Today, at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers joined Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman Lloyd Blankfein and Dow Chemical Company President, Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris on a panel discussion moderated by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.  The title of the panel was “Business by Design: Growth and Opportunity.”  (An edited portion of the panel will air on CNN soon…watch this space for the air date).

Zakaria said that he was an optimist overall when it came to the United States and our prospects for the future.  He spoke about the economic troubles the U.S. has had over the past decades and how we have consistently overcome them.  The trouble with this recovery and economy, he said, is that it is taking jobs a lot longer to come back than what has been historically ordinary.

All of the speakers agreed (generally) that there was optimism to be had in the United States economy, regardless of who is elected President in November.  All of them also agreed that government and business have to partner together to help solve our nation’s problems and take advantage of our many assets.  Blankfein said that many of our problems are self-inflicted and could easily be resolved, such as having a budget for the country.

From Left: Fareed Zakaria (CNN), Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris and Cisco CEO John Chambers at CGI2012

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Tags: Andrew Liveris, CGI, CGI2012, clinton global initiative, CNN, Fareed Zakaria, john chambers, Lloyd Blankfein

Doing good is not that easy, and sustaining good on a grand scale is almost impossible. But once again it is being done at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting, Sept 22 to 24. I like to say it’s a place where highly influential people go behind closed doors to do good.

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, CGI convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI annual meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and nongovernmental organizations, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2100 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries.

As part of our involvement in CGI, Cisco along with several nonprofit, NGO, and government partners, made a 4-year investment to support ICT-driven development strategies in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa — primarily through establishment of locally managed and self-sustaining community knowledge centers (CKCs).

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Tags: CGI, Cisco, clinton global initiative, Corporate Responsibility, corporate social responsibility, CSR, impact multiplied, impactx, jobs, Social Good, society

Making Education Relevant is the topic for the next debate in the Cisco-Promethean Education Fast Forward series. Having steered two children through 16 years of the US education system, I can tell you that THAT particular topic sparked a raging debate over the dinner table every night.  It went something like this: “Mom, why do I need to learn quadratic equations?” Or, the ever present simple“Why?”. While I am delighted to hear that academics and practitioners continue to debate education’s relevancy, I can tell you that, as a young mother, I wished someone had armed me with better answers than, “Because you have to.” Read More »

Tags: clinton global initiative, Corporate Responsibility, corporate social responsibility, CSR, education, jobs, teach for all, teach for america