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Solving the Giving Pledge Bottleneck: How to Finance Solutions Using Philanthropic Private Equity
by Sean DavisThis book highlights the historic inflection point we are in, both in terms of philanthropy in general, and specifically in financing the solutions to our largest and most urgent social and environmental problems. It covers the two movements that have recently had a dramatic influence on capitalism. First, wealthy millennials have been pressuring their bankers to invest their family portfolios in companies with high social and environmental impact (ESG ratings), triggering a wave where the wealth management industry, and now all public companies, are significantly adapting to the increasing demand for good. Second, The Giving Pledge triggered another wave, changing what success and the accumulation of wealth means. It has even begun to redefine the goal of capitalism as more than 230 billionaires have pledged to give half or more of their wealth away. This book also focuses on the bottleneck problem that The Giving Pledge has created, as it is very hard to give hundreds of billions away with measurable impact to nonprofits lacking detailed long-term plans to scale. Nonprofits have never had the luxury of having all the resources to invest in the planning, management training and systems needed to rapidly expand. Thus taking in very large gifts is very difficult, and almost impossible to justify. Large philanthropy can always be used for traditional capital campaigns and to fund endowments, yet The Giving Pledge signers are often looking for large visible impact beyond these traditional avenues. The result is a bottleneck which has grown as more billionaires pledge their funds away while their wealth continues to skyrocket and giving rates stay very small. Finally, this book covers the emergence of large giving vehicles, modelled after the private equity industry. They have sophisticated third-party managers focused on deploying funds and supporting management teams. It also covers the scaling of nonprofits in a significant way (“Big Bets”) as well as investing large philanthropy through for-profits as Philanthropic Private Equity. This book is of interest specifically to nonprofit and foundation leaders, as well as wealth managers, estate attorneys and other philanthropic advisors. It is also of interest to investors and corporate CEOs as they begin to access these large pools for philanthropic capital to increase their impact. This book is focused on providing those with the ability to make large philanthropic investments a path to scale their impact and increase their fulfillment and that of their family. It provides a step-by-step guide of how these approaches, especially Philanthropic Private Equity, can actually solve the social and environmental challenges that have been seemingly hopeless. The second edition also presents a plan to use these concepts to create a path to solve the housing crisis in America.
Solving the Productivity Puzzle: How to Engage, Motivate and Develop Employees to Improve Individual and Business Performance
by Tim RingoAn engaged and productive workforce is essential for organizational growth and business success. However, record levels of disengaged staff, a lack of motivation and employees feeling that they lack the necessary skills and support to excel at their jobs is putting this in jeopardy. HR practitioners are ideally placed to address these issues and boost productivity at every stage of the employee lifecycle to improve individual performance and drive business results. Solving the Productivity Puzzle is a practical guide for all people management professionals to address the challenge of stagnating people productivity. It covers how to embed learning and development activities to ensure that employees feel equipped with the skills they need to meet their goals, motivate a workforce made up of six generations with competing priorities, develop an effective workforce planning strategy to make sure the right people are in the right place at the right time, with the right motivation in the organization to build a company culture that allows people to thrive.Solving the Productivity Puzzle also includes expert guidance on how implement change to opportunity in the workforce, track and measure productivity and how to leverage new technologies to support employees. Including case studies from global organizations including Accenture, Aetna, Apple, Google, IBM, and SAP. This is essential reading for HR professionals needing to supercharge productivity in their organization for both employee and business success.
Solving the Riddle of Globalization and Development (Routledge Studies in the Modern World Economy)
by Manuel R. Agosín David E. Bloom Georges Chapelier Jagdish SaigalIn the past two decades many developing countries have embraced the challenge of globalization by rushing to dismantle trade barriers and to promote increasingly liberal market-oriented policies. However, a broader response to globalization is both necessary and possible if countries are to develop as quickly and as fully as possible. Exploring this complex interrelationship between globalization, liberalization, and human and social development, this innovative book undertakes a full analysis of development policy, strategy and practice in a variety of countries, with equal weight provided to Asia, Latin America and Africa. An internationally renowned team of contributors examines the complex network of connections and the implications for international development policy, strategy and practice. Advocating the inclusion of sustainable human development as a key element in countries' responses to globalization, key points highlighted include the need to nurture an enabling environment, and to promote education and R&D. These elements, coupled with sound macroeconomic management, are all required in equipping a country to integrate more effectively into the world economy. This innovative new approach to globalization and development set out in this volume will be essential reading for academics and practitioners alike.
Solving Tough Problems: An Open way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities
by Adam KahaneAdam Kahane spent years working in the world's hot spots, and came away with a new understanding of how to resolve conflict in a way that seems reasonable - and doable - to all parties.
Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities
by Adam KahaneAdam Kahane has worked on some of the toughest, most complex problems in the world. He started out as an expert analyst and advisor to corporations and governments, convinced of the need to calculate “the one right answer.” After an unexpected experience in South Africa during the transition away from apartheid, he got involved in facilitating a series of extraordinary high-conflict, high-stakes problem-solving efforts: in Colombia during the civil war, in Argentina during the collapse, in Guatemala after the genocide, in Israel, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, and the Basque Country. Through these experiences, he learned to create environments that enable new ideas and creative solutions to emerge even in the most stuck, polarized contexts. Here Kahane tells his stories and distills from them an approach all of us can use to solve our own toughest problems—at home, at work, in our communities, and in national and international affairs. “This breakthrough book addresses the central challenge of our time: finding a way to work together to solve the problems we have created.” —Nelson Mandela
Somalia: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-joint Staff Advisory Note (Imf Staff Country Reports)
by International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.A report from the International Monetary Fund.
Somalia: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-joint Staff Advisory Note (Imf Staff Country Reports)
by International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.A report from the International Monetary Fund.
SOA Maturity Model
by Pericles AntoniadesCompanies have long sought to integrate existing Information Systems (IS) in order to support existing and potentially new business processes spread throughout their "territories" and possibly to collaborating organizations. A variety of designs can be used to this end, ranging from rigid point-to-point electronic data interchange (EDI) interactions to "Web auctions". By updating older technologies, such as "Internet-enabling" EDI-based systems, companies can make their IT systems available to internal or external customers; but the resulting systems have not proven to be flexible enough to meet business demands. A more flexible, standardized architecture is required to better support the connection of various applications and the sharing of data. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is one such architecture. It unifies ("orchestrates") business processes by structuring large applications as an ad-hoc collection of smaller modules called "Services". These applications can be used by different groups of people both inside and outside the company, and new applications built from a mix of services (located in a global repository) exhibit greater agility and uniformity. Thus, SOA is a design framework for realizing rapid and low-cost system development and improving total system quality. SOA uses the Web Services standards and technologies and is rapidly becoming a standard approach for enterprise information systems integration. SOA adoption by enterprises has been identified as one of the highest business priorities by a recent Gartner study (Gartner 2007) and enterprises increasingly recognize the requirement for an increased "Service-orientation" and relevant comprehensive frameworks, which will not only help them position themselves and evaluate their SOA initiatives, but also guide them in achieving higher levels of SOA maturity. This in turn, will help enterprises acquire (and retain) competitive advantage over other players in the market who are not (using SOA and thus they are not) so flexibly adjusting themselves to address new business requirements. This book proposes a new SOA Maturity Model (MM) using a Delphi-variant technique and this constitutes one of its distinguishing features because none of the relevant existing works utilized Delphi. Moreover, the fact that the proposed SOA MM supports inter-enterprise setups makes it even more distinct. The newly proposed SOA MM is then used to help the participating organizations position themselves in respect to SOA (current status), guide them to achieve higher levels of SOA maturity, and anticipate their SOA maturity in five years' time. Furthermore, the "local" or "global" nature of the proposed SOA MM is investigated. This is checked firstly against selected expert panel participants and secondly against local business practitioners.
Somatus: Value-Based Kidney Care (A)
by Ariel D. Stern Robert S. Huckman Sarah MehtaWhen Dr. Ikenna Okezie founded Somatus, a value-based kidney care provider, his goal had been nothing short of transforming kidney care delivery in the United States. Rather than relying on dialysis, a costly and intensive treatment for late-stage kidney disease, the Somatus model called for early identification of patients at high risk along with active management of the underlying conditions that accelerated kidney damage. But he had struggled to find health plans willing to take a chance on his unproven startup, especially in the highly concentrated dialysis treatment market. Thus, in 2017, Somatus agreed to manage traditional dialysis services for a group of hospitals in Virginia, focusing on improving the quality of care. In 2018, Somatus won its first contract with a health plan, finally allowing the startup to implement its full care model. But the contract generated just 10% of Somatus's revenues. Now, in December 2019, Okezie must decide whether to prioritize improving traditional dialysis services or continue to chase health plans willing to implement Somatus's innovative kidney care model.
Somatus: Value-Based Kidney Care (B)
by Ariel D. Stern Robert S. Huckman Sarah MehtaSet in early 2020, this (B) case provides an update to the (A) case (no. 622-009) and provides additional context regarding the challenges facing Somatus.
Some Account of the Trade in Slaves from Africa as Connected with Europe: On Connected With Europe And America
by James BandinelFirst published in 1842, this account has particular reference to the actions of the British Government.
Some Aspects of the Inequality of Incomes in Modern Communities
by Hugh DaltonDivided into four parts, the book is structured as follows:Part 1: Examines the extent to which the inequality of incomes is guided by ethical principles.Part 2: Illustrates the growth of the theory of distribution in the hands of successive generations of economists.Part 3: Develops the theory on the subject of the division of income between categories.Part 4: Looks at the division of income between people and the causes of that inequality, paying particular attention to the factor of inherited wealth.
Some Early Contributions to the Study of Audit Judgment (Routledge Library Editions: Accounting)
by Robert H. AshtonAlthough there has been increased emphasis on research that attempts to understand, evaluate and improve audit decision making in recent years it is less well-known that some noteworthy contributions to the study of audit judgment were made in the 1950s and 1960s. This anthology contains five such contributions which in the mid 1980s were previously unpublished, out of print or not widely appreciated. The volume discusses: the importance of studying audit judgment actual studies of audit judgment techniques for quantifying the evaluation of internal controls.
Some Fundamentals of Mathematics of Blockchain
by Julien RiposoThis book provides a foundation for the mathematics of blockchain. It is inspired by a general analysis and synthesis of the current knowledge of blockchain technology and starts by laying a foundation for the mathematics of blockchain. The aim is for research in the area of blockchain to lead their study from the construction highlighted in this book.First, the basis of a blockchain is set: block, transaction contents, block header, Merkle tree, nonce, Proof-of-Work. Connections with elliptic curves and cryptographic signatures are made.Second, the book ties this with a Graph and Matrix Theories approach and models the peer-to-peer relationship through the Bitcoin Network.Third, it is proposed further modelling, notably around halving, optimal storing, or diffusion of information, which are consequences of the mathematical foundation. The notion of Entropy of Privacy and the Particles model are introduced.Finally, the mathematical statements therein are proven and essential reminders can be found before each section, so the content can be accessible from a graduate level.
Some Small Countries Do It Better
by Shahid Yusuf Kaoru NabeshimaCountries worldwide are struggling to imitate the industrial prowess of the East Asian pacesetters, but growth accelerations have proven remarkably transient. Building a portfolio of tradable goods and services and steadily raising the level of investment in these activities, has generally defied the best policy efforts – in particular, bringing investment ratios on par with East Asian averages has presented the greatest challenge. Hence the search is on for growth recipes not so tightly bound to investment, to manufacturing activities, and to the export of manufactured products. In casting around for such recipes validated by demonstrated results, the experience of economies which have relied more on other drivers of growth – human capital and knowledge – is highly attractive. Finland and Ireland are among the tiny band of small nations that grew rapidly for well over a decade by achieving the maximum mileage from an adequate investment in physical assets and by harnessing the potential of human capital and technologies. Singapore combined high investment with a comprehensive and complementary strategy of building high quality human and knowledge assets. This approach enabled the three countries to diversify much faster into higher tech manufactures and tradable services and profit from globalization. The approach adopted by these three countries may be of greater relevance in the highly competitive global environment of the early 21st century because it does not necessarily assume heroic levels of investment. Moreover, it may be better tailored to the opportunities for middle and lower middle income economies threatened by the middle income trap and seeking growth rates in the 6 percent range, and for the smaller, late starting, low income countries with youthful, rapidly increasing populations that need to grow at high single digit rates in order to create enough jobs and to double per capita incomes in 10 years.
Some Thoughts on Business Plans
by William A. SahlmanA framework for assessing new business opportunities and the business plans used to describe them is developed. Useful for aspiring entrepreneurs in MBA programs.
Some Uncomfortable Arithmetic Regarding Europe's Public Finances
by Delia VelculescuA report from the International Monetary Fund.
Somebody Else’s Problem: Consumerism, Sustainability and Design
by Robert CrockerGold winner of the AXIOM Business Book Award in the category of Philanthropy, Non-Profit, Sustainability. Please see: http://www.axiomawards.com/77/award-winners/2017-winners Consumerism promises a shortcut to a 'better' life through the accumulation of certain fashionable goods and experiences. Over recent decades, this has resulted in a rising tide of cheap, short-lived goods produced, used and discarded in increasingly rapid cycles, along the way depleting resources and degrading environmental systems.Somebody Else’s Problem calls for a radical change in how we think about our material world, and how we design, make and use the products and services we need. Rejecting the idea that individuals alone are responsible for the environmental problems we face, it challenges us to look again at the systems, norms and values we take for granted in daily life, and their cumulative role in our environmental crisis.Robert Crocker presents an overview of the main forces giving rise to modern consumerism, looks closely at today’s accelerating consumption patterns and asks why older, more ‘custodial’ patterns of consumption are in decline. Avoiding simplistic quick-fix formulas, the book explores recommendations for new ways of designing, making and using goods and services that can reduce our excess consumption, but still contribute to a good and meaningful life.
Somebody in Charge: A Solution to Recessions?
by Pierre LemieuxCould the financial crisis have been prevented with better leadership? This book explores answers to this question from a scholarly and academic economic viewpoint.
Someday Rich
by Matt Smith Timothy NoonanTo truly be successful, today's financial advisor must strike the right balance between effectively engaging with his or her clients and finding meaningful ways to maintain their financial security. By framing your mission in this way, you can help your clients clarify their vision, build a plan to achieve it, and manage that plan so they stay on track.Nobody understands this better than authors Timothy Noonan and Matt Smith--two seasoned financial professionals with over five decades of combined experience working in the asset management business. And now, in Someday Rich, they show financial advisors with clients who are rich, or have the opportunity to become rich, how to sustain a client's desired lifestyle to, and through, retirement.Engaging and informative, Someday Rich provides the context, description, and implementation suggestions for the Personal Asset Liability Model--a process that will allow you to determine a client's funded status relative to their future spending needs as well as develop and monitor their investment plan accordingly. While the methods in the Personal Asset Liability Model may not have been practically accessible to past advisors with a large number of clients, this model now brings together the technical methods to answer important client questions in a way that is feasible and includes the communication strategies that can make the delivery of the advice model more effective.Along the way, this reliable resource discusses the business of giving good advice and addresses how to incorporate these steps into a client engagement road map. Insights on various other issues associated with this discipline are also included, such as how to develop client trust and deliver personalized service when you have so many clients, and contingency risks--life, health, disability, and long-term care--that need to be considered in the financial planning process. And in later chapters, single-topic essays, contributed by experts in the financial planning field, cover issues ranging from target date funds and the investment aspects of longevity risk to modern portfolio decumulation.Building more valuable relationships with your clients is a difficult endeavor. But with Someday Rich, you'll discover what it takes to achieve this goal as you put them on a path to a sustainable financial future.
Something for Nothing: A Novel
by Michael W. KleinA young economic professor's adventures in his quest for a tenure-track position and a well-balanced life. David Fox (Ph.D. Economics, Columbia, Visiting Assistant Professor at Kester College, Knittersville, New York) is having a stressful year. He has a temporary position at a small college in a small town miles from everything except Albany. His students have never read Freakonomics. He thinks he is getting the hang of teaching, but a smart and beautiful young woman in his Economics of Social Issues class is distractingly flirtatious. His research is stagnant, to put it kindly. His search for a tenure-track job looms dauntingly. (The previous visiting assistant professor of economics is now working in a bookstore.) So when a right-wing think tank called the Center to Research Opportunities for a Spiritual Society (CROSS)—affiliated with the Salvation Academy for Value Economics (SAVE)—wants to publish (and publicize) a paper he wrote as a graduate student showing the benefits of high school abstinence programs, fetchingly retitled “Something for Nothing,” he ignores his misgivings and accepts happily. After all, publication is “the coin of the realm,” as a senior colleague puts it. But David faces a personal dilemma when his prized results are cast into doubt. The school year is filled with other challenges as well, including faculty politics, a romance with a Knittersville native, running the annual interview gauntlet, and delivering the culminating “job talk” lecture under trying circumstances. David's adventures offer an instructive fictional guide for the young economist and an entertaining and comic tale for everyone interested in questions of balancing career and life, success and integrity, and loyalty and desire.
Something for Nothing
by Michael W. KleinDavid Fox (Ph. D. Economics, Columbia, Visiting Assistant Professor at Kester College, Knittersville, New York) is having a stressful year. He has a temporary position at a small college in a small town miles from everything except Albany. His students have never read Freakonomics. He thinks he is getting the hang of teaching, but a smart and beautiful young woman in his Economics of Social Issues class is distractingly flirtatious. His research is stagnant, to put it kindly. His search for a tenure-track job looms dauntingly. (The previous visiting assistant professor of economics is now working in a bookstore. ) So when a right-wing think tank called the Center to Research Opportunities for a Spiritual Society (CROSS)--affiliated with the Salvation Academy for Value Economics (SAVE)--wants to publish (and publicize) a paper he wrote as a graduate student showing the benefits of high school abstinence programs, fetchingly retitled "Something for Nothing," he ignores his misgivings and accepts happily. After all, publication is "the coin of the realm," as a senior colleague puts it. But David faces a professional and moral dilemma when he finds that his prized results may just be the consequence of a programming error. The school year is filled with other challenges as well, including faculty politics, a romance with a Knittersville native, running the annual interview gauntlet, and delivering the culminating "job talk" lecture under trying circumstances. David's adventures offer an instructive fictional guide for the young economist and an entertaining and comic tale for everyone interested in questions of balancing career and life, success and integrity, and loyalty and desire.
Something for Nothing: Arbitrage and Ethics on Wall Street
by Maureen O'HaraFrom a leading financial economist, a searching examination of the ethics of modern finance. In 2001, Goldman Sachs structured a complex financial contract so that its client, the government of Greece, would appear to have far less debt than it actually did. When news of this transaction came out years later, the inevitable question arose: Even though Goldman's actions were legal, were they ethically wrong? Is modern finance itself inherently unethical? In Something for Nothing, financial economist Maureen O'Hara explains that one of the key innovations of modern finance is its reliance on arbitrage, the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets to generate profits and remove inefficiencies. When done correctly, arbitrage can create value at little or no cost (in effect, getting "something for nothing"); but it can also be an exploitative tool. In a lucid, insightful discussion of the ethics of arbitrage in modern finance, O'Hara reveals how the rules can often be stretched into still-legal yet highly unethical business practices. Examining key cases in clear and persuasive prose, O'Hara illuminates various aspects of financial ethics, from the Goldman Greek transaction to Lehman Brothers' attempt to cover up its debt, JPMorgan Chase's maneuvers in California's energy markets, Bernie Madoff's trading strategies in the 1980s, high-frequency trading practices, and toxic loans in France. Ultimately, O'Hara turns to philosophy and religion to argue for a new, humanistic approach to ethics in the financial industry. She makes a strong case for a way forward: fewer rules and more standards to foster a morally responsible outlook. Fearlessly raising the questions at the moral heart of our financial system, Something for Nothing is a masterful treatise on the ethics of modern finance.
Something in the City (Routledge Library Editions: Banking & Finance)
by John BennPrompted by the widespread curiosity aroused by the proceedings of the Parker Bank Rate Tribunal, the author has written a non-technical account of daily life in a City office and Boardroom. The author describes the ways in which money is put to work, and explains why the Sterling Area is so important to Britain’s prosperity. He also discusses political developments affecting the City and its future. The book includes references to America and Wall Street.
Something to Believe In: Creating Trust and Hope in Organisations: Stories of Transparency, Accountability and Governance
by Rupesh A. Shah David F. Murphy Malcolm McIntoshIn a world where trust in politicians, corporations and the processes that determine our lives continues to dwindle, this innovative book brings together research, case studies and stories that begin to answer a central question for society: How we can create organisations, institutions, groups and societies that can nurture trusting relationships with one another and among individuals?Something to Believe In provides a fresh take on the corporate responsibility debate, based as it is on the work of key global thinkers on corporate social responsibility, along with a raft of work developed from collaborations between the New Academy of Business and the United Nations Volunteers, UK Department for International Development and TERI-Europe in countries such as Brazil, Nicaragua, Ghana, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Africa. The focus is on business, and particularly how deeper, more systemic changes to current ways of understanding and undertaking business can and have been enacted in both developed countries and in nations where the Western concept of CSR means nothing. The market-based model of economic thinking-the increasingly distrusted globalisation project-which threatens to sweep all before it is challenged by many of the contributions to this book.The book tells stories such as the mobilization of civil society in Ghana to bring business to account; the reorientation of a business school to focus on values; the life-cycle of ethical chocolate; the accountability of the diamond business in a war zone; the need to reinvent codes of conduct for women workers in the plantations and factories of Nicaragua; a Philippine initiative to economically empower former Moslem liberation fighters; and the development of local governance practices in a South African eco-village.The book is split into four sections. "Through Some Looking Glasses" contains short, thought-provoking pieces about the issues of trust, belief and change from writers including Thabo Mbeki, Malcolm McIntosh and a reprinted piece from E.M. Forster. Section Two asks how it will be possible to believe in our corporations and provides new approaches from around the world on how space is being opened up to found businesses that are able to create trust. Section Three examines the role of auditing in fostering trust. Corporations continue to attempt to engender trust through their activities in philanthropy, reporting and voluntary programmes. But, post-Enron et al., even the most highly praised corporate mission statements are tarnished. Can social and environmental audits of corporate reports, codes and practices assuage our doubts about boardroom democracy? Section Four examines alternative forms of accountability, transparency and governance from around the world and offers some different ways of thinking about the practice of creating trust in society.Something to Believe In provides a host of fascinating suggestions about redefining and renewing the underlying deal between society and its organizations. It will become a key text for students, thinkers and practitioners in the field of corporate responsibility.