Michael Porter sets agenda for 2011

Sure to be a must-read piece for those involved in corporate communications, financial PR, corporate governance and public affairs, is an article by Professor Michael Porter and colleague Mark Kramer in this month's Harvard Business Review.  Famous for his work on competitive forces and industrial clusters, Porter is damning on business, short termism and failure to put society or "shared value" at the heart of its business activites.
 Michael Porter.

"The capitalist system is under siege. In recent years business increasingly has been viewed as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely perceived to be prospering at the expense of the broader community."  A major theme of the article is the concept of "shared value" which the authors say is not CSR or philanthropy but "reconnecting business with social progress."

Coming from the pen of such a leading figure in business strategy, and in a leading business publication, the article is sure to put more focus on the stakeholder/shareholder debate; and also the more modern framing of the argument around concepts such as sustainability and the need for organisations to think about and implement such concepts in a more fundamental way.