interesting workshop on alternative organizational design

THE ARCHITECTURE OF A FOURTH SECTOR —THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DESIGNING NEW ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm KLD Research & Analytics250 Summer Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA Lunch and refreshments will be provided. * * *Space is limited -- please RSVP as soon as possible to Michael Pirson, mpirson@fas.harvard.edu, 857.869.9604

Lunch sponsored by Slow Money, a new NGO designing intermediation that supports local food systems.* * *
Over the past few decades, many pioneering organizations across the three primary sectors – business, non-profits and government – have been blending social purposes with business approaches. There are many expressions of this trend, including corporate social responsibility, microfinance, venture philanthropy, sustainable businesses, social enterprise, privatization, community development and others. As this activity matures, it is becoming formalized as a “Fourth Sector” of the economy. As the Fourth Sector expands, organizations are encountering limitations imposed by existing legal and tax structures. Despite the many creative solutions that have been developed within the current regulatory environment, there is a growing consensus that new legal structures, tax policy, and other regulatory interventions might be necessary to facilitate the growth of these organizations.
AGENDA:
Moderated by Marion Fremont-Smith, Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University How We Got Here: A Brief History of Corporate Design – Peter D. Kinder, President & Co-founder, KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. The Theory and Practice of Designing New Organizational FormsApplying the laws of natural science to new organizational forms that aremore efficient, competitive, accountable and ecologically sustainable.– Dr. Shann Turnbull, Principal, International Institute for Self-governanceRoundtable Discussion:
What opportunities are represented by a Fourth Sector? What are the obstacles to its emergence?
What are the arguments against a Fourth Sector? Is it needed? Is it efficient? Is it competitive? Is it sustainable?
Why is there a gap in university education on the theory and practice of designing organizations?
By what process do we create a model corporate charter that defines the Fourth Sector archetype?
How might a Fourth Sector be implemented through tax policy, monetary and/or legislative initiatives?
How do you build a political constituency to support organizational transformation?
PRESENTER BIOS:
Marion Fremont-SmithMarion Fremont-Smith is senior research fellow at Harvard University’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and the author of the definitive study Governing Nonprofit Organizations: Federal and State Law and Regulation (Harvard University Press, 2004). She has penned two other books and numerous articles. Ms. Smith’s distinguished legal career includes admission to the bar of the United States Supreme Court and service as Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Division of Public Charities in Massachusetts. A retired partner of Choate, Hall and Stewart, she is also a former director of Independent Sector. Ms. Fremont-Smith earned her B.A. from Wellesley College and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law.Shann Turnbull, Principal, International Institute for Self-governanceShann Turnbull researches and teaches corporate governance in Australia on a part time basis for the Macquarie University Graduate School of Management where he obtained his PhD in 2001. His PhD thesis showed how the science of control and communication in the animal and the machine could be extended to organisations to create a science of governance as presented in his articles. His thesis built upon his education as an electrical engineer in Tasmania, BSc from the University of Melbourne and an MBA from Harvard.>From 1966 to 1974 he was a founding partner in a private group that gained control of over a dozen publicly traded corporations in Australia. This gave him experience as a controlling shareholder, company director, chairman of one company, and CEO of two others. As a serial entrepreneur founding new enterprises, some of which became publicly traded, he gained further experience as a Chairman and CEO. He also became joint CEO/owner of a mutual fund management company. In 1975 he founded the first educational course in the world to provide an educational qualification for company directors and published his first book on Democratising the Wealth of Nations. The novel ideas in his book led to consulting assignments for multi-national corporations, United Nations, World Bank, and governments, including in 1991 the Peoples Republic of China and Czechoslovakia.Since 2001 he has been rating the governance of the largest 100 organisations in Australia by turnover and introduced an MBA elective at Macquarie University on evaluating and designing the governance architecture of organisations in the government, non-profit and private sectors. His latest book was commissioned by the New Economics Foundation in London and published in 2002 as A New Way to Govern; Organisations and society after Enron.Peter D. Kinder, President & Co-founder, KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. Peter D. Kinder is President and Co-founder of KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. an independent investment research firm providing management tools to professionals integrating environmental, social and governance factors into their investment decisions. His articles on socially responsible investing and fiduciary duties have appeared in publications in the US, Canada, the UK and India. His most recent think piece “Socially Responsible Investing: An Evolving Concept in a Changing World” is available on KLD’s website, together with a number of his essays.Mr. Kinder, Steven Lydenberg and Amy Domini are the authors of The Social Investment Almanac (Henry Holt, 1992) and Investing for Good (HarperBusiness, 1993). He collaborated with Amy Domini on Ethical Investing (Addison-Wesley, 1984). He also co-authored Law and Business (McGraw- Hill, 1982/94). With Steven Lydenberg, he wrote “Mission-Based Investing” (1999) which is about to appear in a revised edition.Mr. Kinder was a co-founder and principal (1997-2000) of Domini Social Investments, LLC. KLD is a co-founder of the Sustainable Investment Research International Group (SiRi) and he has served on its board. Mr. Kinder has served two terms on the board of the U.S. Social Investment Forum, the SRI trade organization, one as Vice Chair.