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Announcements
- Register Now:
- CCC Global Engagement Program: Conference call to take place
September 1 at 11 a.m. to follow up on May Partnership Conference and to preview Fall CCC activities. Featured Guest: Amir Dossal, executive director of the UN Fund for International Partnerships. Call in information: 866-248-0561 (domestic), 334-309-0334 (international), room number *1813819* (be sure to dial star before and after). Contact ccc@uschamber.com or 202-463-3133 for additional information.
- CCC Business Disaster Assistance Program: Conference call to take place September 7 to discuss next steps in domestic and international disaster aid. Call in information: 866-248-0561 (domestic), 334-309-0334 (international), room number *1813819* (be sure to dial star before and after). Contact ccc@uschamber.com or 202-463-3133 for additional information.
- Visit CCC's new micro site, /ccc/disaster, to access CCC's new tools and resources for business disaster assistance donors.
- The second State of Corporate Citizenship report will be released on September 29. To request a copy, e-mail ctaylor@uschamber.com.
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Newsmaker Interview: Barbara Haight, Stephen Jordan, and Bill Shore Discuss the Launch of the Business Education Network
The Corporate Citizen got a sneak preview of the 2005 Business Education Network (BEN) Summit and launch event, which will take place from October 5–7, 2005, in Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, August 18, 2005, The Corporate Citizen (TCC) talked with:
• Barbara Haight, Community Relations Manager for Booz Allen Hamilton
• Stephen Jordan, Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Citizenship
• Bill Shore, Director of U.S. Community Partnerships for GlaxoSmithKline and BEN Steering Committee Chairman
  
The Corporate Citizen: How did the Business Education Network (BEN) start, and why?
Stephen Jordan: At the end of 2003 as we were finalizing the State of Corporate Citizenship written report, which we conduct with Boston College and The Hitachi Foundation, Bill Shore and I went out for lunch and I shared with him some of the findings from the survey: the business leaders we surveyed, said that education is the #1 social issue that companies feel they can play a role in addressing, the #1 social issue they support philanthropically, and the 4th-most significant social issue affecting long-term competitiveness, after healthcare, energy and the environment, and homeland security.
At the time GlaxoSmithKline was taking a look at their education programs, asking, "How can we make sure we are producing enough math and science graduates to supply the future U.S. workforce."
I told him about CCC's annual Partnership Conference, for which we pick a different theme every year, and suggested that it might make sense in 2004 to pick education. We saw it as a good opportunity to raise awareness about business involvement in education and to discuss ways we could all work together more effectively. The Partnership Conference took place in May 2004 and raised that conversation to a higher level.
TCC: Barbara, how did you get involved with BEN?
Barbara Haight: The reason I went to CCC's Partnership Conference last year was because I was impressed by the senior-level participation that I could see was going to happen. I'd been to dozens of other conferences that focus on education topics but none of those had ever been able to bring to the table senior-level players to talk about issues like CCC did. The conference raised my awareness to a whole new level of who else is out there and what they are doing related to education.
I've always felt very strongly that within business, we compete on one level but we also collaborate quite readily across lines. Education is a common, unifying issue -- none of us own it and we all benefit if we are working together.
From that conference came the idea that we would form the Business Education Network. It's taken us a year to define the mission of this organization and what we want to accomplish. And that's exciting because a lot of organizations aren't built within a year. We've come a long way and are poised with the October Summit to really take the movement of business education partnerships to the next level.
TCC: What was the defining moment during the 2004 Partnership Conference that made all these businesses decide to be involved in education and with BEN?
Jordan: I think the defining moment was when Bob Ingram, the vice chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, said "If we were 14th in the world in basketball, we would be outraged," but we are 14th in math and science and no one cares. Then Bill Bennett from K12 Inc. jumped in and said, "Actually, you're wrong, were not 14th, we're 18th." That got everyone upset – not only were we not doing well, we had gone backwards.
The follow up comment to that was, "Do you mean there are 17 other countries that are spending their money better and getting better results for their education systems than we are?"
That whole chain of conversation seemed to be the defining moment -- you had senior leaders sitting there scratching their heads at the United States' lack of competitiveness.
Haight: I agree with Stephen, I think that was the crystallizing moment because you've got businesses there that would never be satisfied to be 18th or 19th in their field. I think the bottom line is that businesses would never tolerate making a sizable dollar-amount investment in a product that did not turn out to be first class -- certainly not the senior-level business leaders who were present at the conference and that have now joined BEN.
We can't be satisfied as a nation where we stand, and we don't want to tell the educators how to change -- we want to do it in partnership and collaboration.
Bill Shore: Business has been involved with trying to help public education for 20 years, if not longer, since A Nation at Risk came out (in 1983). With BEN, we're trying to build true partnerships so that the education community feels comfortable picking up the phone and calling the business community to say, "We've got some really difficult goals to meet and we need your help."
I can't imagine a single business executive saying no if he or she got a phone call from the superintendent of the local school system asking for help or resources and some employee time. But, rarely does a superintendent pick up the phone and call. We want to build a good level of trust between the education and business communities so that dialogue flows freely.
Companies go to many extremes from a quality standpoint to make sure that every one of our subcontractors is producing a quality product that goes into the overall product. The only exception to that seems to be the public schools where our employees are coming from.
Haight: Businesses are the consumer of the product that is coming out of the educational system and if we can't find qualified workers who are going to be able to come to work in our companies, then the economic engine of our country is going to derail.
Take for example the level of education in some communities. You can't hire the workers who are educated there because the education system is bad. So then you have to import people from other communities but the people don't want to go there because they don't want to send their kids into a sub par education system, or you have to pay them more salary so they can send their kids to private school. It's a vicious cycle in some of these communities.
Shore: One of the questions any company asks before they move into a new community or relocate a plant or a site is, "What's the condition of your public school system?"
Haight: Right.
Shore: It's an economic development issue. Ninety percent of students in the United States are in public schools ... it's one of those things the country has been putting a lot of effort towards, but I don't think there's a good national umbrella organization that brings the business and education communities together to talk about these issues. That's what we are trying to accomplish with BEN.
Haight: There are a lot of locally driven organizations, but not at the national level and not where you get senior-level individuals. That's what I view as the power of BEN -- we're able to bring in senior people to be a part of the solution.
Jordan: One of the things I really like about all the companies and education groups involved in BEN is that everyone wants to win. There's such a positive feeling about all of this. Bill and I have both said that we've never been involved in the development of an organization or a concept to which everyone says "yes."
<Laughing>
Shore: Twenty years ago the public school system in North Carolina was in bad shape. Since former Governor Jim Hunt made education a priority and made it a priority to link up with the business community, North Carolina has been leading the country in terms of improvement efforts. It shows the value of true partnerships.
TCC: What has 2005 been like as far as trying to build trust across the business, education, and government sectors? How is BEN reaching out to partners and potential partners?
Jordan: This year has been what I call the "pre" organizational phase. We've been trying to sketch out who is doing what and identify who the key players are and where the business community is focused in terms of education. We've found that there is a business involved with almost every single aspect of education that you can think of. So this entire year really has been spent trying to figure out how we can bring people together.
Shore: It's really a nice catchall term -- "business involvement in education." Sometimes it means giving students some school supplies; sometimes it goes all the way to the level of policymaking. It runs the gamut.
We want to find out what has worked in different parts of the country with different populations of students. Maybe we don't need to create another new program but we need to find out what works, duplicate it, and let the educators know that we can help them find what works. We're not pros in education but we're not isolated from our school systems.
Jordan: What Booz Allen Hamilton is doing for BEN is really amazing. They are designing the BEN website. Barbara, I have to say, your team is really doing something great with that!
Haight: Thank you. What's exciting about the BEN web portal is it's going to provide a collaborative space where people can come to not only get best-practice ideas, but also share them. It's going to be an interactive site. We're going to invite businesses and educators, even parents and families, to weigh in on issues they think are important or best-practice opportunities.
TCC: So when will the portal be available?
Haight: It's going to be showcased at the October Summit. That will be the unveiling. CCC has taken on the challenge to continue to grow the amount of data and maintain the site so it will be in a constant state of improvement.
Jordan: Absolutely.
TCC: Let's pretend that we are approaching the fall of 2006. What do you hope will have happened with BEN in the year between now and then?
Shore: One of the priorities should be making sure there's awareness in the business and education communities that a lot of support exists out there and a lot of resources can be drawn from to help educate kids. I think as we move forward we'll be able to see more and more how those resources fit together in local communities and on statewide levels. Do you agree with that, Stephen?
Jordan: Yes, I think awareness is going to be really important. I think also getting people to identify and coalesce around best practices will be important. I said before that business are all over the map with the ways they get involved in education, but there are significant numbers of businesses that are interested in things like literacy, math and science, closing the achievement gap, or working with teachers, superintendents, and educators to enhance their productivity and effectiveness.
TCC: Are there subcommittees within BEN that address certain topics like literacy or math and science or other issues in which businesses might be interested?
Jordan: I think we are moving in that direction.
Shore: If you look at a company like GlaxoSmithKline, it takes 14 years to get one drug on the market -- the same amount of time it takes a student starting kindergarten to graduate from high school and get started on college or finish community college. So it's a long-term effort for us. We just have to hang in there for the long-term. GSK wants to see many more kids interested in pursing careers in the sciences because that's the lifeline of our entire industry. We're going to hire employees from somewhere, and it sure would be a lot better if we could home grow our own.
Haight: We're hoping to see that people involved with BEN will coalesce around an education theme that is of the most interest to them, or on which they've been working or have expertise or existing partnerships, or on which they feel more emphasis should be placed. Like Bill said, in his case it's math, science, and engineering. For another company it might be closing the achievement gap or literacy. A lot of that is driven by areas in which they're already making a difference.
Shore: Everything Barbara mentioned all ties in together because you are not going to do well in math and science if you can't read. A lot of remedial work goes on in community colleges, in corporations …
Haight: Right.
Shore: A lot of kids come out of high school and can't read and understand technical manuals.
Haight: Nor can they write … we have to have courses for writing for business because they are not learning it in school. Every once in a while a well educated person comes in and knows how to write or reason or problem solve ...
Shore: We always tend to harp on the negative statistics, which we need to continue to do, but there are a lot of extremely good teachers and students working hard and doing really well, and we need to find out why they are doing well. I would think a lot of it has to do with home life issues, to be honest. We need to concentrate on the kids who come from home lives that aren't conducive to learning. That's a huge opportunity for businesses to be involved in helping these students, for instance, through the Communities in Schools program. It just takes one adult in the life a kid to turn things around.
Haight: You need to bring everyone who is a potential solution to the table and get them to own a piece of the solution. That's what BEN is trying to do.
Shore: If I had one wish come true, it would be that education leaders leave the BEN Summit and go back to their local communities -- none of the success happens at the national level, all of the success has to happen in individual classrooms -- and pick up the phone to tell a company in their community where they need help.
Jordan: The fact that educators are willing to come to the BEN Summit and engage with companies is really exciting and encouraging.
Haight: Let's not leave out the other piece of this, and that's the policymakers. I've been very heartened by the CCC because you've been able to engage the federal government and governors, people who are able to influence policy. None of us can do this without their collaboration and cooperation, and certainly we want to support their goals. For example, the No Child Left Behind Act -- show us how businesses can help make that a reality.
Jordan: If we can start to align policy and practice and start channeling all the strategic tools we have — the ability to communicate, our partnerships, our volunteer activities, our programmatic expertise, our process management, our policy -- and get those resources to gel, we can definitely move up the world education rankings. We would be much more competitive than we already are.
Haight: That's the mix for the holistic, systemic change. Everyone has to be a part of it.
Shore: And for us to move up the rankings, we have to make sure we are focusing on those kids that have a hard time. The higher performing kids are already performing, and we can always encourage them to do better. But, if we are going to make a huge difference in how we rank then we're going to have to make a difference at all levels of our socio-economic groups.
TCC: We've talked about a lot of the challenges we face, we've talked about some of the contributions that businesses can make and how we're hoping to bring everyone together in October at the BEN Summit. My last question is do you really think the problem with the education system can be fixed -- and will be fixed?
Shore: Yes. I've seen it fixed in some specific areas. I've seen what happens when a leader like Jim Hunt takes over a state and I've seen good things happen in situations that were once very difficult. But we won't succeed if we just start and stop. It's going to take strong leadership at certain levels. It's got to be like when we were beaten in the space race (by the Soviet Union in the 1950s). There has to be an incredible commitment by this country to make sure all kids can succeed; otherwise, our jobs are going to go elsewhere.
Haight: I don't think I could say that any better. I'm with you, Bill.
Jordan: You say you want to fix education and that sounds like you want to shovel the ocean with a pail. But the thing is, if you were to look at the mountain top from ground zero, you could say, "I'm never going to climb that mountain." But you can take a step, and then a second and a third step. Each step alone may not get you to the peak but it's taking you a step closer to doing something. If you've got the capability to do something and you know you can do better, then why not? I think that's what everybody is starting to ask — why can't we make a difference?
Shore: And to use that same analogy, there have been a lot of steps up that mountain over the years. You've got leaders who come and go, superintendents who leave every three years, and governors who leave every four years. But you've always got a business community that's there. We have to continue moving ahead with the good things that work and not let a change in leadership get us off track.
Haight: I'd like to go back and emphasize something that Stephen said, which is something that is very much a part of the companies that have already come together around BEN. It's not about saying "why," it's about saying "why not." That's very important.
Shore: That's a great point. All of us have been involved in this for so long, and the thing that I really hope comes of BEN is a spirit of true partnership that will result in significant increases in student achievement.
TCC: Can I have a preview of the BEN Summit? Who do you expect to be there?
Jordan: We are going to do a tribute to Governor Hunt in honor of the tremendous accomplishments in education in North Carolina. We are going to have a keynote address from Raymond Simon, the deputy secretary of education, and a video presentation from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. We'll have a number of superintendents from across the country. We'll have leading companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Booz Allen Hamilton, Standard & Poor's, State Farm, Office Depot, Target, Marriott, Siemens, General Electric, Microsoft, IBM. You're going to get a nice cross section of American industry.
It's going to be the start of really promoting what we said we would, which is more communication, more collaboration, and more coordination.
Haight: The three Cs, that's what we're aiming for.
TCC: How can someone find out more information on the BEN Summit?
Jordan: Go to CCC's website at /ccc/ and follow our Events page. There's also a link to more information from the home page.
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CCC News
Business Education Network to Launch at October Summit
The BEN Summit, from October 5–7 at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C., will bring together business leaders and their education partners from across the United States. 
October 5th will feature a tribute dinner to former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt. October 6th will feature distinguished speakers such as Tom Vander Ark (executive director, Gates Foundation), Paul Vallas (CEO, the School District of Philadelphia), and many others discussing how to promote better business and education partnerships now. October 7th will feature the unveiling of the new BEN web site and will create a forum for discussion on ways to make the education system more competitive and adaptable to address future needs.
Other featured speakers include:
- Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent, San Francisco Unified School District
- Michael Cohen, President, Achieve, Inc.
- John Downs, SVP of Public Relations and Communications, Coca-Cola
- Tom Houlihan, Council of Chief State School Officers
- Bob Ingram, Vice Chairman of Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline
- Michael Kimsey, Executive Director, Kimsey Foundation
- Janet Knupp, President, The Chicago Public Education Fund
- U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Raymond Simon
Roundtables and strategy working sessions will include topics such as:
- Strategies for building successful business education partnerships
- Closing the achievement gap
- Advancing math, science, and technology competitiveness
- Advancing class room and school district competitiveness
BEN is a CCC-staffed coalition of business leaders and education service providers who want to improve the competitiveness of U.S. schools. Bill Shore, director of U.S. community partnerships for GlaxoSmithKline, serves as the 2005 steering committee chairperson.
BEN founding members and partners include: Booz Allen Hamilton, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, KPMG Foundation, Office Depot, Progress Energy, Siemens Foundation, Standard & Poor's, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and many others.
To register for the BEN Summit, visit CCC's events Web page at /ccc/events/default, or for more information, contact CCC at 202-463-3133 or ccc@uschamber.com.
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2005 Finalists for Corporate Citizenship Awards Reflect Wide Range of Corporate Contributions to Society
On August 4, CCC announced the finalists in the 2005 Corporate Citizenship Awards competition. They are:
- U.S. Community Service Award: Capital One, GlaxoSmithKline, Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce, Weyerhaeuser Company, and Xerox Corporation
- International Community Service Award: Alticor, Inc., CEMEX, DHL, International Paper, and the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines
- Corporate Stewardship Small-/Mid-sized Business Award: Citizens Financial Group, Hi-Tec Systems, Inc., International Bank of Commerce, PAETEC Communications, SAP America, Inc., and Stanley Consultants
- Corporate Stewardship Large Business Award: General Electric, Safeway, SBC Communications, United Technologies, and UPS
This year, the Citizenship in Action Award will be presented as a special tribute to the community of U.S. businesses that contributed to the relief and reconstruction efforts following the December 26, 2004, tsunami. Collectively, the U.S. private sector has mobilized nearly $570 million in cash donations, in-kind products and services, employee-matching campaigns, and employee volunteer hours.
"The Corporate Citizenship Awards are an opportunity for businesses of all sizes operating here in the United States to receive recognition for the good work they do in their communities," said Stephen Jordan, CCC executive director. "We think the competition this year really demonstrated that for many companies doing well and doing good go hand in hand."
Presenters at the 2005 Awards Dinner will include U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, and past Corporate Citizenship Awards winners.
To register to attend the Awards Dinner, visit CCC's events Web page at /ccc/events/default, or for more information, contact CCC at 202-463-3133 or ccc@uschamber.com. Top
Planning and Collaboration Are Key to Effective Disaster Aid, Leaders Tell CCC Forum
On July 12, CCC hosted the "Disaster Assistance and Public-Private Partnership" forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The event brought together leaders from the business, government, and NGO sectors to discuss how to make disaster response more coordinated and effective. The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons and the December 26, 2004, tsunami in Southeast Asia made apparent this need for inter-sector communication and cooperation.
 Headlining the forum was James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and chairman and CEO of James Lee Witt Associates, LLC, a disaster recovery and mitigation management services firm. He said that the costs of natural disasters skyrocketed in the 1990s and are expected to exceed $250 billion in this decade. Since disasters are inevitable, planning and coordination take on a new urgency in light of the magnitude of these costs.
Forum panel discussions centered on domestic and international disaster assistance. Brad Gair from FEMA, Diana McClure from the Institute for Business and Home Safety, Alan McCurry from the American Red Cross, and Katherine Pickus from Abbott Laboratories participated in the domestic disaster assistance panel discussion, moderated by CCC Executive Director Stephen Jordan.
Mr. Gair acknowledged the importance of businesses in disaster response efforts, saying, "On the way down to Florida [for last year's hurricanes], the first call I made was to the Department of Homeland Security Private Sector Office to say we would need to help."
The panel discussion ended with resounding agreement that the sectors must get to know each other and learn to trust each other through collaborative successes so that future disaster response is effective.
The international panel featured Robert Bellhouse of the World Economic Forum's Disaster Resource Network, John Castellani from the Business Roundtable, Scott Fasnacht from the UPS Foundation, and Ken Isaacs from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Similar to the domestic panel discussion, lessons learned from the December 26, 2004, tsunami -- one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history -- included the importance of building strong partnerships among governments, NGOs, and businesses before disasters strike.
The forum concluded with a presentation from Chris Kelly of Booz Allen Hamilton, who gave a report from a July 11 "Disaster Simulation Exercise" that CCC co-hosted. Mr. Kelly illustrated the effective disaster relief and recovery cycle, which stresses planning and preparedness. Recommendations from the exercise included strengthening local capacity, forging donor-business partnerships, and establishing employment mechanisms for displaced disaster victims.
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CCC Launches New Disaster Aid Tools
Check out the CCC's new tools and resources for private-sector disaster assistance providers and their nonprofit and government partners:
For more information on these tools or CCC's Business Disaster Assistance Program, visit /ccc/disaster.
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U.S. Chamber and Others Focus on Cultivating Next Generation of Scientists and Engineers
 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 14 other prominent business organizations have partnered together with the aim of doubling within 10 years the number of U.S. college students who attain bachelor's degrees in engineering, math, science, and technology. The group issued a call to action to the business sector, federal and state governments, and the education community to begin immediate implementation of various recommendations, including:
- Developing a public-private partnership to execute the National Education for Innovation Initiative
- Motivating U.S. students and adults to pursue careers in engineering, math science, and technology
- Reforming teaching at the K-12 levels to foster higher student achievement
- Reforming visa and immigration policies so the United States can attract students from round the world to study engineering, math, science, and technology and then retain them as workers
Visit the U.S. Chamber's website to read the organizations' statement, "Tapping America's Potential," in its entirety. For more information on the U.S. Chamber's commitment to improving the competitiveness of the nation's school system, contact Jacque Johnson, executive director of workforce policy, at jjohnson@uschamber.com.
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Guest Editorial:
Why We Care: Corporate America's Stake in Saving Our Schools
By David T. Kearns
Two great new books appear to have been required summer reading for a number of my friends … You can't get on an airplane or go to the beach without seeing someone reading Clyde Prestowitz's "Three Billion New Capitalists" or "The World is Flat," by Thomas Friedman. Somehow, macro-economic theory has entered mainstream America, and both books have been on the New York Times and Washington Post best-seller lists for months.
The fact that these important books are being so widely read is a pleasant surprise to me — both are sobering wake-up calls to every American about the direction of our country's economy and workforce. Every day, we are slowly losing the critical edge that has made us a global economic super-power for almost 100 years. More In reading either of these books, you can't help but be scared of the emergence of new economies and the gradual drain of our own intellectual capital and workforce dominance in key sectors. There is growing realization that just as countries such as China, India, and Singapore are making giant leaps forward with their own workforces and technologies, we are losing those same resources, which have allowed us to drive the world's economy and have afforded us the world's highest standard of living.
Yet the root of these challenges -- the way we educate our children and prepare them for the global economy -- has never been a true national priority. In fact, we don't even have a "national" education system in this country -- we have more than 15,000 autonomous school districts that are responsible for their own progress.
I care about education because our economy, livelihoods, businesses, and our very democracy depend upon the outputs of our schools: well educated individuals who are ready to compete in the global economy. In the 1980s when I was chairman and CEO of Xerox, it was evident that Japan and Germany were aggressively investing in their education system as a means to challenge our dominance in key industries and technologies. By 1983, a presidential report called A Nation at Risk served as a call to arms -- the United States was at risk of losing its edge in the development of key technologies. In 1989, all 50 of the nation's governors met with urgency to establish the National Education Goals, outlining 10 critical benchmarks where the United States needed to be by the year 2000 in order to maintain our predominance as the world's economic leader. And during this time, America allocated almost twice as much as other industrialized nations (that also regularly beat us in international academic competition) towards our failing school system.
Unfortunately, none of these goals were met, and now for the first time, China is graduating more students with engineering degrees than is the United States. In a way, we are victims of our own success -- we have helped build and promote a truly global economy based on market capitalism, trade, technology, intellectual property, and innovation, yet we have failed to make the improvements to our own education system that provide the workforce for our team on the field.
However, there is in fact much good news. First, education reform is no longer just the domain of professional educators. Americans have come to realize that their own quality of life -- and that of their children -- depends on the ability of our schools to prepare our children for the global workforce and economy, and that our "human capital" is our greatest strategic resource. Second, business and non-profits have proven that they can make a difference. In fact, we now know that their involvement is essential to successful reforms. And third: we know what works. While systemic change has been brutally slow, there have been very successful models of innovation and reform that have in fact taken hold in many schools across our country. We don't need to re-invent the wheel. So what do we need to do to make this a national priority and success? In a system of locally controlled and autonomous school districts, how can we ensure that our schools are again graduating students who are ready to lead the world's economy and workforce?
The answer lies in partnerships among educators, innovators, businesses, and non-profits. We build teams every day in our businesses to solve problems and develop new ideas. We now know that this is the only way to adopt innovation in education, as well. As business leaders, we have a vested interest in proven designs, and we need to invest in them. Educators and innovators need our help to force change through our school systems. The truth is, every day, innovations in education are succeeding all around us. Our role as business and foundation leaders is to seek out the best and brightest and build the team needed to adapt these ideas in our own community. The ideas are out there. The innovators want our help. And our businesses and workforce depend on the output of these schools. We have a vested interest in their success.
In the coming months, I will be partnering with the Center for Corporate Citizenship (CCC) of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its Business Education Network (BEN) to help highlight these ideas that work, and to encourage businesses and non-profits to work with them to bring about honest reform in our schools. We need to shine a light on such successful partnerships and give these stakeholders the tools they need to bring innovation into their own communities. I applaud the CCC and BEN for stepping up to this challenge.
David T. Kearns is former chairman (1985-1991) and CEO (1982-1990) of the Xerox Corporation and former deputy U.S. secretary of education in the George H. W. Bush Administration (1991-1993).
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Short Takes
CCC Out and About. CCC Executive Director Stephen Jordan spoke at the Conference Board's Corporate Community Involvement Conference in Chicago on the topic "Next Steps for Business and Education Partnerships" on July 27 (view his presentation [PDF]). ... Mr. Jordan also participated as one of five judges who selected America's "Most Deserving Small Business." Xerox Corporation and Entrepreneur magazine held the contest to determine the country's top small business in terms of giving back to its community -- and in terms of significant need for an overhaul of office space and technology capabilities. The panel of judges selected Milwaukee-based Sprecher Brewing Co., whose office renovation was revealed on August 17 on NBC's "Today Show."
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Social Indicators. Report Card Out for No Child Left Behind Act -- The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) has released new long-term trend data that show that reading and math scores among Caucasian, Hispanic, and African-American 9-year-old and 13-year-old students have reached an all-time high. Visit NAGB's Web site NAGB's Web site to view more results.
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Initiatives. Wachovia Awards Millions in Support of Student Achievement -- Financial services provider Wachovia Corporation gave 23 nonprofit organizations nearly $15 million as part of its Teachers and Teaching Initiative (TTI). To read more about TTI, visit http://www.wachovia.com/inside/page/0,,139_414_430_6336,00.html.
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Partnerships and Coalitions. Warming Up to SOX? After three years, companies still give mixed reviews about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) legislation. Business software company Approva Corporation recently released the findings from a survey of 200 financial officers that revealed that 87 percent of the respondents consider SOX a "top priority" for their corporate boards. But, Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of data storage provider Network Appliance, said government regulations such as SOX "have had a tremendously burdensome impact on U.S. enterprises because they have imposed requirements that are complex, costly, confusing and often contradictory." Mr. Warmenhoven and other technology leaders have formed the Compliance and Management of Electronic Information (CMEI) Working Group of public- and private-sector stakeholders. ... Promoting Effective Volunteers -- After a year in the making, The UPS Foundation, The Home Depot, and Capital One Financial have in partnership launched the IMPACT Fund, which will award grants to national and local nonprofit organizations to help them manage their volunteers more effectively. The Fund will encourage nonprofits to collaborate with each other to achieve goals and execute missions that were previously tackled independently.
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Publications: A Plethora of New CSR Reports
Also, check out the website for the new Nonprofit Congress. The United Nations Global Compact's second Compact Quarterly just came out, too.
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Events. The inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative will take place in New York City from September 15 – 17, 2005. ... The National Conference on Citizenship's annual conference will be held on September 19, 2005, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., and will feature a presentation by The Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli on corporate citizenship.
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White House Backs Corporate–Faith-Based Summit Next Year. On July 25, President George W. Bush committed to hosting a March 2006 summit convening leaders from both the business and religious communities.
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People. On July 28, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Professor John Ruggie was appointed as special representative to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the issues of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. He will remain at his Harvard post, where he teaches on issues related to global governance. Previously, Mr. Ruggie assisted the secretary-general with the development of the Global Compact and the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals. ... Former senior White House advisor Karen Hughes was just confirmed as under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.
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In Memoriam. Arthur Fletcher, former chairman of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), passed away in July at the age of 80. Among many accomplishments and contributions for which he deserves credit, Mr. Fletcher is known as "The Father of Affirmative Action" and is remembered for coining the phrase "a mind is a terrible thing to waste." Read NBCC's tribute to Mr. Fletcher here. ... John H. Johnson, founder, publisher, and chairman of Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., died on August 8 in Chicago at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was 87. Read more here.
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Send your news and reports to ccceditor@uschamber.com.
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CCC Quiz
What do Cassius Clay, Datsun, and CCC have in common?
E-mail your answer to ccceditor@uschamber.com, or find out the answer in the next issue of The Corporate Citizen!
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To support the CCC's program of work or to sponsor the BEN Summit or the Corporate Citizenship Awards Dinner, contact Rebecca Freyvogel at rfreyvogel@uschamber.com. It is through support like yours that CCC exists!
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