Lately, it's no surprise when a corporation lends a helping hand to schools and communities. But it's a rare occasion when schools and communities can return the favor. Yet that's just what happened over the last few months at the Polaroid Corporation.
Polaroid, which has its central headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., was under attack. Shamrock Holdings Inc. was attempting a hostile takeover. If Shamrock had taken over and followed proposals prepared for it by a consulting firm, there would have been massive layoffs at Polaroid, an end to research and development efforts, a level of debt payments that would have removed Polaroid from the ranks of corporate ta payers, a sale of all Polaroid manufacturing operations and, over time, a liquidation of all of Polaroid's assets.
This particular attempt at a hostile takeover failed, as others sometimes do. What makes the story of Polaroid's comeback so unusual is that the takeover wasn't only opposed by Polaroid employees and others who stood to lose directly from the cooperation's demise. These groups were joined by others: schools, universities, community agencies, citizens and scientific groups that had either been helped or just impressed by Polaroid's public-spirited contributions over the years.
What has Polaroid been doing to prompt such support? For one, Polaroid has been a stable presence and "good citizen" in the community since 1937. It seems that when Edwin Land founded the company, he wasn't only interested in establishing a profitable business. He also wanted to create a stimulating company that provided a worthwhile and dignified work experience for its employees. Polaroid has invested in its human resources ever since. One result is that its employees are invested in Polaroid -- and, when the hostile takeover bid came along, they returned that investment with an out-pouring of support for Polaroid.
Polaroid's commitments also go beyond its own doors. For twenty years, it has operated Inner City, Inc., which provides job training and placement for Boston's disadvantaged and unemployed citizens. Polaroid has a long history of support for innovative programs, particularly for women and for black colleges. It was also a pioneer and now a leader in corporate-sponsored day care. It was and is a central part of a scholarship program for graduates of Boston's public high schools, as well as the Cambridge Partnership for Public Education, the Waltham Partnership for Youth and a variety of community agencies serving the poor. They all rallied to Polaroid's defense.
Polaroid's latest example of good citizenship, Project Bridge, is a response to the severe shortage of math, science and technological talent in our nation. One part of the project, the Career Transition Program, offers. Polaroid's mid-career professionals an opportunity to learn about becoming a teacher. Employees who are interested may then enroll in a teacher education program at local colleges and universities that collaborated with Polaroid on the project - and the corporation pays its employees their full base pay, tuition and other charges until their certification is complete!
Project Bridge also consists of a Teacher Internship Program that enables teachers to take a paid sabbatical and to practice and learn more about math and science applications in industry. The teachers are renewed from the experience, Polaroid benefits from the expertise of the teachers and public school students gain from teachers who can now make their academic subjects more real for them.
Schools and communities are hungry for corporate support and commitment, and they are usually grateful when they get that. But most business-school-community partnerships are not viewed as real partnerships because the help only seems to go one way: the business to the school or community. Of course, the business sees itself as getting short-term help in the form of good public relations. Some even see the return help in a long-term way, in the payoff in more employable students or lower welfare dependency. But few ever see schools or communities as real partners, a source as well as a recipient of help.
The Polaroid case illustrates what a real business-school-community partnership is about: mutual obligations and help and a recognition that the strong must help the weak, the strong can become weak and the weak can become strong. And that's just another way of talking about good citizenship.