In an article titled "Google Finds It Hard To Reinvent Philanthropy", New York Times' reporters Stephanie Strom and Miguel Helft provide a really great read on the development and current status of DotOrg, Google's philanthropic effort to "ambitiously apply innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world’s problems.." and achieve this through a structure within Google that "It can start companies, build industries, pay consultants, lobby, give money to individuals and make a profit.”
Well, as Ms. Strom and Mr. Helft point out in their article, what has evolved doesn't quite look like what was planned. Much appears to be because of not so stellar management but maybe that's just my interpretation. And perhaps this is to be expected from one of today's innovation pioneers with lots of success in producing pretty big outcomes.
So, we know there are three sectors (at least in the US) and we know each has a unique role. We also know that there's frequently a lot of chatter about how one sector can or could benefit from the lessons of one of the other sectors. Interestingly, it's usually the business sector that most often says it has the experience that should be adopted by the public and nonprofit sectors.
Although I'm thinking it's still too early to tell, maybe the real lesson to be learned from Google's experience is that business does well as business but maybe not so well as nonprofit. Maybe, but again, I think it's too early too tell and in the meantime, I'd like to see how far Google can go with this effort.
And really, any commitment that any business wants to make is welcome.