Miami-Dade County led the work to get South Florida designated a national climate resilience tech hub, the only one of 31 focused on climate change, an urgent major issue for the region in light of global warming and sea level rise. Venture capitalists saw the potential but not many investable ventures; some entrepreneurs created scalable ventures but without much regional support; economic development agencies were not yet fully building the ecosystem or just getting started. Most wanted more from government, higher education, and others. The label "climate tech hub" had to be backed by specific proposals to attract available funding. What are the gaps and missing ingredients? What actions might fill the gaps?

Miami-Dade County led the work to get South Florida designated a national climate resilience tech hub, the only one of 31 focused on climate change, an urgent major issue for the region in light of global warming and sea level rise. Venture capitalists saw the potential but not many investable ventures; some entrepreneurs created scalable ventures but without much regional support; economic development agencies were not yet fully building the ecosystem or just getting started. Most wanted more from government, higher education, and others. The label "climate tech hub" had to be backed by specific proposals to attract available funding. What are the gaps and missing ingredients? What actions might fill the gaps?

To activate the first wind turbines in the ocean off Martha's Vineyard eventually supplying clean energy to 400,000 households, Vineyard Wind's leaders had to navigate the permitting process, numerous delays, and objections from stakeholders in three communities: Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket islands near where power originated; Cape Cod where cables reached land and power stations; and mainland New Bedford where a new green industry was part of its economic development plan. Issues included marine mammals, birds, fishing grounds, sacred Indigenous People's areas, views, beach disruption, worker training, and union jobs. Solutions included new technology, community investments, settlements with unions, community meetings, and relationships with government officials, but there were financial costs as well as delays. Significant as the first commercial-sized offshore wind farm in North America, Vineyard Wind I was co-owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a financial fund, and Avangrid, an energy supplier and main venture operator. Pedro Azagra, Avangrid CEO, spent a great deal of time with government officials seeking support. How effective were the actions, and would they help the next projects achieve the goal of more clean energy for Massachusetts and New England?

Founder Duncan McIntyre developed an innovative service-based business to electrify transportation fleets for school districts and scale through public-private partnerships while contributing to climate change solutions. The case covers the rationale for electric school buses, the leadership of its founder, its growth from one customer to many over five years, and relationships with multiple stakeholders in a complex system. Highland Electric Fleets contracted with school districts in the U.S. and Canada to supply and service electric school buses, offering to lower costs for the districts, even those who were not climate action supporters. Ancillary benefits included providing power back to the electric grid, reducing the use of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases, and cleaner air for children. But just as McIntyre was envisioning expanding to electrify other transportation fleets, supply chain challenges leave McIntyre with the dilemma of how to deal with the possible defection of its largest customer because of buses failing to be delivered in time.

This case explores retailer Best Buy's decision to enter health care. Best Buy Health aims to enable care at home across three prongs: consumer health, active aging, and virtual care. A key pillar of Best Buy Health's strategy is leveraging the Geek Squad-the company's technical support agents who install technology and media products in the home-to set up remote patient monitoring devices for people with a chronic disease or those enrolled in a hospital-at-home program. Set in April 2023, the case finds senior company leaders reviewing the results of a pilot with Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System evaluating whether Geek Squad agents can safely expand timely access to care.

The Miccosukee Indians, a small tribe of indigenous people in South Florida, have a long-standing interest in protecting the land, waterways, and habitats of the Everglades, their ancestral home, which serves as a watershed for urban areas in Miami-Dade County and a defense against climate change. For many years, the Everglades were threatened by suburban development and oil drilling. Recently, tribal members had engaged in various actions to increase awareness and reduce harm, including a protest march, use of the arts, and restoring habitats for fish, while also lobbying public officials and joining with environmental groups. Now, Curtis Osceola, chief of staff to the newly elected tribal chairman, assessed the value of actions to date and considered wanted what kinds of coalitions the tribe should join or convene for greater impact on Everglades restoration and climate change mitigation.

Colette Phillips' marketing firm had just won the City of Boston's 2nd largest contract in history to a Black-owned company. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Get Konnected!, the networking organization for people of color that she founded 15 years earlier and led to prominence, had evolved into a portfolio of 5 ventures, including executive recruiting and a VC fund, to remove systemic barriers to equity and inclusion in business and wealth creation in a long-racially-troubled region where she had also experienced discriminatory barriers. A strong commitment to partnerships, some controversial, had extended her reach, and Boston was changing, including its first elected female mayor of color. How could Phillips assess her impact as a leader, given the magnitude of the problems? What was the role of networking in increasing the numbers of successful minority and female small businesses? Was she contributing to changing the narrative and building new institutions? In addition to the 4 N's of numbers, narratives, networks, and new institutions, how else could she capitalize on the region's momentum, and determine what to do next with her platform to ensure a more equitable and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem?

The Miami metropolitan area is a global epicenter of climate risk from heat and sea level rise, but leaders have only recently mobilized for action to respond to this systemic challenge. Resilient 305 began a collaboration across officials in the cities of Miami and Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County, with some community leaders, but action has been slow. The case identifies the actions and concerns of (a) public sector officials (Mayors and new Chief Resilience Officers), concerned with infrastructure; (b) community activists (grass roots advocacy organizations) concerned with immediate resident issues like electric utility bills in a region with large income disparities; and (c) business leaders (real estate developers and climate technology entrepreneurs) who seek growth and economic returns. Can their interests be aligned, and new collaborations forged to accelerate climate action for both short-term and longer-term goals?

This background Note introduces the implications of climate change (global warming) for American cities. In the U.S., partisan political divides and unaddressed economic and racial disparities in climate vulnerabilities can inhibit action. The two main fronts for action are mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (preparing for change by building resilience). The Note reviews main sources of emissions - energy, buildings, transportation, waste - and examples of mitigation actions, showing differential costs and impact. Adaptation actions depend on geographic location and specific climate hazards, with resilience of infrastructure and institutions a major factor. The most risk-prone are often the least prepared. Crises tend to propel action, and foundations have facilitated adaptation capacity, but leadership challenges require cross-sector goal-setting and collaboration.

Traditionally, responses to crises and societal problems--the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters, racial inequities--are considered the responsibility of the public sector and NGOs. But addressing the world's most critical problems requires leadership, resources, and skills beyond those of any single organization, industry, sector, or government. What's needed, the authors argue, is high-impact coalitions--an emerging organizational form that reaches across boundaries of business, governments, and NGOs. Although public-private partnerships have existed for some time in various forms, large cross-sector, multistakeholder initiatives are newly resurgent and not yet widely understood. They are more voluntary and relationship-based than formal organizations but more task-directed than networks. They connect otherwise disparate spheres of activity that bear on big problems by aligning powerful actors behind a purpose-driven mission. Once underway, they can harness and utilize capabilities quickly and flexibly. This article describes the features of high-impact coalitions and sets out five principles that make the difference between success and failure.

In 2021, new CEO Karen Lynch (named the most powerful woman in business) considered the next transformation phase for CVS Health (a Fortune 5 corporate giant. The 2018 acquisition of Aetna insurance brought her to the company as part of its long evolution from a pharmacy chain to a multi-faceted health benefits and services provider. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated innovation and improvisation, with quick launching of testing and, later, vaccination, as well as new products, services, and in-store clinics. Now the question was how to continue transforming itself and health care delivery in America.

After succeeding long-time CEO Maurice Levy as top leader of the world's third largest advertising, marketing, and communications company, headquartered in France, Arthur Sadoun accelerates digital transformation through a new platform drawing on talent from any of the formerly autonomous agencies and completes a reorganization to integrate the company by geography rather than brand. With Levy's mentoring, Sadoun must maintain morale during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue navigating change. This is the latest in a series of cases tracking milestones in the building of Publicis Groupe.

On January 31, 2017, The Carlyle Group ("Carlyle") closed its $3.2 billion acquisition of Atotech, an international Specialty Chemicals and Equipment company. In Carlyle's Washington, DC headquarters, the US-based deal team - Martin Sumner, Greg Nikodem, Tanaka Maswoswe (HBS '10), and Luke Mehmeti (HBS '20) - breathed a sigh of relief as they reflected on the prior six months, shepherding the opportunity through a competitive bidding process and numerous international regulatory approvals to a signed and completed transaction. Getting the deal over the finish line had required a monumental, cross-border effort, with close collaboration among the US team, European buyout colleagues Friedel Drees and Willi Westenberger, and Asian buyout colleagues Herman Chang and Yi Yu. They all knew, however, that the real work lay ahead: executing on the transformation plan developed during the many months of diligence.

Four diverse women entrepreneurs launched their ventures in a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem that was part of a shift to a creative technology-driven economy for Miami. Although Miami was rated the #1 U.S. city for startups in 2017, the region contained structural barriers and cultural biases unfriendly to women and people of color, including lack of access to capital and relationships. The case highlights women founders' backgrounds and experiences with an ed-tech startup, a coding school and events for Black entrepreneurs; an incubator for green businesses with a Black leadership focus; and an accelerator for social impact ventures that also runs social media campaigns for problems such as climate change. The women CEOs reveal the barriers they faced, how they overcame them, and how they attempt to enrich the ecosystem for other women and people of color. This case raises the question of what must be in place for cities to take advantage of the innovation and job-creating potential of a wider population of entrepreneurs and gain the benefits of diversity, and for women founders to thrive.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. David Ansell, Darlene Hightower, and Ayesho Jaco, leaders of West Side United (WSU), a coalition of Chicago hospitals, community residents, banks, and small businesses conceived in 2016, reviewed progress toward WSU's goal of ending systemic racism, particularly racial disparities in health, longevity, and economic prosperity. WSU was also the focal point for Chicago's Racial Equity Rapid Response team in the coronavirus crisis. The key leaders pondered next steps including renewing commitments from hospital partners and making it a stand-alone non-profit organization.

One of the most influential management thinkers of our time, Harvard Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, shares insights from her latest book. In an increasingly interconnected world, she describes the importance of recognizing that businesses are dependent upon the communities in which they operate. As a result, thinking 'outside the building' is a new leadership imperative-during and after COVID-19.

Mary Guerrero was a first-generation Latina and an investment banking analyst at a top tier bank on Wall Street-Bulge Bracket Bank (BBB). She was committed to increasing representation of Latinx talent at her firm. She was already doing a lot of individual work to make this happen (e.g. reviewing candidate resumes at 2am after she had finished her assigned work). She wanted to scale her efforts and debated whether she should build a broader coalition to move the needle on Latinx talent representation despite having a demanding full-time workload.

Mary Guerrero decided to pursue the challenging road and kicked off Hispanic/Latinx Advancement and Career Engagement (HACE) at her Bulge Bracket Bank (BBB). For Mary, her larger purpose was to advance Latinx talent in the U.S. because she believed it was important for leadership at major U.S. firms to mirror the composition of the country. With Latinx representing almost 18.3% of the U.S. population but only holding 3.8% of board seats, she saw a problem that needed to be addressed. She understood what getting a job at a prestigious Bulge Bracket Bank on Wall Street meant for a Latinx. It meant not only learning hard skills like financial modeling but also earning credibility. Mary's life journey from growing up in a low-income neighborhood to earning a coveted spot on Wall Street was difficult and she wanted to make that path easier for others.

Beginning in March 2020, Sesame Workshop navigated a global pandemic and racial justice crisis, which caused unemployment, business shutdowns, school closures, and remote work. The CEO and team responded with new partnership using its assets and reinforcing its mission, including allying with CNN to produce free informational TV specials for children and their families and redoubling efforts to provide education to children in refugee camps. Sesame's culture of confidence helped it support its constituencies through the crises.

In 2019, Sesame Workshop celebrated its 50th anniversary while on a winning streak of social impact, innovation, and peak media and financial results. Over the past four years, CEO Jeff Dunn and his turnaround team exhibited values-driven leadership, instituted cultural changes, and pursued opportunities to further Sesame's mission, including the inaugural MacArthur 100&Change award to tackle the worldwide refugee crisis in partnership with the International Rescue Committee. The $100 million winning project, Ahlan Simsim, was the largest early childhood program created in a humanitarian setting. By early 2020, Sesame had a mission-aligned culture that laid the groundwork to make kids smarter, kinder, and stronger.