Social Value Investing : A Management Framework for Effective Partnerships

Our world’s challenges are too great and too complex for any one organization or government to address on its own. But solutions to these challenges do exist and will be found through new partnerships bringing together the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. These partnerships must deliver major public programs and projects that more effectively serve society through innovative, inclusive, and long-lasting solutions. In Social Value Investing, Howard W. Buffett and William B. Eimicke present a new management framework for developing and measuring the success of such partnerships and provide tools to help maximize collaborative efficiency and positive social impact.

Social Value Investing offers practical insights for any private sector CEO, public sector administrator, or nonprofit or foundation manager hoping to build successful collaborations. It lays out a five-point framework inspired by value investing—one of history’s most successful investment paradigms—which can be applied to a wide range of programs and activities. The book tells the compelling stories of cross-sector partnerships from around the world, including ones that transformed Central Park and urban spaces in New York City, provided community-led economic development in Afghanistan, and improved public service delivery in cities across Brazil. Drawing on lessons and observations developed from a broad selection of partnership examples, Buffett and Eimicke create a blueprint for designing and managing effective, sustainable collaborations. Social Value Investing also provides readers access to original, academic case studies as well as professionally produced video documentaries for every major partnership profiled—bringing to life the people and stories in a way that few other business or management books have done.

Howard W. Buffett is a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He served as the executive director of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and coauthored the New York Times best seller 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World (2013). Previously, Buffett oversaw economic stabilization programs in Afghanistan and Iraq for the U.S. Department of Defense. He also served as a policy advisor for the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he coauthored the president’s cross-sector partnership strategy.

William B. Eimicke is professor of practice and founding director of the Picker Center for Executive Education at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He previously served as New York City’s Deputy Fire Commissioner for Strategic Planning and Policy, as the housing “czar” of New York State, and as a housing policy and management consultant to vice president Al Gore’s National Performance Review. He has coauthored four books on topics including effective public management, contracting, sustainability, and management innovation.