Authentic Engagement, Truly

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"A society based on the assertion that private vices become public benefits cannot endure," he warned. "For in a good, a moral, a lasting society, the public good must always rest on private virtue."

Customer Creation

Still, discovering ways to satisfy corporate goals and society's needs simultaneously—what FSG describes as "shared values"—isn't necessarily easy. A survey released last summer by IBM (IBM) found that only 30% of executives receive adequate data on carbon emissions, labor standards, product composition, and the like to figure out how to make a societal contribution in these areas, even if they want to.

Companies, meanwhile, must also guard against being pushed or pulled into projects that don't make sound financial sense. "Whenever a business has…assumed social responsibilities that it could not support economically, it has soon gotten into trouble," Drucker wrote.

Yet Drucker, as well as others who share his philosophy, would also encourage companies to recognize that, as globalization accelerates and technology spreads, there is an ever-increasing chance—if not an obligation—to both further economic performance and make the world a better place.

"Business, as the most powerful institution in society, must be the instrument of social justice," management scholar C.K. Prahalad, author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, proclaimed a couple of weeks ago in Vienna, at a forum marking what would have been Drucker's 100th birthday. At the same time, he stressed "the practical value" of this approach—namely, how 5 billion underserved and unserved people across the globe present an extraordinary opening to carry out what Peter Drucker said was the primary purpose of any business: creating a customer.

Opportunities Everywhere

For many, looking at things this way requires an adjustment in thinking—a lesson David Cooperrider, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, learned when he visited Drucker in 2003, two years before Drucker died at age 95. "Can social responsibility also be profitable?" Cooperrider asked.

Drucker smiled and told his guest that he had it backward: The question is not whether social responsibility can be profitable to a company, but how profitable a company can make social responsibility. "Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise," Drucker told Cooperrider, echoing comments he had first made decades earlier. The insight helped spur Cooperrider to launch the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, which is advancing the concept through research and action.

Let's just hope he resists the temptation to rename his venture the Center for Business as an Agent of Authentic World Benefit.

Rick Wartzman is the executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University.

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