Johanna Mair<\/a> is a professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School of Governance, Academic Editor of Stanford Social Innovation Review<\/a>, Co-Director of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and Academic Co-Director Social Innovation and Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. Mair is also a member of the Alpbach-Laxenburg Group<\/a>, which holds its annual retreat this weekend on the sidelines of the European Forum Alpbach<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
Johanna Mair \u00a9Hertie School of Governance<\/p><\/div>\n
At the Alpbach-Laxenburg Group retreat this weekend, you will be joining a discussion on governance and institutional transformation towards sustainability. What do you see as the biggest barriers to sustainable development?
\n<\/strong>Sustainability challenges typically require a concerted effort to achieve impact. We still lack the appropriate governance and accountability mechanisms that ensure implementation of well-intended strategies and commonly devised goals.<\/p>\n
As an expert in social entrepreneurship and innovation, what new developments have you seen that you think could drive a transformation towards sustainability? Could you give examples of successful innovations that have taken hold?
\n<\/strong>We do see innovation on many fronts. Especially in governance technology has enabled a number of useful and helpful innovations that allow for more transparent and accountable processes. At the same time we still face enormous challenges that cannot be fixed by technology and require us to face deeply rooted relational and cultural problems. The prevalence of open defecation and lack of sanitary infrastructure in India is just one example.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it seems like there are many great ideas, but adoption is slow. What do you think is necessary to make the leap from innovative idea to widespread practice?
\n<\/strong>\u201cMost new ideas are bad ideas\u201d as Jim March from Stanford University would say. We must stop praising innovation and start to think and act on linking innovation and scaling as two distinct process to create impact.\u00a0 Innovation is an investment and creates the potential for impact. Scaling enacts and grows this potential and transforms innovation into tangible outcomes – improving the lives of marginalized people and communities and making progress on stubborn societal and environmental problems.<\/p>\n
We have elaborated on this in our new book on \u201cInnovation and Scaling for Impact \u2013 How Successful Social Enterprises Do It,\u201d<\/a> \u00a0which I co-wrote with \u00a0Christian Seelos.<\/p>\n
More information
\n<\/strong>IIASA at the European Forum Alpbach 2017 and Alpbach-Laxenburg Group Retreat: 27-29 August 2017<\/a>
\nJohanna Mair appearances at Alpbach: 19 August – 1 September<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"