About

As a strategic innovation and alignment institute, Carol Sanford Institute invented and developed an innovative, and yet fully tested, systemic technology to educate organizations to think creatively and systemically. The track record is impeccable. An exclusive feature of our work is the discovering and expression of “the Essence of a business” as an organizing concept for focus and innovation. Understanding Essence provides for a pervasively aligned execution that is focused, distinctiveness and make responsibility a way of doing business.

Carol Sanford Institute was founded in 1977, but evolved this decade, with two specific goals:  for this methodology to have an enduring life beyond the founder; and to move the work into an education- rather than a consulting-based format.  To that end, we are pleased to announce that we have formed partnerships with several colleges and universities that will offer programs using and based on this methodology.

  • University of Washington Bothell Executive Education program; and
  • Glasgow Caldonian University, NYC Campus.

Carol Sanford, under several corporate structures, has worked with Fortune 500 and “rock star entrepreneurs” for nearly forty years—creating significant evolution in financial effectiveness, meaningful market contribution, and transformation of communities and ecosystems. She contracted with many colleagues to participate in these events and used the events with clients to develop people in working with the technology based on living systems.  In summary, she has:

  • Worked in thirty-two industries;
  • Consulted with 124 businesses;
  • Worked on all the livable continents;
  • Led 4,775 independent change practitioners who serve as resources to business and other entities;
  • Had twenty-four leaders promoted to senior or C-suite leadership of other Fortune 500 businesses;
  • Worked with 122 small businesses that are thriving beyond ten years, including some which have gone public;
  • Lectured at multiple universities, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford,  and Ross Michigan; and
  • Become mandatory reading at over 200 universities, colleges and prep schools around the world.

Her most recent work has been to help build a stronger commitment to larger scale change among entrepreneurs to affect the course of history. The desire to integrate making a difference with making a contribution is strong in mall entrepreneurs the “how” for such a drive. Particularly to go avoid separating out the idea social entrepreneurship as a different kind of entrepreneurs, which leads to falling short of what is needed. And more importantly, what is possible. We see the idea of social entrepreneurship as a diversion from the wholeness that all entrepreneurs can achieve as integral to everything they do. But it requires a step up in understanding and capability, but also there is a much higher social return, as well as enduring success for the business.