What had been a loose idea born last year in April among some wonderful colleagues, has now taken form: I feel deeply grateful to share an initial version of what we call ‘The Partnering Corporation Charter’.

It is meant as a ‘letter of intent’, a 'memorandum of understanding' or a kind of ‘manifesto’ – whatever you wish to call it – for the creation of more Partnering Corporations. Its intent is to address what my dear colleague and friend Ginny Belden Charles and I felt is undervalued in current ESG and stakeholder capitalism efforts: to address not only the responsibility, but also the possibility to rethink business corporations as conscious actors that contribute to bridge-building and partnerism in our today’s increasingly fragmented world. 

It addresses the overlooked influence that companies have today on our societal global relational reality. Not only by how they cultivate their direct stakeholder relationships, but more importantly by the way they design their business models, services, structures, procedures, measurements and governances. 

Consciously or not, companies have in some ways much more scalable impact on the way we connect and relate with each other than national-bound governmental institutions. That’s why we imagine addressing a new conscious partnering vision, responsibility, and purpose with the Partnering Corporation Charter. A vision for companies to become more conscious creators of relational goods in our societies – not only through what they do (as the ESG debate suggests), but by how they organize and manage their corporations. 

For such reimagined partnering-based corporations’ relationships shift from being a means to becoming a purpose. Relationships are not regarded anymore to serve business activities. Instead, it’s the other way round: Business activities serve the purpose of contributing to valuable healthy human relatedness in our society.

We hope this Charter can serve as a guideline to encourage a respective multidisciplinary discussion among leaders, professionals, consultants and academics alike. We hope it invites to explore where and where not competitiveness is the right answer to solve societal problems, and how partnering-based business corporations need to be managed and structured differently. 

The Charter is intended as an independent open-source document – so please be invited to download, share and use it in your own context. We also welcome any feedback to progress it further or to connect with like-minded initiatives.

On our end, we intend to continue the discussion on how to design partnering-based corporations – from partnering strategies to relational performance evaluation - in a dedicated multidisciplinary “Think Tank” that will kick-off soon, organized by the Partnering Leadership Academy. 

If the idea of rethinking corporations from a partnering paradigm resonates with you, please explore the Think Tank “Creating Partnering Corporations” outline on our website and feel welcome to join us in this endeavor.

We look forward to continuing the lively discussion and knowledge sharing to discover the untapped possibilities for a more equitable and sustainable economy when rethinking corporations from a partnering paradigm.

Warmest regards,

Dr. Eva Bilhuber Galli | Ginny Belden-Charles, Ph.D.
Co-initiators of the Partnering Corporation Charter