The Power of Public Private Partnerships

Somewhere on the King’s Highway in South Africa is a woman struggling with AIDS, and somewhere in Harlem, another woman looking for help with HIV. While the two will likely never meet, they are united in their quest for survival. The women are also connected by a growing group of leaders in the public, private, and civic sectors who are tackling important global challenges with public private partnerships to reach individuals like them.

Several experts in public private partnerships gathered at the Darden Net Impact Conference yesterday to discuss the topic. Moderated by Darden’s own Mary Margaret Frank, panelists included the following:

• Mary Ann Leeper, Darden professor
• John Newsome, Global Business Connection on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
• Rob Schneider, United States Agency for International Development
• Kevin Yocum, Brink’s Company

Speakers described public private partnerships as alliances of organizations with shared common goals. Historically such partnerships focused primarily on business synergies. Today they have become increasingly sophisticated in their ability to unite diverse actors and communities and to leverage the unique expertise each of those partners. Public private partnerships are addressing increasingly diverse and complex challenges, from the distribution of female condoms in Washington, DC to access to drugs to fight HIV/AIDs.

The panel highlighted many characteristics of successful public private partnerships. To succeed, such alliances should:

• Identify and measure key important challenges
• Develop relationships with people and organizations with relevant expertise
• Convince key stakeholders of the power of a public private partnership
• Utilize the relevant skills of every partner to find and implement innovative solutions
• Employ rigorous analytics to measure their impact

The power of these partnerships is profound, and in closing, Mary Margaret Frank challenged each of us to use the powerful skill set we are building as MBAs to make an impact. We all have the opportunity to act as bridgers to unite the government, corporations, and non-profits and to reach women like those in South Africa and Harlem.