Watson - ReadyNation

ReadyNation is a global business organization of 1400 executives and all of our members want to improve the economy and work force, and they believe that investing in children starting in the earliest ages is the best way to grow the economy and produce a strong workforce.Business leaders can do a wide range of things to support young children. We talk about this in 6 categories of action that I’ll describe briefly.  

At the most local level, they can donate money and volunteer as an expertise, a traditional corporate social responsibility role. Secondly, they can work through their employees, giving them family friendly practices, as well as educating them on the importance of early childhood. They can use their customer base as a way to educate more people about the importance of early childhood. Fourth, they can develop products, goods, and services that make money but also contribute to the social good. Fifth, they can use their platforms to speak out on the importance of early childhood through the media or other prominent venues. And then perhaps most importantly, we want them to use their clout and their reputation in their power to influence policy change so that we can increase public funding for early childhood investments from the local level, to the national, to the global levels.