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I attended the Clinton Global Initiative for the past two days in New York City. It is the fifth year for the CGI, started by former President Clinton to unite business, government and civil society behind specific commitments to remedy shortcomings in infrastructure, health, human capital and access to financing. The meeting features top executives from companies (Mike Duke of Wal-Mart), government (President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, Prime Minister Rudd of Australia, President of Chile, Bachelet, Queen Rania of Jordan) and celebrities (Bono, Julia Ormond, Jessica Alba) who reported on the progress they have made and the steps that need to be implemented in the future. Here are some of key highlights from the meeting which illustrate how we’re moving from a shareholder to a stakeholder society: 1) Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile, said the financial crisis proved the failure of laissez faire economics. “We must change the economic and social framework to resume the effort to equalize nations in the world.” 2) Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, said that the balance between “legitimacy and efficiency” must be regained after a period of sole reliance on efficiency. The Australian Government is making a direct investment in solar in the desert area of the country, near the electric grid. 3) Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, noted that he places customers first and employees second. “If investors don’t like that approach, they can sell their stock.” He announced a major foundation initiative, hoping to spur more Chinese millionaires into philanthropic causes. 4) John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, said that technology companies are best able to balance executive compensation and performance “because our investment time horizon is necessarily long term. I took no salary for three years after the Internet bubble burst in 2001. But I have made it back in the last four years.” Note that Cisco Systems replaced GM in the Dow Jones index earlier this year. 5) Craig Mundie, chief technologist at Microsoft (disclosure: client), said that his company is working hard in both energy and health-care to give consumers the tools to change behavior. He cited the HOHM software, which can be downloaded for free, that enables home owners to assess their energy efficiency and make changes. The company is doing the same in health, with wireless signals from your scale and heart monitor to do a daily tracking of key statistics. 6) President Barack Obama said, “Real progress must come from the bottom up. We should embrace a new spirit of engagement, based on mutual interests and respect. Government cannot do it alone; it must rely on partnerships with business and civil society to seize the promise of this moment. We must make clear the kind of future we want to build; it is not enough simply to stop terrorists, we must change the conditions that engender terrorism.” Edelman has made its own commitment to a CGI sponsored project, 1Goal, which seeks to mobilize athletes participating in the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa to support education for all children. We are doing a global press briefing on October 6 hosted by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Brazilian President Lula, leaders from South Africa, France, Netherlands, plus FIFA head Sepp Blatter. We aim to secure financial support for FIFA’s goal of addressing the 50% of the world’s uneducated children who reside in Africa, a worthy legacy for World Cup 2010. I was on the stage today with Queen Rania of Jordan, Bono, Jessica Alba, representatives of FIFA, Intel and Cisco Systems (sometimes I feel like Zelig, the Woody Allen character who shows up in unexpected places!). Those of us in public relations are really in the lynch-pin role to bring together companies, charities and countries to ameliorate pressing social issues. In Edelman’s Midyear Trust Barometer study, 1,700 opinion leaders across six countries stated that they expect societal concerns as important a consideration in a CEO’s business decision as investors’ priorities—data chart below. President Obama asked us to consider what each of us can do as individuals. “You don’t have to hold office to be a public servant.” Especially in these trying times, we should begin a new era of service to our communities.