How Public-Private Partnerships Drive Innovation: Insights from “Venture Meets Mission”

Aligning People, Purpose, and Profit to Innovate and Transform Society

Discover how “Venture Meets Mission” reveals the transformative potential of entrepreneurs collaborating with government to solve society’s biggest challenges. Learn why aligning people, purpose, and profit is the future of innovation-and how you can build a meaningful, impactful career in this new ecosystem.

Ready to unlock the secrets of impactful entrepreneurship and meaningful public-private collaboration? Keep reading to explore actionable strategies from “Venture Meets Mission” that can help you align your career with purpose, profit, and societal change!

Recommendation

Entrepreneurs who can collaborate at the intersection of innovation, business, and government may now offer the best way to address society’s problems. Academics Arun Gupta, Gerard George, and Thomas J. Fewer contend that today’s issues call for entrepreneurs whose companies offer societal value beyond profit maximization. They argue that governments haven’t kept up with transformative technologies such as smartphones, social media, and artificial intelligence, and may be better able to deploy such tech if they work with private businesses. These public-private ventures also may offer the best career paths for those seeking not only money, but also an inspiring purpose that fulfills their larger quest for mission, meaning, and service.

Take-Aways

• The COVID-19 pandemic inspired a generation to shift toward work with meaning and purpose.
• Entrepreneurs who collaborate with government can transform society.
• Governments and entrepreneurs share many common values.
• Public-private collaboration calls for reinvention.
• Government-entrepreneur collaborations can generate broad public value.
• Government can facilitate innovation.
• Businesspeople can make money while having a meaningful impact.

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic inspired a generation to shift toward work with meaning and purpose.

Generations occasionally face monumental, existential choices. In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, the threat of thermonuclear war was very real. Speaking at the UN, President John F. Kennedy said that members of a new generation should harness their power and energy to promote democracy and innovation at every level – public and private.

Kennedy captured a pivotal moment in the 1960s, just as the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic – with its death tolls, economic damage, and psychological strain – brought about another crucial inflection point.

“The COVID pandemic made us all reflect. For the younger generation, the pandemic provided a much-needed pathway to self-expression, along with which they felt empowered to reflect upon and articulate their core beliefs, values, and ideals.”

The pandemic spurred a “generational reset” and inspired renewed respect for public service. During the pandemic, millennials and gen Xers were among society’s most proactive members. Young people wanted to work with a higher sense of purpose. They wanted to fuel a larger mission to change society for the better.

A mission operates on a different level than a purpose. Someone with a sense of mission looks outward, not inward, and seeks to benefit others, such as a community or society as a whole. When you realize that making money to satisfy your needs and pleasures isn’t sufficient, you are ready to ask what mission you could undertake that might benefit society.

Entrepreneurs who collaborate with government can transform society.

The major powers haven’t decisively addressed the world’s gravest and most urgent problems, including global food insecurity, dramatic economic inequality, and climate change. In 2016, to limit global temperature rise, 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement. Then, in 2019, multiple Middle Eastern and North African countries signed the World Bank’s Human Capital Project, pressing governments to invest in their own people as their most important asset. Despite these steps, government innovation on these and other issues lags behind the private sector.

“The best minds choose careers that they find fast-paced and innovative. And while the United States is seen as a magnet for global innovation talent, its lead is concerningly shrinking.”

People with technological talent still flock to the United States. But they tend to settle away from Washington, DC, and the federal government, preferring coastal centers such as San Francisco, Boston, and New York.

Governments, which did well with a hierarchical, vertically integrated approach, are no longer producing much-needed technological innovations. Instead, today’s innovators are “intersectional.” They have multiple skills and often seek nonlinear career paths so they can try different roles.

Innovators who can perceive situations from multiple perspectives will end up addressing the world’s problems. After all, though governments can contribute massive resources and logistical capacities, innovation is more likely to come from smaller, more flexible commercial enterprises that can form partnerships with governments.

These partnerships emerge from a sensibility that businesses should do more than maximize profits. They must identify and serve stakeholders beyond their investors and shareholders, including the communities in which they operate. An enterprise can be financially successful and innovative while also working closely with governments in mission-driven partnerships that address societal issues.

Governments and entrepreneurs share many common values.

In the United States today, people trust businesses and universities more than they trust the government.

“Now society needs younger people to push forward and repair the relationships between society at large, the government, and business, shaped by the idea that business can be a partner or collaborator in pursuit of a larger mission.”

Certain contributing factors suggest that today is a pivotal inflection point in moving toward a mission-driven business culture. These factors include technological innovation and business model changes, corporate policies that work toward improved social outcomes, and the acceptance of mission-based partnerships between business and government. They also include the way people view the importance of democracy – particularly in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which affected the global business environment.

“We are searching for and finding meaning in our careers…this is an important, and often overlooked, consideration for the future of society.”

Entrepreneurial ventures can deal with local or national needs, promote a sense of collective purpose, and address societal problems while still creating economic value. They can marshal capitalism’s creativity and power to fulfill socially beneficial aims. The number of new businesses launched in the United States has risen dramatically since the COVID pandemic. And, even prior to the pandemic, as of 2016, half of new US businesses had underlying social goals.

Public-private collaboration calls for reinvention.

Public-private ventures are not new. In the run-up to World War II, the need for American involvement in Europe was becoming increasingly obvious. But the United States was in no shape to fight or finance an international war. The US Army and Navy were both comparatively small. In this urgent global context, representatives of General Motors and the shipbuilding industry approached the government with the idea that private industry could help the nation ramp up its military capacity.

With government contracts and economic incentives, private industries converted their facilities to meet wartime needs like manufacturing tanks and battleships. In less than a year, the United States had the world’s greatest military.

“Elevating the common objectives of government and venture, and harmonizing the values of ‘what functions government serves’ and ‘who entrepreneurs are,’ are first steps in transforming mission into the future we want.”

One central issue in public-private partnerships is that taxpayers fund public organizations like governmental agencies. In contrast, individuals or groups own private organizations – companies funded by their earnings. Public sector organizations serve communities and have largely social goals, while private companies generally seek to maximize revenues and profit.

Objectively measuring a public sector organization’s success is difficult, but the performance of private companies is far easier to quantify. In the past, public-private partnerships, like those during World War II, tended to be between the government and large corporations. Today’s “government-venture arrangements” are fundamentally different and can include small companies.

Government-entrepreneur collaborations can generate broad public value.

Those who design government-business collaborations need a clear grasp of the government’s mission to determine how its partnership with business can lead to widespread, inclusive public value. A government’s mission is societal, and the stakes can be incredibly high. When a private, for-profit enterprise fails, it loses money or reputational value. But, when a government-venture collaboration fails – such as in manufacturing technologies for the military – the consequences can be catastrophic.

“Public and private firms speak different languages. Not literally, of course, but the terminology employed by the public and private sectors differs. Language in this sense is tied to organizational cultures.”

Differing and sometimes conflicting cultures contribute to the challenges inherent in public-private sector collaborations. Organizations with similar cultures can easily formulate a common mission, but public and private partners must have a meeting of the minds to seek alignment. Entrepreneurs embrace uncertainty and elasticity, but government agencies tend to be regimented and inflexible. So, for government-private venture arrangements to work, the parties must carefully design their project to incorporate mutual goals based on realistic expectations and incentives.

Although entrepreneurs may need to adapt to working with the government, governments can offer mission-oriented entrepreneurs the opportunity to make an impact on a larger scale. Businesspeople must understand that governments are responsible for demonstrating the public value they offer. They must learn the language of government and develop diverse mission-sharing teams that can approach issues from multiple perspectives. They must prepare for unanticipated problems. And, to collaborate with the government effectively, a private enterprise must be mission-oriented. A clear mission defines eventual success and demonstrates that the project isn’t focused only on profit.

The differences in organizational culture between public sector organizations and private firms may lead them to push one another’s boundaries, particularly if they make broad assumptions. Instead, government and private joint enterprises should try to create a Venture Meets Mission culture that restores people’s belief in the government’s capacity to collaborate and to push change forward.

Government can facilitate innovation.

Governments have a reputation for inflexibility, but they have a proven track record of encouraging and enabling innovation. One obvious example is the collaboration between major manufacturing firms and the government before and during World War II. But the government has been a thought leader in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, data analytics, and quantum computing. Companies with venture capital funding often try hard to enlist the government as a client.

“Divergences in practices and goals in public and private organizations often lead to more valuable and destabilizing innovations.”

Trust is central to capitalism’s functioning. Productive partnerships between governments and private companies demand increased trust in government institutions. Fewer than half of the people in the United States trust government institutions – in comparison with, for example, more than two-thirds in Norway. Governments can increase trust by establishing a start-up-friendly, intersectional environment in which opportunities abound for collaboration between different institutions – political, business, and academic. Governments must support and promote the democratic values that underlie the Venture Meets Mission culture and mindset.

Businesspeople can make money while having a meaningful impact.

The Venture Meets Mission culture, or ecosystem, initially applies to partnerships between public-sector institutions and private, entrepreneurial organizations. But the same issues arise regarding individuals and their careers. Whether you’re a recent MBA graduate or an established leader, and whether you work in government or for a small, venture-capital-funded company, you needn’t choose between financial success and social impact. For instance, recent studies suggest that public-private partnerships and hybrid organizations are particularly productive in research and development.

“Building a career does not require a trade-off between doing good and doing well. Quite the contrary. And better yet, there is is no right stage or types of experience or age.”

A mission-oriented mindset provides a powerful incentive for work and achievement. Leadership in this arena involves motivating others to work toward a common goal and common values at the juncture of public-sector organizations and private companies.

Leaders don’t have to conform to a standard or expected career path or limit themselves to the narrow career path of their field of study. Stacey Dixon, who became the deputy director of national intelligence in President Joe Biden’s administration, initially earned a PhD in mechanical engineering. She planned on a career in industry and academia. As she demonstrates, people who have the greatest impact in government and elsewhere often approach problems from diverse and surprising perspectives.

About the Authors

Arun Gupta, a Faculty Lecturer at Stanford University, created and teaches the “Valley Meets Mission” course, where he urges students aspiring to Silicon Valley success to pursue solutions to world problems. Gerard George is a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Georgetown University, where Thomas J. Fewer is a postdoctoral fellow in the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative.