The Dialogue Project at Duke

The Business of Building a Better Society

Duke’s Fuqua School of Business is home to The Dialogue Project, an initiative to explore the role business can play to reduce polarization and improve civic dialogue.

Business is one part of society that understands how to do this. Every day, successful businesses bring people together with diverse experiences and points-of-view to work toward common goals. The Dialogue Project will explore how these skills can be expanded more broadly in our society, and equip business leaders with new tools required to succeed in the emerging stakeholder economy.

Recent research (Edelman 2022 Trust Barometer) reveals that business is one of our most trusted institutions, ranked higher than government, media and NGOs. This represents an opportunity and a responsibility for business to promote the kind of dialogue and consensus that are critical not just for business success, but also for a healthy democracy.

Dean Bill Boulding of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business recently interviewed Dialogue Project founder Bob Feldman during the school’s Board of Visitors meeting. In this video, Feldman explains the purpose of the Dialogue Project and what business leaders can learn and adapt for their own organizations.

Leadership

bill boulding

Dean Bill Boulding

Bill has advocated at the top levels of government, industry, and academia for ways that enable business to improve society.

In 2014, Bill was invited by the White House to be part of an initiative that developed best practices for how business schools can encourage success for women and working families.

In 2015, Bill engaged with the New York Federal Reserve in examining the role business schools can play in rebuilding trust in the financial services sector.

Bob Feldman

Bob, a longtime senior marketing and communications executive, is the founder of the Dialogue Project, a program that engages the world’s business leaders on what role business can play to reduce polarization in society, improve civil discourse and create a more productive climate for business productivity.  

Prior to founding the Dialogue Project, Bob had been vice chair of ICF Next, a global marketing firm; head of communications and corporate marketing at DreamWorks Animation; and chief executive officer of WPP’s GCI Group, a global communications consultancy.

Steering Committee

Ronnie Chatterji
Elizabeth Hogan
Daisy Lovelace
Mike Schoenfeld
Sanyin Siang
Sim Sitkin
Russ Yarrow

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For more information about The Dialogue Project at Duke connect with our team at dialogueproject@fuqua.duke.edu.