Creating Shared Value.
(Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer) * What is your reaction to this article? Critically evaluate its content based on your personal and professional experiences and any additional research you might like to do.

The article starts with a description of the cynicism surrounding capitalism and management, and also some of the reasons for such cynicism. My life’s first attitude towards capitalism and management was also marked by distrust and skepticism. I grew up in a small town that is surrounded by big factories that manufactured products such as steel, cement, flour and so on. Our town was victim of companies’ strategy to relocate their production plants where labor was cheaper.
Article provides three concrete steps that management can take to achieving what they have dubbed as Shared Value, which is an attempt to meld together societal and economic progress, so that it creates societal value for the community in terms of making relevant contributions to their social realities, but not at the expense of economic value to the business. The three steps are as follows:
1) Reconceiving products and markets;
2) Redefining productivity in the value chain; and
3) Enabling local cluster development.
In brief, reconceiving products and markets entails meeting needs in often underserved markets through redesigning products and/or distribution methods. The authors cite microfinance as an example of how serving unmet financing needs in developing countries can actually grow rapidly in developed countries, filling an otherwise unrecognized gap.
Redefining productivity in the value chain has to do with tackling the fallacy of short term cost reductions, so as to invest in shared value creation in areas such as energy use, logistics, resource use, procurement,