On Jan. 1, the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program crossed the 20-year mark. But in lots of ways, last year — even the last decade — was challenging. Some of our program’s core principles and values are being threatened by the discord in politics and markets that reward narrow, short-term measures of success. Yet there are lots of reasons for hope. Just look in some unusual places to find it. Like business itself.

As I search for reasons I looking back over the last two decades of our work and am reminded that one of our first ventures as a program was to create the Business Leaders Dialogue. It was chaired in its inaugural year by then Publisher of the Wall Street Journal and CEO of Dow Jones, Peter Kahn. Peter was an Aspen Institute Trustee and willing to roll the dice on a fledgling Aspen program that had no track record but big dreams. The purpose of the dialogue was to engage business executives in conversation about the role corporations can play to support the commons, in pursuit of both a healthier business environment and to build trust in business. This has been a consistent theme of our work ever since ...

Business leaders share a bias towards action: acknowledge the problem, clarify the intended business objectives, and then engage business investment and protocols — releasing extraordinary talent and market power — to make things better. The goal isn’t just profits, although profits are a critical objective. What is needed is a "yesable proposition" — the opportunity to build your market position, engage employee and customer loyalty, or to stabilize the supply chain. Opportunity abounds.

Read the full article about connecting private investment and the public good by Judith F. Samuelson at The Aspen Institute.