In this uplifting presentation as part of the TED Talks series, Monitor's Katherine Fulton sketches the new future of philanthropy -- one where collaboration and innovation allow regular people to do big things, even when money is scarce. Giving five practical examples of crowd-driven philanthropy, she calls for a new generation of citizen leaders.

Nearly half of the world lives on less than $2 a day. The persistence of massive global poverty cries out for new approaches to improving the lives of people living at the base of the income pyramid. Monitor Group released this first-of-its-kind report based on comparative research in 20 countries that explores financially sustainable and scalable enterprises that succeed in low-income markets and highlights their promise to accelerate genuine social change.

Why do organizations get blindsided by market transformations that could have been anticipated?  This article from Strategy & Leadership guides you through a systematic process for incorporating plausible but challenging future scenarios into your organization’s learning processes, to help mitigate risk and decrease the likelihood of being unprepared for discontinuities.

A growing group of investors around the world is seeking to make investments that generate social and environmental value as well as financial return. This emerging industry of impact investing has the potential to become a potent force for addressing global challenges. But how might it succeed or fail? Will it take the next five to 10 years? 25 years? Or will it not happen at all?

This report, by Monitor Institute's Jessica Freireich and Katherine Fulton, examines impact investing and how leaders could accelerate the industry's evolution and increase its ultimate impact in the world. It explores how impact investing has emerged and how it might evolve, including profiles of a wide range of impact investors. The report also provides a blueprint of initiatives to catalyze the industry.

“Paths to Prosperity; Promoting Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century,” a new Monitor Group study, interviewed entrepreneurs in 22 countries to determine attitudes and critical policies required for entrepreneurship to thrive in different regions around the world, including the importance of a society's fostering of entrepreneurial skills and tax policies that encourage R&D.

These are unprecedented times for corporate executives—incredible volatility in the markets, sinking consumer confidence, a new financial crisis every week.  As a result, executives need to act quickly to tackle short term problems while setting the stage for long term growth. While we’ve dealt with recession before, the level of volatility and structural change posed by this crisis calls for a radically different playbook of options for achieving growth. 

In our view, there are certain, key levers companies can pull to find real growth and address the uncertainty.  The topics covered here can help shape your leadership agenda.

Nick Turner, a partner at Monitor Group and co-president of the Global Business Network, explains how scenario planning is a key to readiness in uncertain times in an article in CEO Journal.

The Monitor Group is known for using market-based solutions as a powerful route to social progress. Recognizing that one of India’s biggest challenges lies in its social inequities, the firm has made affordable housing for the country’s low-income residents a strategic priority. In an article written for the fifth-anniversary issue of Civil Society magazine, Monitor India CEO Ashish Karamchandani and several other consultants share how their work in this area is changing the lives of individuals and shaping the market.

In this short presentation Monitor Partner Victoria Levy discusses a critical and timely issue facing most companies…how to get more out of marketing spend during recessionary times.

Today’s complex business environment presents an opportunity for executive development systems to create sustained strategic advantage for a company.  There is an undeniable edge for an organization that is able to routinely produce leaders who are equipped to take on the unique contingencies of their business. Making this happen, however, requires a shift in how companies think about developing their executives and how they manage the learning side of their business.