So, I’ve been wondering just what the heck the role of for-profits will be in Obama’s new Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.  Not much, seems to be the answer, at least for now. This is from an interview with Sonal Shah, who heads the office:

Q: Will you be working with for-profit companies that have social missions?

A: Ms. Shah: [We will] keep the social-mission for-profit community as an ongoing discussion to figure out what our role might be there, because we need to be sure we’re coordinating with our colleagues at [the Department of] Commerce and at [the Small Business Administration] and other agencies. I think we’ll keep that as a discussion we’d like to move forward with, but in the short term we have a fairly full agenda.

via White House Officials Discuss Plans for Social-Innovation Office – Philanthropy.com.

Guess there’s intra-agency turf issues at work here. Makes sense, since social mission for-profits are hybrids. But how ridiculous is it, that bureaucratic nonsense should be slowing things down? Not a surprise, really, but ridiculous, nonetheless.

Also,  I see a hint that the new White House office doesn’t really understand what social-mission for-profits are all about. Or maybe they don’t fully see the contribution these companies can make to overall social- innovation efforts.

Sure, Shah has her  hands full dealing with a completely new governmental office.  But not harnessing the potential power of not-only-for-profits ASAP–at a time when our economy really needs it– is a big mistake.

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