Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Every day, business leaders make choices that shape lives. But what does it actually look like when those choices unlock opportunity for workers, families, and entire communities?
The HBS Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS) gathered over 60 leaders in Nashville, across business, government, and nonprofits, to explore a single question: What is our role in creating opportunity for everyone?
This film shares three concrete strategies companies are using right now to advance economic mobility:
→ Workforce Development: Interapt found that the talent it needed was already in the communities it served; it just hadn't been given a pathway. Their apprenticeship model has a 90%+ completion rate and has helped non-traditional workers land careers at companies like CVS Health, Humana, and GE Appliances.
→ Employee Ownership: Gibson Guitars' Share of Success program gives every employee a stake in the company's future, aligning the interests of factory workers with the C-suite and transforming culture from the shop floor up.
→ Ecosystem Building: The Eli Lilly LEAP District represents a $13 billion bet on Lebanon, Indiana, and a test case for how big business, local government, and community institutions can create shared growth rather than just extracting value.
Featuring insights from Harvard Business School faculty, including Raffaella Sadun, Ethan Rouen, and Chris Stanton. And practitioners: Ankur Gopal (CEO, Interapt), Merabeth Martin (COO, Interapt), Cesar Gueikian (CEO, Gibson Guitars), Nicholas Lalla (Urban Reinvention Strategies), Tim Kelly (Mayor, Chattanooga), and Chike Aguh (Former CIO, U.S. Dept. of Labor).
A special thank you to our programming partners at the HBS Mid-US Research Center, led by Alicia Dadlani.
Chapters:
0:00 — Introduction
3:00 — Interapt: Building a New Talent Pipeline
9:11 — Gibson Guitars: The Share of Success
15:50 — Eli Lilly & the LEAP District: Ecosystem Building
Every day, business leaders make choices that shape lives. But what does it actually look like when those choices unlock opportunity for workers, families, and entire communities?
The HBS Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS) gathered over 60 leaders in Nashville, across business, government, and nonprofits, to explore a single question: What is our role in creating opportunity for everyone?
This film shares three concrete strategies companies are using right now to advance economic mobility:
→ Workforce Development: Interapt found that the talent it needed was already in the communities it served; it just hadn't been given a pathway. Their apprenticeship model has a 90%+ completion rate and has helped non-traditional workers land careers at companies like CVS Health, Humana, and GE Appliances.
→ Employee Ownership: Gibson Guitars' Share of Success program gives every employee a stake in the company's future, aligning the interests of factory workers with the C-suite and transforming culture from the shop floor up.
→ Ecosystem Building: The Eli Lilly LEAP District represents a $13 billion bet on Lebanon, Indiana, and a test case for how big business, local government, and community institutions can create shared growth rather than just extracting value.
Featuring insights from Harvard Business School faculty, including Raffaella Sadun, Ethan Rouen, and Chris Stanton. And practitioners: Ankur Gopal (CEO, Interapt), Merabeth Martin (COO, Interapt), Cesar Gueikian (CEO, Gibson Guitars), Nicholas Lalla (Urban Reinvention Strategies), Tim Kelly (Mayor, Chattanooga), and Chike Aguh (Former CIO, U.S. Dept. of Labor).
A special thank you to our programming partners at the HBS Mid-US Research Center, led by Alicia Dadlani.
Chapters:
0:00 — Introduction
3:00 — Interapt: Building a New Talent Pipeline
9:11 — Gibson Guitars: The Share of Success
15:50 — Eli Lilly & the LEAP District: Ecosystem Building
