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In the early 1980s, Missouri's director of early childhood education launched a novel parent education pilot project designed to increase children's kindergarten readiness and support family wellbeing by sending specially trained educators on monthly home visits to help parents foster their babies' early development. By 1985, when an evaluation touted strong results for the pilot, the Missouri legislature already had made the program-dubbed Parents as Teachers-a mandatory offering of school districts statewide. Soon after, the St. Louis-based Parents as Teachers National Center, formed to oversee the state program and respond to outside inquiries, became an independent nonprofit. From the start, the National Center staff built quality controls into program design and the training of parent educators while simultaneously embracing rapid growth; by 1999 Parents as Teachers programs served more than 500,000 children in the US and six foreign countries. But despite such quality control efforts, the flexibility and adaptability that aided fast replication left the National Center with no effective way to manage or monitor the more than 2,000 sites worldwide. As a result, the National Center was forced to take a hard look at its replication model, its oversight role, and at how the center could better monitor and improve program quality. HKS Case Number 1850.0

Established in the late 1960s, Interplast was the first international humanitarian organization to send American medical professionals overseas to provide free reconstructive surgery to children and adults in developing countries. Over the next 30 years, Interplast grew from an informal volunteer-led effort into a professional organization. By 2000, Interplast had over 2500 volunteers, had sponsored trips to 30 countries, and performed over 3000 surgeries each year. This case is intended to be used a background reading for the companion videocase, "The Evolution of Interplast," which details the organization's growth and the debates that arose as it began to shift its focus from direct service (sending surgeons and other medical professionals overseas provide reconstructive surgery) to education, (investing in training foreign doctors) and empowerment (providing resources and infrastructure) so that these local professionals could serve their own population. The videocase chronicles the debate over this shift as well as related policy decisions, raising issues of organizational evolution, strategic change, and nonprofit governance.

The case is set in a large teaching hospital. Students must analyze the actual and forecasted budgets provided for the previous year to identify the financial difficulties of the hospital. They can then solve costing and budgeting exercises. Finally, students may use the data they have generated in the case to prepare a budget for the following year. The case questions cover: revenue and expenditure variance analysis; activity-based costing (cost accounting); and simple capital budgeting problems that can be answered using net present value, IRR, and discount rate techniques. HKS Case Number 1823.0

In 2002, Population Services International (PSI) was committed to curbing the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in India. Sanjay Chaganti, program director of HIV/AIDS at PSI India, has to decide on the best communication strategy to achieve this goal. Up to this date most efforts consisted of on-the-ground efforts by PSI personnel, but Chaganti was considering shifting a significant portion of funds to a provocative mass media advertising campaign. The campaign would feature a fictional character-Balbir Pasha. At one extreme the campaign would impact that target population and lift barriers to safe sex practices. At the other extreme the campaign could be controversial, ineffective, and squander precious resources.

The case describes Shell's evolution within the context of sensitive human rights issues related to oil exploration and exploitation in Nigeria. Given that much of the revenue from Nigerian oil resources was being "siphoned" off by corrupt state governors, the case focuses on issues relevant to government transparency and corruption. It describes Shell's involvement in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and its collaboration with the Nigerian Government to instigate a more transparent reporting on oil revenues. However, since two senior Shell executives involved in EITI and negotiations with the government are about to retire from the company, the prospect of briefing their successors on the complexity of the Nigerian situation brings a number of questions that still remain to be answered "to the table". Learning objective: Participants learn about the invasive nature of corruption and its effect on human rights, but more specifically about the role of a multinational versus the role of the government when trying to deal with such issues. Participants will also learn a great deal about the complexity of sustainability issues for corporations, particularly human rights, issues. There is also learning about the scope and limits of corporate responsibility, and the difficulties that all players face in tough market conditions and a on a "non-level playing field". Participants can develop new insights on ways of operating responsibly, creating valuable partnerships and interacting in a global, but socially responsible, context.

Engaging local stakeholders and building strong relations has become a strategic imperative for multinational firms in the often politically charged mining, oil, and gas sectors. For BHP Billiton, the world's second largest mining company, its Tintaya copper mine in Peru has long been a source of intense conflict. The mine--which was owned and managed first by the Peruvian state, and later by BHP Billiton--stands on land expropriated from local subsistence farmers. In 2000, to contest this loss of land, mining-related environmental degradation, and allegations of human rights abuses, a coalition of five indigenous communities forged an alliance with a group of domestic and international NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) to build their case against BHP Billiton and pursue it directly with the company's Australian headquarters. The outcome of these efforts was the inception of a unique corporate-community negotiation process known as the Tintaya Dialogue Table. In December 2004, after three years of negotiation, BHP Billiton and the five communities signed an agreement compensating families for lost land and livelihoods, and establishing a local environmental monitoring team and community development fund. However, just as the company resolves one conflict, another group of local stakeholders emerges with new demands--demands that this time the company may not be able to meet. The conflict with this new group culminates in a violent takeover of the mine in May 2005, whereupon BHP Billiton staff are forced to shut down operations, abandon the mine site, and devise a new strategy for winning back local support.

Companies are buying millions of dollars' worth of renewable energy credits (RECs) to offset the carbon produced by the electricity they use. But RECs have little effect on the environment, the author says.

Deals with the concept of how to orchestrate a consistent CSR strategy consolidating many diverse social initiatives started within a business group. The CSU-CCA Group (CSU-CCA) is one of the leading retailing businesses in Central America. The Group includes the Corporacion de Supermercados Unidos (CSU), a supermarket chain, and the Corporacion de Companias Agroindustriales (CCA), in charge of fresh- and private-label product storage and distribution for CSU supermarkets. The CSU-CCA Group was involved in several social programs for both its personnel and other members of the communities in which it operated. Some of these programs were institutionalized, while others were not. In some cases, the Group's involvement had stemmed from a personal initiative driven by one of its employees or managers, although the programs were not aligned to company strategies. By mid-2002, the Group made a corporate decision to articulate its social engagements within its business strategy as a means of becoming more effectively involved in the communities in which it operated. Accordingly, in May 2002, the Corporate Affairs Department (CAD) was created to oversee corporate social responsibility issues and external communications with stakeholders. The CAD reported to the CSU-CCA Board Chairman. Discusses the role of Manuel Zuniga, Corporate Affairs Department Director and Social Responsibility Committee member, who, at the next meeting, will need to propose an overall CSR strategy for the Group, including a recommendation as to which social ventures to support and which not to. He would also need to answer other questions: How should the company draw away from the programs it would no longer support while preventing the alienation of those in charge of them? How should CSU-CCA develop future programs? How should it go about raising personnel awareness of, and commitment to, social programs?

When Michael Feinberg and Dan Levin established their fledgling Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) school in Houston in the early 1990s, they hoped only to prove in their own school that a highly-structured and demanding program could lift the academic performance of disadvantaged students. Little more than 10 years later, however, the name KIPP and the approach they had honed had become an education "brand name," used by more than 40 schools overseen by the KIPP Foundation they had helped to establish and operate. This case tells the story of how KIPP grew from a single school to an education franchise, all the while taking steps to ensure that its special approach continued to be employed in schools bearing the KIPP name. More specifically, the case focuses on the relationship between KIPP founders Levin and Feinberg and two key philanthropists, Donald and Doris Fisher, who used the fortune earned in their GAP apparel chain to help the KIPP idea "go to scale." The case focuses on the decisions of Fisher, Feinberg, Levin, and the legal staff of the San Francisco based KIPP Foundation, financed by the Fishers, to ensure that KIPP standards would be maintained at KIPP schools. HKS Case Number 1847.0

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an NGO -headquartered in London and established by WWF and Unilever in 1997 to set up a certification and eco-labeling system for sustainable fishing. The case describes the MSC's initial and more recent challenges including the Tragedy of the Commons, a wide range of less willing stakeholders, and the complexity of certifying fisheries on sustainability criteria. It also outlines management decisions to meet at least some of the challenges: improved transparency and engagement with stakeholders, new governance structures and certification methodologies. Learning objectives: Participants should 1) see the challenges associated with the certification of sustainable business practices (in general and in fisheries in particular); 2) reflect on the institutional dilemma presented by the wide range of often conflicting stakeholder demands; 3) see the necessity to carry out strategic (i.e. focused) stakeholder engagement (find the most important allies) and establish effective governance structures.

This note defines and discusses the measurement of corruption, describes corruption's principal effects on firms and societies, and discusses its relevance of to managers and to the efforts of firms to promote higher living standards throughout the world.

This study of reports in the business news between January 1, 2000 and June 30, 2005 found that as of 1999, 40 corporations in the Fortune 100 had behaved in ways that can be considered unethical. The behavior included three types of fraud (accounting, securities, and consumer), discriminatory practices, undisclosed executive pay, antitrust activities, patent infringement, and other violations of the law. Based on the unacceptability of the misdeeds committed, this article ranks the 40 firms into three categories. Also uses research on business ethics and the behavior of executives, boards of directors, and even government officials to suggest why such unethical behavior was allowed to occur. Concludes with recommendations for improving business behavior and suggests important roles for future business leaders and the broader American public.

Cementos Lima S.A, is a leading organization in the Peruvian cement sector, with 44% of the national market share and a growing presence in certain international markets. Parallel to the growth of the company, population centers have grown up in the areas adjacent to the cement plant. As time goes by, the neighboring communities have come to literally surround Cementos Lima S.A. and have developed a complex relationship with the company. On one hand, the residents in these areas are directly affected by the company's industrial operations, which produce negative effects on the environment. On the other hand, these same individuals benefit from the company's social initiatives over time. As the organization's social actions began to evolve, from disarticulated and basically philanthropic practices towards an attempt at more formal and effective projects in the community, a "breaking point" is produced in the company's management focus. This situation is generated by the company's plans for export growth, which implies physical expansion of their activities, and as a result a larger impact on the surrounding community due to the necessary increase in the transportation flow of primary materials and finished products. To meet its new transportation needs, the company has planned two major projects. Both projects require the approval of the neighboring community, as part of the authorization process established by municipal authorities. In the face of observed reluctance among the neighboring communities to approve these projects, company officials have begun to reexamine the way they have been managing community relations and the importance that these relationships have in achieving their strategic objectives.

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This case study examines-through the lens of governance structure-the evolution of the Central Artery (or "Big Dig") in Boston, a public works project of historic proportion which had the potential to create a green oasis of parks in the heart of downtown. It tells the story of the struggle over who would eventually control and finance the maintenance of the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway-the name given to land created when an elevated highway was dismantled and the roadway rebuilt underground. Those who wanted control, but not necessarily financial responsibility, included the mayor of Boston, the governor, the legislature and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (a quasi-governmental body). Issues of park design entangled with governance questions, leading to a stalemate of nearly 15 years. But in 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) pushed for a resolution so that the Greenway could be dedicated in connection with Boston's role as host of the July Democratic Party presidential convention. Over the years of debate, various models of governance for the Greenway were discussed and dismissed. Some of them involved private sector partners; some did not. Students will have the opportunity to compare and contrast the proposed governance models, judging them on their merits as well as on their political suitability. They will gain insight into the differences in operations and public accountability among a public agency, a foundation, a conservancy or a nonprofit trust. HKS Case Number 1839.0

The case presents CEMEX Mexico's situation in 2004, shortly after its social responsibility committee was created and became operational. Two distinctive stages in SR development are described. During the first stage, the company's SR approach was paternalistic and lacking in strategic meaning. The second stage started as a result of several organizational changes undertaken to streamline SR efforts and to incorporate them into the company's business strategy. This shift was initiated in the late 1990s, when CEMEX reviewed its contingency management processes and fueled the creation of its Social Responsibility Unit, the coordination of community relations and the establishment of its Communications and Social Responsibility Committees. Although social responsibility initiatives had begun to bear fruit, the company faced the challenge of integrating it into its culture. SR was a strategy known mainly to top management, but it was not explicitly embedded in training, recruiting, compensation or performance evaluation practices. This hindered its swift incorporation into the company's organizational culture. The case describes the organizational change process (in terms of strategy, structure and culture) that resulted from SR adoption and the managerial decisions geared at its internalization. There was little evidence to assess how deep this cultural change really was. A personnel survey had revealed that most employees were unaware of CEMEX's community-oriented initiatives. The SR Manager's goal was to turn this issue into a personal trait for both the company and its employees -i.e., to embed it in CEMEX Mexico's DNA. Yet, some members in the organization were still doubtful.

Just five or six years ago, the term "green building" evoked visions of barefoot, tie-dyed, granola-munching denizens. There's been a large shift in perception. Of course, green buildings are still known for conserving natural resources by, for example, minimizing on-site grading, using alternative materials, and recycling construction waste. But people now see the financial advantages as well. Well-designed green buildings yield lower utility costs, greater employee productivity, less absenteeism, and stronger attraction and retention of workers than standard buildings do. Green materials, mechanical systems, and furnishings have become more widely available and considerably less expensive than they used to be--often cheaper than their standard counterparts. So building green is no longer a pricey experiment; just about any company can do it on a standard budget by following the 10 rules outlined by the author. Reliable building-rating systems like the U.S. Green Building Council's rigorous Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program have done much to underscore the benefits of green construction. LEED evaluates buildings and awards points in several areas, such as water efficiency and indoor environmental quality. Other rating programs include the United Kingdom's Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method and Australia's Green Star. Green construction is not simply getting more respect; it is rapidly becoming a necessity as corporations push it fully into the mainstream over the next five to 10 years. In fact, the author says, the owners of standard buildings face massive obsolescence. To avoid this problem, they should carry out green renovations. Corporations no longer have an excuse for eschewing environmental and economic sustainability. They have at their disposal tools proven to lower overhead costs, improve productivity, and strengthen the bottom line.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 906-414.

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This three part case series centers on a new business model developed by Hindustan Lever (HLL) to tap the business and sustainability potentials hidden in rural India. It focuses on a win-win partnership with rural, female self-help groups (SHGs). HLL assists SHGs to access micro credit, which is usually restricted. SHGs in turn buy HLL products and sell them in their villages in a decentralized way, thus creating various opportunities for rural communities such as training and income opportunities for women as well as better overall living conditions for their families. The A-case describes the cornerstones and key decisions reached during the inception phase of the project. It details the value chain and expected deliverables for the stakeholder groups. This first case of the series ends when the system has been set up and launched, but reveals none of the actual results.