Few—if any—important tasks are accomplished by one individual working alone. We hope that over time this book will be considered a useful and important work. If our hope becomes reality, there are many people who share in the credit.
HWB
Numerous friends, colleagues, and mentors contributed in some way to my understanding of the world, and to my ability to author this work. Bill Eimicke is not only my coauthor but my dear friend and supporter. He embodies the true sense of the word partner. There are also many in the world of academia who helped make this book possible. First, thank you to Steve Cohen and the team at the Earth Institute. Steve is a longtime advisor, and someone I will never stop learning from. I have also had tremendous support from the team at the University of Nebraska, especially Hank Bounds, Ronnie Green, Jeff Gold, Steve Waller, and Tiffany Heng-Moss. I must also thank professor Mike Roloff, Beth Buske, and N. P. Das, as well as the many other professors and teachers who guided my thinking and development over the years.
There are those who contributed by reviewing this work and by providing feedback, suggestions, or corrections. Thank you to Matthew Bishop and Ruma Bose, Jerry Hirsch and the Collaboration Prize team, Andrew Kassoy, Christine Looney and the Ford Foundation, Wes Moore and the team at the Robin Hood Foundation, Mark Newberg (who continues to challenge my thinking), and Brian Trelstad. Steven Radelet provided early and helpful counsel on this work, as did Daniel Shapiro and the team at Harvard University’s International Negotiation Program. Also, thank you to Adam Stepan for your ongoing support of this project, and Chrissy Garton and Padma Tata for your dedicated research and review of the framework portion of the manuscript.
I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn from many who have mentored me or included me in their work. Thank you Amir and Tas Dossal and the entire team at the United Nations Office for Partnerships. A further thank you to Admiral Cecil Haney and the many individuals serving the mission of U.S. Strategic Command. Additionally, thank you Mogens Bay, Dan Glickman, Jane Goodall, Alexis Herman, Don and Mickie Keough, Tom Mangelsen, Patricia Rosenfield, Pete Rouse, Suzanne and Walter Scott Jr., Raj Shah, Josette Sheeran, and Gail and Mike Yanney—all for your many years of guidance and support.
Also, thank you to Nick Batter, Allen Beermann, Susan Bell, Julie Borlaug, J. D. Bryant, Mike Culver, Elliott Donnelley II, Peggy Dulany, Alan H. Fleischmann, Ellen Gustafson, Jacob Harold, Adam Hitchcock, Ajit, Tinku, Akshay, and Ajay Jain, Laura and Gary Lauder, Lauren Bush Lauren, Marco Lopez, John McNaught, Dmitri Mehlhorn, Clay Mitchell, Rob Myers, Trevor Neilson, Doug Oller, Ron and Jane Olson, Robert Reffkin, Kate Roberts, Nishant Roy, Robert Schutt, Klaus Schwab, Christine Sherry, David Slattery Jr., Darian Swig, Jack Vrett, and Mike Walter. I also benefited from ideas and feedback from participants in the White House Next Generation Leadership initiative and at the Global Impact Institute convening.
The importance of teamwork is discussed throughout this book, and the social value investing framework itself would not exist without three team efforts in particular. At the origin of the framework is the value investing paradigm. Its principles and rigor are thanks to the important work of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd at Columbia University from nearly a century ago. The management theory for the framework is inspired by and modeled after the structure and success of Berkshire Hathaway. For this, I want to thank the entire Berkshire team and acknowledge the leadership and hard work of Berkshire’s managers and its board of directors—all of whom I greatly respect, and many of whom are friends. Finally, the adaptation of the management theory to its present framework for cross-sector partnerships is a result of the work and the programs of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. I would like to thank the entire HGBF team, including Trisha Cook, Ann Kelly Bolten, Paula Goedert, its board, its staff, and its many partners from throughout the years.
A special thank you to Bill and Melinda Gates for including me in the work of your foundation, for your dedication to improving the world, and for your commitment to good stewardship. Further thank you to Mark Suzman, Bridgitt Arnold, and Ryan Kreitzer for your assistance with the manuscript. Important aspects of the social value investing framework were inspired by work with a special projects team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Thank you to Patty Stonesifer, Cheryl Scott, Alex Friedman, Lowell Weiss, Olivia Leland, Greg Cain, and others from that group. Also, thank you to the teams supporting the Goalkeepers initiative and the Giving Pledge for your excellent work, including Robert Rosen and Adrienne DiCasparro.
An incredible team contributed to the development and success of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, from which many of my observations and lessons about cross-sector partnerships were drawn. This included Michele Jolin, Carlos Monje, Marta Urquilla, Paul Schmitz, Jonathan Greenblatt, Cheryl Dorsey, Charlie Anderson, and many others. We were all inspired by President Barack Obama and the leadership of Sonal Shah, for whom I feel profound gratitude.
A rather large team at the Defense Department and many DoD partners made the work in the Afghanistan case possible. I would like to thank President Ashraf Ghani, Admiral Michael Mullen, Secretary Robert Gates, General David Petraeus, Paul Brinkley, Stan Lumish, Eric Clark, Gerry Brown, Christine Rafiekian, many others from the C and A rings, as well as the many civilians and individuals in uniform serving our country. Also, thank you to Roya Mahboob, Lou Pierce, Eric Crowley, as well as the entire Norman Borlaug Institute team, including Mark Q. Smith, Glen Shinn, Richard Ford, Rahmat Attaie, and David Quarles. And a special thank you to Dr. Ed Price, who serves as a mentor and friend to many—myself included.
Some of my dearest and closest friends have invested countless hours supporting me and the development of many ideas found throughout this book. I would not be who I am today without Zecki Dossal, Luis A. Renta, Jorge Cervantes, Katherine Lorenz, and Rob Lalka. I must also acknowledge the numerous and significant contributions Rob made specifically to this manuscript, for which I express my sincere gratitude.
The book is dedicated to my son and wife because of their profound impact on my life, and the inspiration they provide. Without Lili’s support and the dedication of her time and energy, this project would have never been completed. For this I am indebted, and I express my deepest appreciation.
I also appreciate the love and guidance from everyone in my family throughout the years. Thank you Doris, Bertie, Astrid, Pam, Susie, Allen, Em, Mike and Joe, Alex and Mimi, as well as Jenn and Peter—for teaching me things I did not know I could learn. A special thank you to each of my sisters, Megan, Chelsea, Heather, and Erin, as well as your families. You all make up a bedrock of support.
A very special acknowledgment of appreciation to my mother and father, to whom I owe a great many things. My mother never ceased to care for or nurture me along, and continues to do so today—she exudes limitless empathy and love. My father had the foresight, fortitude, and patience to take his young son along with him on his many travels—experiencing the best and the worst of the world together. I could not ask for a better mom or dad.
I also would like to acknowledge my grandmother, who serves as a beacon of light for our family; she embodied endless and unconditional generosity, which continues to inspire us all.
And to my grandfather: there is much for which to thank you. Not least for the incredible amount of time you invested reviewing my drafts, and for your invaluable feedback, guidance, and encouragement throughout my writing process. I am incredibly grateful for your powerful example of what a single individual can accomplish in one lifetime. Your approach to business, and to life, serves as an inspiration for this work, as does your boundless sense of optimism.
WBE
First and foremost, I would like to thank my coauthor, colleague, and close friend, Howard W. Buffett. We teach together, we learn together, we write together and, I believe, we continue to make each other better. Second, my dear friend and perennial coauthor Steven Cohen has collaborated with me for more than thirty years to discover how to best help make tomorrow’s public leaders and managers even better than those of today and yesterday.
For this book specifically, those contributing critical influence over my thinking on cross-sector partnerships include Adam Stepan, his father Al Stepan, Thomas Trebat, Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, Krishnan Ganapathy, Doug Blonsky, John Alschuler, Rodrigo Soares, Regina Siqueira, Jose Roberto Marinho, Carlos Jereissati, FDNY Chief Richard Tobin, FDNY Chief Joseph Pfeifer, the legendary NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton, Ester Fuchs, and too many others to name here. Former NYS Senator John Dunne, NYC Mayor Ed Koch, NYS Governor Mario Cuomo, former mayor and Professor Stephen Goldsmith, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg are my role models for all that can be achieved by government, ethically and with economic and social justice always in mind. David Osborne, researcher, friend, and brilliant thinker wrote one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, Reinventing Government, on how to achieve the public interest more effectively and more inclusively; his work always inspires me to think bigger and write better.
I am grateful to our team at Columbia’s Picker Center, particularly Arvid Lukauskas, Valerie Zimmer, Aleschia Johnson, Bruna Santos, and Nitasha Nair, who have helped make our center a place where faculty, students, working professionals, and other academic centers come to learn about best practices in management innovation, social value, and cross-sector partnerships.
Finally, without Karen Murphy, Annemarie Eimicke, Balsam Murphy, and Sugar Ray Murphy, my contribution to this book would not have been possible.
We would both like to express our appreciation to the remarkable team at Columbia University Press. Myles Thompson and Stephen Wesley were truly our partners in the creation of this book. We would also like to thank Eric Schwartz, Meredith Howard, Marielle Poss, Ben Kolstad, Bill Hawley, and the entire production team. Further, we also benefited from invaluable feedback from our peer reviewers, and the Columbia University Press editorial board and Publications Committee—all of whom helped us improve our work and thinking considerably.
We are also incredibly grateful to Columbia President Lee Bollinger, Provost John Coatsworth, and SIPA Dean Merit Janow for giving us the opportunity to work at Columbia University and the freedom to follow our passions for making the world a better place for all.
