Business Enterprise Trust
Encyclopedia
The Business Enterprise Trust, a nonprofit organization which was based in Palo Alto, California, celebrated exemplary acts of courage, integrity and social vision in American business. The organization’s purpose was to examine specific instances of bold, creative leadership that combined sound business management with social conscience.
Television Producer Norman Lear
, working with James E. Burke, the former Chairman and CEO of Johnson and Johnson, founded the BET in 1989, recruiting some of the leading lights of American business and labor for its Board of Directors, including:
From 1991 to 1997, the BET hosted an annual awards ceremony in New York City and produced short video documentaries, business school cases and teaching notes. The stories of twenty-five of the thirty BET awardees are featured in the book Aiming Higher (AMACOM, 1996). An extensive array of business education materials is still available through Harvard Business School Publishing. These materials have been used in more than 500 business schools, universities and corporate management training programs throughout the country.
The BET awards were gala affairs that featured such keynote speakers as President Bill Clinton
, then-Vice President Albert Gore, Senator Bill Bradley
, and journalist Bill Moyers
. The breakfast ceremonies in the Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Center were hosted by Moyers, Diane Sawyer
, and Barbara Walters
, among others, and were attended by such business leaders as Laurence Tisch, Jack Welch, and John Walton. Five honorees were recognized each year for blending product innovation with social concern, for pioneering successful business models in the inner city, for improving workforce diversity, and for achieving superior corporate performance by appealing to the best in their employees.
In addition to awards for specific acts of social innovation, the BET also presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to such visionaries as J. Irwin Miller of Cummins Engine, James Rouse of the Rouse Company, Frank Stanton of CBS, and the Haas Family of Levi Strauss & Company.
Through its compelling stories, the Trust pioneered new ways of understanding and exploring social innovation in business. It appealed to both idealism and practicality among businesspeople, inspiring them to use their enterprises to help address society’s urgent problems. However, long-term funding failed to materialize, and the BET ceased operations in 1998.
Television Producer Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
, working with James E. Burke, the former Chairman and CEO of Johnson and Johnson, founded the BET in 1989, recruiting some of the leading lights of American business and labor for its Board of Directors, including:
- Warren E. Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway
- Katharine Graham of the Washington Post company
- Henry B. Schact of Lucent TechnologiesLucent TechnologiesAlcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
- Robert A. Iger of Capital Cities/ABC Inc.
- Ambassador Sol M. Linowitz
- Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor
- Douglas Fraser of the United Auto WorkersUnited Auto WorkersThe International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...
From 1991 to 1997, the BET hosted an annual awards ceremony in New York City and produced short video documentaries, business school cases and teaching notes. The stories of twenty-five of the thirty BET awardees are featured in the book Aiming Higher (AMACOM, 1996). An extensive array of business education materials is still available through Harvard Business School Publishing. These materials have been used in more than 500 business schools, universities and corporate management training programs throughout the country.
The BET awards were gala affairs that featured such keynote speakers as President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, then-Vice President Albert Gore, Senator Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley
William Warren "Bill" Bradley is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election.Bradley was born and raised in a suburb of St....
, and journalist Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
. The breakfast ceremonies in the Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Center were hosted by Moyers, Diane Sawyer
Diane Sawyer
Lila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....
, and Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
, among others, and were attended by such business leaders as Laurence Tisch, Jack Welch, and John Walton. Five honorees were recognized each year for blending product innovation with social concern, for pioneering successful business models in the inner city, for improving workforce diversity, and for achieving superior corporate performance by appealing to the best in their employees.
In addition to awards for specific acts of social innovation, the BET also presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to such visionaries as J. Irwin Miller of Cummins Engine, James Rouse of the Rouse Company, Frank Stanton of CBS, and the Haas Family of Levi Strauss & Company.
Through its compelling stories, the Trust pioneered new ways of understanding and exploring social innovation in business. It appealed to both idealism and practicality among businesspeople, inspiring them to use their enterprises to help address society’s urgent problems. However, long-term funding failed to materialize, and the BET ceased operations in 1998.