community that other speakers would echo as well: get involved. “Traditionally the business community in America has been the most powerful consistent voice in favor of openness toward the world, including openness on trade and investment,” he observed. “Where are the CEOs and others who used to lead public opinion on these issues?”

Seconding the idea that opportunities exist but prompt action is required, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin noted that the United States has strengths that play well in today’s global environment as well as a history of enormous resilience in the face of difficult challenges. “However,” he added, “I think we should all be deeply troubled about the way our political system is functioning.” Rubin also urged the HBS audience, well known for its pro bono and volunteer efforts, to help correct the system where needed. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman added his voice to those who say that critical decisions must be made without delay. “We are overly dependent on fossil fuels and will only become more so unless we make some critical investments now to truly diversify our supply options for the longer term,” Bodman stated. “In my opinion, the current path is unsustainable.”

Bodman explained that President Bush’s energy initiative “essentially proposes that we will start to pick some winners. That may not be the usual role for government, but I believe we must do it if we are to meet the demands of the future.” Bodman cited ethanol, solar, and clean-burning coal technology as particularly promising areas.

Jeff Immelt (MBA ’82): The CEO of General Electric sees opportunity in clean and sustainable industrial products and systems, private-sector activity that also serves the public interest.

In the face of these sorts of challenges, should business stay in its comfort zone and focus on increasing shareholder value, as many would argue? Fortunately, some businesses can do good simply by doing well, as General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt (MBA ’82) pointed out about his own company. GE sees a pure, profit-producing opportunity — and a strategy for growth — in creating clean and sustainable industrial technologies and systems. “We’ve been stunned by the impact not just on our bottom line but in terms of what it means for our employees, for people who invest in the company, and across the board,” said Immelt of GE’s “eco-imagination” initiative. “Using process and technology, you can create wealth and value in almost every setting.”

But even when the correlation between profit-making and the public good is not as apparent as in GE’s case, “The private sector today, particularly large companies, is increasingly taking on the public interest as an essential part of its agenda,” said HBS professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter in one of the many sessions led by the School’s faculty. Kanter explained that several trends are causing the private sector to get more involved: the perceived inefficiency or corruption of government; higher esteem for business leaders than government officials; growing respect for entrepreneurship and for people who get things done; and pressure from the corporate responsibility movement for business to get more involved.

At one point, Kanter mused, “Will Fairfield, Armonk, and Cincinnati replace Washington as the center of problem-solving?”

Other sessions featured high-profile and important Washington figures such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), former Senator John Breaux (D-LA), and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) on a health-care panel, moderated by HBS professor Regina Herzlinger; former FCC head Reed Hundt, with Professor David Yoffie, in a session on the digital and broadband revolution; and top FBI official Philip Mudd, taking part in Associate Professor Jan Rivkin’s presentation on the organizational integration of intelligence. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox (MBA ’76) closed out the formal program with a plenary speech on the future of securities regulation.

Like Cox, other speakers and panelists included HBS alumni whose careers have encompassed both private- and public-sector service. As it happened, the School’s most famous dual-sector alumnus, President George W. Bush (MBA ’75), was in Europe on other business. But in several sessions, alumni expressed considerable interest in making the move from the private sector into public service and discussed how the private sector could work more effectively with government. Such conversations among friends old and new continued on into the evenings at get-togethers and dinners held at the spectacular Library of Congress, the colorful Air and Space Museum, and the mammoth National Building Museum, site of a gala affair on the event’s final evening.

Robert Rubin: At a plenary session (with his image projected behind him), the former Treasury Secretary spoke about the global economy and America’s malfunctioning political system.

At the close of the GLF, on the eve of his retirement after forty years at the School, Faculty Chair Mal Salter told the audience that HBS alumni are “the ones providing leadership for the eleemosynary institutions and many of the political institutions” in virtually every city in America. “One of my hopes is that the GLF has fueled your interest and passion for being part of the solution and part of the conversation,” Salter said. “Another is that the GLF will spark discussions between alumni and the School about how HBS and private enterprise can best serve the public interest.”

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