What do you do when the dreaded moment arrives? How do you react when an employee is arrested? When reduced funding causes layoffs? When changes in the market force you to shut down beloved programs? In other words, how do you handle bad news -- especially the kind that goes public and shakes stakeholder confidence? My friend Chris Klose has been a crisis communications specialist for more than 30 years.

We were sitting at an outdoor table in southern California . . . My daughter and I are both progressives, but I\'m a child of the \'60s and she\'s a child of the \'90s. We live in different worlds -- a truth brought home to me dramatically as we spoke. Conversation turned to politicians we admired and we began talking about Barack Obama and his burgeoning race for the Presidency. We both like what we\'ve seen of him, but agreed he still has a lot to prove to the American public. Then I paused and drifted for a moment. Memories of the 1960\'s came flooding back.

Bear with me, now. Practitioners notoriously resist academics--but there\'s a movement afoot that deserves our attention. In their recent essay \"Framing a Theory of Social Entrepreneurship,\" [excerpted in this issue of SER] Greg Dees and Beth Battle Anderson point out that \"social entrepreneurship has been gaining momentum as an academic subject\". But they also issue a caution. \"Even with this flurry of activity, social entrepreneurship is still in its infancy--as a field of intellectual inquiry.

More than one nonprofit Board member has approached me in recent months after a briefing session or a retreat, perplexed by the same topic. Their questions frequently come down to this: What is the difference between vision and mission — and why is the difference so important? Some nonprofits have both a vision statement and a mission statement. Some have only one statement and try to cover the waterfront. But almost all the nonprofits I encounter make a fundamental mistake: They think their vision statement should be about themselves.

He was a maverick . . . and when he began hectoring his fellow CEOs about the marriage of social needs and business opportunities, most of them snorted and turned away. I worked and traveled with Bill Norris for five years, from December 1979 through December 1984. Founded in 1957, Control Data Corporation became the most successful computer company of the 1960s and 1970s, the darling of Wall Street. By 1984 the company was worth $5 billion and employed 60,000 people.

In her column in a British business magazine this past summer, Jane Simms reported that CEOs rank customer service above product innovation, sales performance and regulatory compliance as their top priority. But what struck me most was her recipe for success.

It has become a truism that marketing is everybody’s responsibility, from the CEO to the half-time clerk. But it is also undeniable that marketing starts at the top. Many Boards of Directors, CEOs and Executive Directors are surprised to learn that the traditional job description for an organization’s most senior executive includes nothing about operations. A Chief Executive Officer has two primary responsibilities: Strategic planning and marketing. Operations is the bailiwick of the Chief Operating Officer (or the Deputy Executive Director).

Who is the most important marketing person in your organization? Tick, tick, tick . . . I ask that question at every one of my seminars and workshops. Few answer correctly. It\'s your receptionist. He or she may be the only voice your stakeholder ever hears, the only face your stakeholder ever sees. And if the receptionist fumbles the opportunity, your chance to make a good first impression -- or establish a reputation for customer service -- is gone forever.

Mark Berger gazed at a sea of faces in a San Diego conference center this April, the first speaker from a panel of social entrepreneurs sharing their stories. I served as moderator. “What does our organization do?” he began—then answered his own question. “We create taxpayers!” Berger is President and CEO of Partnerships with Industry (PWI), a social enterprise that provides training, placement and ongoing support services for adults with developmental disabilities (including those with autism, epilepsy, mental retardation and other challenges).

How does a successful nonprofit avoid stagnation? How does it renew and re-position itself as the world moves on? I served for five years on the Board of Directors for one of the country’s leading nonprofit management consulting groups, MAP for Nonprofits, which is based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. During the years leading up to its 25th anniversary in 2004, MAP established a national reputation for excellence by focusing on a singular mission: To help nonprofits achieve mission-driven results by building their capacity.