We can’t create shared value without data. Here’s why

• A 2011 paper on “Creating shared Value” was a game-changer for many; now, it is being re-envisioned for the data age.
• There remains a disconnect between the pursuit of profit and the realization of shared values that benefit society at large.
• Bringing data into the shared value construct means others can benefit from its power and not just for-profit entities.

In 2011, I was co-teaching a course on Corporate Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, when our syllabus nearly went astray. A paper appeared in Harvard Business Review (HBR), titled “Creating Shared Value,” by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer. The students’ excitement was palpable: This could transform capitalism, enabling Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” to bend the arc of history toward not just efficiency and profit, but toward social impact.

It was a seminal moment. Watching our students’ enthusiastic…

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