Companies shouldn’t be retrenching and waiting out the coronavirus pandemic until they can go back to business as usual. They need to be part of the solution, now. The private sector has suffered a loss of public trust around the world recently, as have many other collective institutions—including our governments. This is the time to reclaim that trust: Business leaders should step up and demonstrate the power of the private sector to mobilize resources, generate innovative solutions, and scale them up fast.
But they shouldn’t be doing it alone. Dealing with this pandemic will also require partnering with nonprofit organizations to make sure all our communities around the world are getting the support they need. An article in Strategic Management Journal co-authored by Wharton management professor Aline Gatignon and Luis Ballesteros shows that firms can funnel more donations for disaster relief in developing countries when they do so in partnership with nonprofit organizations—more broadly, firms should consider the unique ability of the nonprofit sector to serve hard-to-reach populations, in places where the infrastructure and services make it particularly complex for businesses to operate.
Read more at Knowledge@Wharton.
