Recent demonstrations at Davos, Seattle, and Sydney reflect a growing concern regarding globalization, the role of business, and the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. Businesses would be well advised to review their strategies with an eye to engage more fully in the progress of social responsibility and societal improvement.

Failure to identify the opportunities could be costly. The risks are clear:

• A general backlash against businesses, particularly large global enterprises, is a real risk, resulting in constrained trade, increased regulation, higher taxes and profit controls
• Operating costs will be higher as pressure on resources increases
• Taxes will rise to pay for the progress of social rectification and catastrophe relief
• Revenues will not grow because of increasingly troubled emerging markets
• The best people will shun employers with "old think" approaches

Perhaps the biggest contribution you can make, is to review your own company’s strategy. In the Revise Your Strategy section of our site, we’ll take you through 10 steps that will guide you in building an objective plan that can help your company tackle broader social issues. These ten integrated steps address: vision, values, imperatives, strategy, initiatives, tactics, organizations, results, leadership, and communication. By reviewing your strategy at each step, with an eye to engaging your business where appropriate, you will find a whole range of opportunities to help create positive change.

To date, most strategies and initiatives for change have lacked vision and sufficient impact. Our current global architecture and global leadership have generated unacceptable results. New visions, new strategies, and a new alliance of public and private sector resources can begin to improve the current state of affairs, and reduce the future risk in the critical areas of societal challenge.

In some cases, like the environment, there are no institutions at all for global scale solutions. The famous gaps in the global architecture have prevented us from implementing effective solutions to escalating problems. Yet a clear understanding of these gaps can inform a program of understanding to overcome their weaknesses.

There are four visible gaps in the current architecture:

1. A nation state too small to solve global problems
   
2. International organizations fragmented or misdirected
   
3. Intranational organizations capable of low common denominator outcomes
   
4. Lack of any organizations for change on a global level
   

In the absence of an effective monitor, control, and response, the risk of future catastrophe rises. Societal risk can best be understood as the sum of four interrelated elements:

1. The potential scale of harm
   
2. The probability of harm occurring
   
3. The capability to respond to harm
   
4. The capability of effectively deploying that response
   

A fully informed strategy will require us to address all elements of this risk calculus. We need to reduce the risk of harm occurring and increase our capability to respond.

When putting better strategies in place, we must be realistic about the scale of effort and the resources required. The laws of science and nature will dictate the amount of energy required to change dynamic, complex global systems. Big problems require even bigger solutions. Only an increase in the quality, focus, and scale of resources can offset future risk and improve current performance.