Photo Essay: “Achieving Social Impact” Conference at Mills College #CSRB14

On a sunny Friday in mid-March 2014, social innovation-minded leaders, thinkers, and students gathered at the beautifully designed (and LEED Gold certified) Lokey Graduate School of Business at Mills College for the 6th Annual Center for Socially Responsible Business (CSRB) Conference. The theme for this year was “Achieving Social Impact: To Scale or Not to Scale?”Speakers addressed the critical issue of “scale” for a social impact venture—how is it defined? How can it be effectuated? How does it apply to various organizational forms? How does the conversation about “scale” change based on sector?These questions and more were addressed through keynote speeches, panel discussions, and hosted lunch table talks. Overall the day was enriching—complete with insightful speakers, engaged attendees, and a wonderful opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals in the impact space.

It was great to be able to share our book ideas and progress with fellow attendees, make connections, and hear valuable feedback on our research and focus areas. Below are a few snapshots from the day.

Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business, Mills College

Deborah Merrill-Sands, Dean of the Graduate School Business at Mills welcomes attendees and convenes the conference.

Kat Taylor, Co-Founder and CEO of One Pacific Bank delivers a compelling keynote about the story of One Pacific Coast Bank, and how it is has viewed and pursued scale. She concludes in song :)

Moderator Cecily Joseph, VP of Corporate Responsibility at Symantec facilitates a discussion exploring “To Scale or Not to Scale?” exploring the why and when of the concept of scale with panelists representing a variety of CSR initiatives at for-profit companies and startups.

One point that Kathy Mulvany, Senior Director of Corporate Affairs at Cisco underscored was that partnership is critical for scale.

 

Jessica Steel, President of UrbanSitter and former Pandora executive, shared the compelling story of how Pandora amassed 200M users and how her new startup is choosing how to scale, and how not to.

 

The conference was expertly organized by the campus Net Impact Chapter, together with the CSRB. It was held at the architecturally breathtaking Business School building, which is LEED Gold certified. Complete with a living roof.

Moderator Steve Wright, VP of Poverty Tools and Insights at the Grameen Foundation facilitated a panel discussion on “Scaling Strategies” and outlined three types of scale: expansion, replication, and collaboration

Lalitha Vaidyanathan, Managing Director of FSG shared valuable insight through a case study that underscored the importance of the scale of the solution matching the scale of the problem.

 

Paul Herman, CEO and Founder of HIP Investor (Human Impact + Profit) reframed the discussion of scale based on companies, institutions, movements that have mobilized 1B people and underscored the importance of valuing talent as an asset rather than a cost.

In a breakout session on scale as applied to public education reform, Angela Le (left) Manager of Growth and Special Projects at KIPP Bay Area and Brian Stanley, Executive Director of Oakland Schools Foundation discussed technical and adaptive problems in scaling and how charter schools have found ways to scale.

 

Nikki Silvestri, Executive Director of Green For All delivered the afternoon keynote and shared a powerful narrative of her family and path into social impact.