Objectives

Public health is crucial to every aspect of life. It impacts business, social and economic decisions. "When Public Health Means Business” was set out to create platform and dialogue between business and public health leaders. Through COVID-19, CEOs and business owners have realized that public health is an urgent responsibility and critical to population and economic health. Business can’t buy a way out of a public health crisis; they need the strategy and knowledge of public health experts to maintain business continuity. The primacy of public health is now more than ever integral to business decisions.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health intended to bridge the gap and integrate public health and business in an effort to optimize enterprise, stakeholders, and larger public health issues.

• Promote public health integration and business opportunities by bringing together business leaders and public health thinkers to have a discussion on COVID-19
• Educate public health leaders, business communities, government leaders and the general public on the business case for engaging in public health for the good of the enterprise, its stakeholders, and global communities  
• Lay the groundwork for meaningful and continued dialogue

Strategy and Execution

To actualize the concept, the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health created “When Public Health Means Business.” This is a multi-part series that virtually convened luminaries from the realms of finance, industry, and health to map a new path forward and ensure a better, safer future for all.

When selecting the speakers, the team ensured that the speakers were the following:

• Representative of the economic, political, environmental, and cultural forces in today’s globalized world. The enterprises and individuals have an impact on the lives of millions of people every day, often in complex and imperceptible ways.
• Aware of the changing nature of public health threats, acknowledging their ability to mitigate health, economic and security risk associated with these situations.
• Understood the critical importance of positioning their organizations to avoid unnecessary exposure, respond effectively and support global health security for the good of the corporate enterprise and the larger communities.

To that end, the team built out four different dialogues throughout the summer with participants from a wide range of industries and expertise. See full program below.

Putting on the programs is only the first step. The team needed to ensure people attended and participated in the discussions, virtually of course. All of the events were cross promoted on Harvard’s The Forum page as well as through Facebook’s live streaming.

Session 1: June 3, 2020

Moderator: Meg Tirrell, Senior Health & Science Reporter, CNBC

Speakers:

• Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman
• Arnold Epstein, John H. Foster Professor of Health Policy and Management; Senior Academic Advisor to the Dean; Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Associate Editor, New England Journal of Medicine 
• Julie Gerberding, Executive Vice President & Chief Patient Officer, Strategic Communications, Global Public Policy and Population Health, Merck
• Linda A. Hill, Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and Faculty Chair
• Eric Rubin, Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine; Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Session 2: June 10, 2020

Moderator: Melissa Lee, Host, “Fast Money” & “Options Action”, CNBC

Speakers:

• Mandell Crawley, Head of Private Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley
• Arnold Epstein, John H. Foster Professor of Health Policy and Management; Senior Academic Advisor to the Dean; Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Associate Editor, New England Journal of Medicine
• Margaret Hamburg, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine, and 21st Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Nicholas T. Pinchuk, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Snap-on Incorporated
• Eric Rubin, Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine; Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Session 3: June 17, 2020

Moderator: Ali Velshi, Host of “Velshi”, MSNBC

Speakers:

• Lawrence H. Summers, President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University

Session 4:  August 5, 2020

Speakers:

• Anthony Fauci, Director, NIAID
• Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN
   

Results

The dialogue series successfully achieved the project’s objective and goals:

• Promote public health integration and business opportunities by bringing together business leaders and public health thinkers to have a discussion on COVID-19

The team effectively brought business leaders from various industries together with leading public health thinkers from the NIAID, FDA, and NEJM. The conversations about what public health can do when it means business were in-depth and often challenged the thinkers to expand beyond their typical scope of stakeholders.

• Educate public health leaders, business communities, government leaders and the general public on the business case for engaging in public health

Beyond the participants, the conversations were engaging to the outside audience.  To give numbers, the final installation of dialogue engaged a total of 32 million people across all platforms. A total of 1.262 million viewers tuned in to watch the conversation live, 4 million people watched through CNN’s TV, digital, and social platforms and 5.6 million followers saw it on the Harvard University Facebook page. Additionally, the concept was featured in Fortune, Is it time for your business to hire a chief public health officer?

• Lay the groundwork for meaningful and continued dialogue

A key measurement of success is the lasting impact of this program. Through “When Public Health means Business,” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is developing a certificate program for business leaders. Business leaders will gain a deeper understanding of global public health and learn to lead their business with public health in mind.  

Media