Director's Blog: Conference Highlighted Variety of Approaches to Designing Opportunity
Thanks to our many sponsors and the more than 650 professionals who joined us in Boston, the 2013 International Corporate Citizenship Conference was a terrific success. For 2-1/2 days we convened to learn, network, and share challenges and successes, and to examine the many ways that companies are Designing Opportunity for business and society. Closing keynote Seth Godin noted that new opportunities don’t come without a willingness to take risks because “If you say failure is not an option, then neither is success.”
Our keynote speakers each addressed how their firms approached the design process.
A team from The Travelers Companies, Inc., led by Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Andy Bessette, told how their secret is “collaboration that leads to innovation.” Working across business functions Travelers designs opportunity through efforts such as the Small Business Risk Education Program, which expands opportunities via small business advocacy. The Travelers team explained that much of the company’s corporate citizenship efforts connect with Chairman and CEO Jay S. Fishman’s vision of ensuring the “American opportunity.”
