When companies participate in community investment, are they interested in bringing about marginal change, or systematic change? That was the provocative question which keynoter Michael Gallis posed to attendees during the first morning of the BCLC National Conference on Corporate Community Investment in Chicago.  In Gallis' comments and focus on how to think about change, this audience member couldn't help but hear a version the Bill Clinton presidential campaign catch-phrase of 17 years ago: "It's the systems stupid!"

Gallis, the founder of Gallis & Associates, is widely considered the country's leading expert in developing global strategies for large-scale metropolitan regions. A former professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Gallis recently consulted to the National Surface Transportation Policy Revenue and Study Commission and his firm has completed strategic development programs for a number of regions, states and nations.

Gallis had a clear message for the conference goers: if we want our initiatives to be effective, there are three critical points to keep in mind: 1) we have to act strategically versus tactically, 2) we must seek radical change versus incremental change (incremental modifies the status quo, radical replaces or displaces it), and 3) there is a difference between how we affect "parts" of a problem versus addressing the "systems" which underlie the problem.

"We are in a world of continuous radical change," Gallis argued, citing as example how only about 10% of the Fortune 500 from the 1950's remain in the same form today.  "Consider the G7 of the 1970's which has really become the G20."  He couldn't help but further remind the audience of the painful truth that the original G7 countries are now predominantly in debt to many of the new entrants to the club.

The challenge for responsible companies today, Gallis maintained, is how to develop synergies across corporations that bring about systematic change.  He discussed missteps in Gulf coast recovery efforts that were rooted in tactical thinking. The government and private sector are willing to spend billions on disaster response but only a fraction of that on the planning that would help develop systems better protected against repeats of the Gulf hurricane impact.  If we rebuild, but rebuild the same systems with the same vulnerabilities, aren't we doomed to suffer the same consequences?

"Our government is historically more reactive than proactive," said Gallis. "Companies can play a role in motivating systems-focused institutional change for the 21st century."

It was a fitting framework to guide the discussions that followed throughout the conference.

Ted Deutsch is founder of Deutsch Communications Group