As Executive-in-Residence at IMD, I am building on my decades of experience facilitating for clients from all sectors globally my trademark process of stategic relational engagement (SRE™) of stakeholders. I am focusing on the strategic position of value creation and competitiveness through SRE. I am distilling and synthesizing key teachable lessons for leaders who participate in IMD executive education programs . I am developing essential guidelines for practical applications in various contexts. These include internal stakeholder applications for boards and senior management whether horizontal across function or vertically in direct reports; external stakeholders whether customers, suppliers or willing partners; and more complex potentially adversarial external stakeholders (i.e.: activist shareholders, government regulators, NGOs and other civic groups, etc). Companies know they... more

I’m finding my niche, seven weeks into Executive-in-Residence at IMD: master bridge-builder; a role that has applicability in much of the executive education knowledge exchange being done here.  I‘ve begun to focus on why businesses should engage with non-market, non-traditional stakeholders for current brand value as a basis for long term value creation with Paul Strebel who leads the High Performance Boards program.  I’ll continue to develop this further with Didier Cossin who next year will take over this program.  I’m writing about creating and sustaining mutually beneficial cross-sector partnerships to support an exciting body of research by Tom Malnight and Kees van der Graaf.  And I’m finding my stride in my local village where the butcher, baker, winemaker and most... more

In my first week as Executive-in-Residence at IMD I observed and commented on executive education programs.  One was led by Dan Denison whose focus includes organizational culture, leadership and the impact they have on performance and effectiveness, and Tom Malnight whose focus includes global strategy, evolutionary organizational change, internal growth and renewal.  They guided participating executives through exercises designed to help them effectively tackle a changing and uncertain future.  Another group of executives interacted with James Henderson  whose focus includes helping companies achieve and sustain their competitive advantage, through a comparable exercise in developing strategies under times of uncertainty.  And in my first gathering of faculty and senior staff with IMD president Dominique Turpin we as an internal team explored many of... more

As we approach the end of International Women’s Month, I am reflecting on “the tipping point.”   In so many ways we are at its cusp, with all sectors recognizing that the empowerment of women and girls is the critical component globally not just for social development but for economic and military security.  Yet, in other ways we are not even close.  Chris Grumm, director of the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), crystallized this at pivotal moment during one of the many events held at or concurrent with the UN session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  She said “next year, bring a man with you and then we’ll really be at the tipping point.” Bingo!  Her words echoed... more

As a board member of the World Policy Institute I heard my SheSource colleague Patricia DeGennaro, an expert on National Security issues, describe recent efforts to improve civilian-military cooperation in Afghanistan.  She outlined a comprehensive update of the “whole of governance” philosophy and practice that integrates defense, diplomacy and development as integral, inter-related components to achieving effective foreign policy objectives.  Her analysis of the impact this has on foreign policy was striking and it reinforced my experience-based perspective on all for- and not-for-profit capacity-building efforts local, national, regional or global.  I have been a staunch advocate of cross-sector collaboration for decades, yet I still was jolted by DeGenarro’s stark statistics.  Multiple indicators show positive progress in those areas with provincial... more

I’d worked with diplomats and women’s rights activists from several nations to promote the passage in 2000 of 1325, a UN Security Council Resolution that mandates the protection, participation and promotion of women and their involvement in all aspects of peace processes.  Last week, during the opening of 64th UN General Assembly, I attended “Peace and Security through Women’s Leadership: Acting on 1325 and Climate Change” chaired by Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Tarja Halonen of Finland.  They once again declared a call to action for implementation of 1325 before its 10th anniversary next year.  They also focused on the incorporation of a gender perspective to be included in the negotiations for a new agreement on climate change.  This meeting was a follow up... more

The speakers at 10 Downing Street included our host Sarah Brown, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Anne Aslett of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Dillon Woods of the Donald Woods Foundation (DWF) who each explained why they support the comprehensive services provided by DWF, all created with shared ownership by the residents in the Mbashe area of South Africa’s Eastern Cape. They believe as I do that only through an engaged, empowered multi-faceted approach do local communities achieve self-sustainability. I have learned over decades of work that whether you are a business, an NGO or a government when you follow the guidance of local leadership, help strengthen local capacity and collaboratively address problems from multiple angles, you can create sustainable success. DWF does exactly this... more

My husband Jerry Dunfey and I are going to 10 Downing Street tonight for an event Sarah Brown is hosting for the Donald Woods Foundation, a philanthropic development organization. Woods was a very close friend of ours and had to escape from apartheid South Africa after he broke the story of Steve Biko’s murder. Jerry is a Founding Patron of the foundation with Wendy Woods and Ntsiki Biko, respectively the widows of Donald Woods and Steve Biko. Desmond Tutu, who married us, will be the other special guest at 10 Downing St. To get into the spirit of the connections between the British anti-apartheid movement and the struggle within South Africa, we stopped at the statue of Nelson Mandela that was... more

I gave the Graduation Commencement Speaker at Southern New Hampshire University’s International Program of their Graduate School of Community Economic Development today. The students are practitioners from around the world who already have made significant contributions to development efforts in many nations. With the Masters of Science in International Community Economic Development they received at this degree ceremony, they will leverage their ability to achieve even greater accomplishments. After an excerpt of my remarks, also watch video clips of graduate speeches.  Also post your comments about successful economic development efforts, whether by corporations, governments or NGOs. Keeping with the spirit of international cooperation fostered in this graduate program, rather than choosing a single student to make commencement remarks, a group did a... more