Executive Summary

Of Mind And Money

K. James Ehlen, M.D.
President of Allina Health Systems

September 1995

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

---Albert Einstein

Einstein, decades ago, described a fundamental but underrated element of progressive thought. Great advances in thought are made outside the envelope. This is because truth so often spans the categories and disciplines we create to capture our thinking.

The point of this is not just to celebrate Einstein's insight. It is to relate corporate responsibility to the crying need for innovation in our society. Corporate Minnesota must play a central role in the progress of ideas and the improvement of our systems.

Let me begin at the level of orthodoxy. Many believe that corporate responsibility ends at the bottom line: What portion of profits will be shared with the community? Indeed, Minnesota's corporate sector enjoys a proud tradition of giving. That is a necessary condition of corporate responsibility. It is necessary, but not sufficient.

A crucial question remains: how will these resources improve the lives of our citizens? Systems intended to improve health, education and welfare too often fail, despite resources. The Metropolitan Council's 1990 Summary of Human Investment reveals expenditures of almost $15,000 per metro household, in public and nonprofit dollars, towards the health, education and welfare of metropolitan residents. Despite that investment, crucial measures of success (from public health to education) have declined. Corporate responsibility cannot be simply a matter of feeding more dollars into struggling systems.

Corporate responsibility requires both a contribution of dollars and intellectual horsepower to rethink problems and redesign systems. Thus, Allina Health System must be generous in contributing dollars and intellect to create better systems for improving health.

There are a few - but too few - good examples of this strategy. One, the Minneapolis Way to Grow initiative, demands both types of support from its corporate sponsors. Honeywell, General mills, Medica, and others contribute dollars and improve frameworks for promoting success among children. Corporate and public sponsors work hand-in-hand to make systems of education and health work better for families. Public partners count on corporate sponsors to advocate better information systems, greater governmental cooperation, and improved outcomes for children.

Our government, the best ever created, was designed for reasons other than efficiency or systems thinking. Our corporations depend on both. The partnership is natural and effective, but underemployed. Corporations must bring intellectual assets to such partnerships. Government must open its processes to such input. A higher form of corporate responsibility will emerge from the mix.

Admittedly, this formula works particularly well for a company whose business is improving the health of the community. But Corporate Minnesota's interests in a well-educated work force and stable communities are clear. We all have much to gain from intellectual and financial contributions from the corporate sector.

With apologies to Einstein, the systems which deal with difficult social problems cannot be fixed at our current level of consciousness. Nothing less than this deliberate combination of mind and money can solve such problems.

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