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The following is excerpted from  of .

鈥淥ur future belongs to those who see the possibilities before those possibilities become obvious.鈥�

鈥揗ary Kay Ash

When Mary Kay Ash launched her business more than 50 years ago, she was not the typ颅ical entrepreneur. As a woman start颅ing a company that empowered other women to become entrepreneurs, she foresaw a business opportunity that would create also social change鈥攁nd Mary Kay鈥檚 success still endures today. Just as Ash played a role in disrupting the traditional business landscape for women, so too must forward-thinking corporate citizenship professionals focus on the possibilities before us.

Corporate citizenship professionals must be constant innovators, nimble and quick to react to a constantly changing landscape. That鈥檚 how we have achieved鈥攁nd will continue to achieve鈥攇rowth and sustainable progress. Because most corporate citizenship teams are taking on huge environmental and social issues with limited resources, they have developed an evolutionary advantage. Innovation depends on the capacity to connect people鈥攕omething that corporate citizenship professionals excel at.

You鈥檙e forging unlikely partnerships with suppliers, competitors, and nonprofit actors alike. You鈥檙e incorporating broadly inclusive stakeholder perspectives. You are challenging your organizations to consider the full footprint of your company鈥檚 corporate citizenship鈥攃hallenging the traditional boundaries of giving and sustainability to include topics as varied as diversity and inclusion to consumer data literacy and personal information protection. It turns out that most innovations come from taking a piece of knowledge from one very specialized domain and applying it in . Having robust networks鈥攁 calling card of the effective corporate citizenship professional鈥攊s a prerequisite to innovation, which comes about .

This month, we鈥檙e highlighting how the pioneering attitude of corporate citizenship drives innovation in the latest issue of magazine. In this issue, you鈥檒l find concrete examples of innovation that you can apply to your work.

As you know well, even the most efficient and successful corporate citizen颅ship professionals didn鈥檛 achieve their goals alone. We benefited from personal and professional networks, united by one purpose: to create a better business context and a better world in which to live.

How do you find your connections? The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship for you to network with expert colleagues in the field across a variety of in-person events held throughout the year, including our and in leadership, management, and practice.