The 360º Corporation

If you’ve heard the terms stakeholder capitalism, or sustainability, or ESG, corporate social responsibility, CSR, conscious capitalism, sustainable development goals, shared value, corporate citizenship, or purpose-driven company but don’t know exactly what they mean—or don’t know how to make these ideas come to life—then this course is for you. Every business model and every operating decision has stakeholder trade-offs embedded in it. Profits to the bottom line are not always compatible with the interests of the stakeholders that surround the corporation. Based on Professor Sarah Kaplan’s award-winning course at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and her book "The 360º Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation," this course is designed to help you analyze these trade-offs (Mode 1) and learn how to address them either by rethinking them (Mode 2), innovating around them (Mode 3), or thriving within them (Mode 4). The 360° Corporation is an organization that can productively and effectively manage trade-offs. By taking this course, you will be joining a community of executives around the world who are looking to transform their organizations to meet the needs of the 21st century. The COVID-19 pandemic has gotten us all to rethink our careers and focus on how to make our work as meaningful and rewarding as possible. This course will aid you on that journey by helping you connect social responsibility to your own decisions. And, it will help you reexamine the role of business in society. This is not just a course for people with “social responsibility” in their job title. While it will be useful for anyone whose role is to spread sustainability, gender and racial equity, social responsibility and other stakeholder strategies throughout their organizations, the course is equally important for every executive and line manager because everything you do matters for the social and environmental impact of your products, services and organizations. We’ll also discuss the impact on corporate governance and the roles of corporate directors and institutional investors in leading change. This course offers signposts to leaders who want to spearhead the 360° Revolution. With detailed case studies, useful frameworks and handy action steps, the course will show you that companies can develop explicit and coherent plans for addressing the tensions created by stakeholder trade-offs and pursue corporate purpose. Enroll today to become a 360º Leader! [This course was developed with support from the University of Toronto and from the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship at the Rotman School of Management.]