Video: Starbucks VP Ben Packard on social entrepreneurship

Starbucks VP of Global Responsibility Ben Packard (Foster MBA 1998) spoke at the 2012 University of Washington Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition award banquet, emphasizing the significance of social justice.

Companies are evolving to address issues typically handled by NGOs such as microfinance, economic opportunity and sustainable, earth-friendly ventures. Packard says, “Social entrepreneurship is nothing more than the future of business. The purpose of business must be to provide shared value. This is the new norm. Consumers will punish brands perceived to be out of step with their world view.”

He also discussed a Harvard Business Review article on shared value written by Harvard professors Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, quoting them by saying, “How… could companies overlook the well-being of their customers, the depletion of natural resources vital to their businesses, the viability of key suppliers, or the economic distress of the communities in which they produce and sell?”

Ben Packard (Foster MBA 1998), Starbucks VP of Global Responsibility, chairs the US Green Building Council’s retail development committee and led LEED standard development to improve retail industry’s carbon footprint.