La Table de Cana: A New Model or An Exception in Corporate Social Responsibility?

..   The aim of this article is to explore the meaning of business leadership in the social sector. All too often businesses are confined to their profit-seeking role and only anecdotally make headlines on social issues. When such headlines do appear, we can quite safely bet that the terms “downsizing,” “restructuring” and “lay-off ” will be used. In a more discreet manner, numerous businesses are, however, paving their way towards a new social contract. In the U.S., several traditional businesses chose at some point to innovate in the social sector. Part of the reasoning behind such moves is that for-profit corporations have distinct human, social and financial capital that enables them to make a significant difference. In the case of Bell Atlantic and IBM, technological expertise was leveraged to design new teaching environments and virtual educational networks in lower income communities. Other firms, such as Marriott International and United Airlines, prefer to think of themselves as highly effective training organizations and, as such, recruited former welfare recipients to fill entry-level jobs. In other cases, the confidence of a business in its distinct capabilities was such that entire social sectors were taken over. For instance, Education Alternatives Inc. operated private schools, and Lockheed Martin IMS managed state and local welfare programs. Slowly the boundaries between business, civic responsibility and social issues have begun to blur.