The goal of WRI's BELL (Business, Environment, Learning and Leadership) Program is to make sure promising business leaders of tomorrow have the skills necessary for making companies more competitive by viewing social and environmental challenges as unmet market needs that can provide business growth opportunities through innovation and organizational change. BELL achieves this by working together with educators, researchers, and managers to create and generate new knowledge about management strategies and techniques and disseminating those through cutting-edge business educational programs.

BELL activities are focused on the long-term growth aspects of sustainability in a business context related to innovation, repositioning, and shared visions.  This includes topics such as technological innovation, clean technology, technological commercialization, BOP market development, and economic capacity building.  This approach is in contrast to most programs found at other NGOs or reflected by a great deal of private sector consulting work that addresses short term sustainability issues related to costs and public perceptions.  Those issues include risk and cost reductions, reputation building and efforts to establish legitimacy and tend to focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR), environmental management, environmental/health/safety (EHS), and ethics.

BELL works to understand global trends effecting business, to identify unmet market needs and to integrate this understanding into business strategy to create the future business reality of creating sustainable value through innovation, entrepreneurship, and organizational change. BELL develops a wealth of knowledge on the business reality in our project countries through assembling leading business people and academics to serve on BELL’s in-country Corporate Working Groups and Research Panels constituted of leading academics and business leader in each of our project countries.

BELL employs strategies to change the practice of management through the education of corporate leaders, business education faculty, and students. BELL projects increase the supply and quality of knowledge available to those interested in understanding sustainable enterprise. We disseminate that knowledge through research and intellectual capital development, business mentorship, knowledge dissemination, curriculum reform, and network development. Our biennial study of management programs, Beyond Grey Pinstripes helps create clarity in the marketplace for both companies and students seeking knowledge on the quality and content of sustainability training. The Accountability Project  provides insight for managers on how organizations succeed or fail to link broad strategic sustainability goals to the company’s human resources function in a way that makes the firm more competitive. The Environmental Enterprise Corps stimulates student interest in sustainable enterprise through field-based consulting projects with companies identified through WRI's New Ventures project. BELL also identifies corporations’ sustainability and growth needs and connects companies with experts (including WRI staff, MBA candidates, and business school faculty) to jointly develop sustainable business growth strategies based on innovation and organizational change, such as those at the base of the economic pyramid. The substantive focus of BELL projects, curricula, and events is shaped by the challenges being faced by companies in today’s marketplace and are in line with WRI priority objectives .

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Innovation

BELL seeks to understand the mechanisms for encouraging innovation in business, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Finding competitive advantage in environmental and social challenges requires innovation in problem definition, problem solving, sustainable product design, and business model development.

Organizational Change

The continuing challenge for many companies is how to make terms such as sustainability, social responsibility, environmental management, environment, health and safety, and corporate social responsibility meaningful within the context of that firm's operating environment.  BELL works to build a knowledge base of organizational experiences and processes that support the meaningful integration of these terms into culture and strategy, and leverage that knowledge to help firms become more effective in the marketplace.

Entrepreneurship

Dynamic economic growth depends on entrepreneurship.  Entrepreneurs drive innovation and pursue market opportunities when others hesitate.  In the coming decades significant growth opportunities will be found in emerging markets.  Entrepreneurs in small and large firms alike will be important for the development of new products and services able to meet low-income needs in those markets.  BELL works to provide knowledge to nurture inclusive capitalism that will engage billions who are currently underserved or ignored by current economic activities.