Sociologists, political scientists, and economists have described different dimensions and functions of social capital from their disciplinary perspectives, emphasizing the value and impact of social relationships, governance institutions, or efficient and reliable economic transactions, respectively. In this article, we propose to integrate all three perspectives and the research accumulated in those fields in a common, practical framework for effectively using social capital assets in producing value-adding social and organizational performance.

What is the business of business? How can planners and investors anticipate the true chances of failure and success of a business idea? This article describes a rationale for developing successful new business on the basis of a simple, sensible idea: the business of any business is to make its clients successful enough to continue purchasing and recommending its products and services and continue adding value to all stakeholders. Using a double‐bottom line, a triple top‐line business case, and a wealth creation flowchart, the author shows how to demonstrate measurable benefit as the core of a business proposition and engineer creation and delivery of value from a carefully designed client experience. This new technology, illustrated with examples of multiple businesses incubated at the Sonora Institute of Technology (ITSON), combines two models—Roger Kaufman's Organizational Elements Model (OEM) with Dale Brethower and Geary Rummler's Anatomy of Performance (AOP)—in a simple, straightforward process supported by an extensive research bibliography.

A project for the president and minister of tourism of Panama was designed to transform (not change or tinker with) the City of Colon. Colon is the second largest city in Panama and the eastern entrance to the Panama Canal, and it is a city in crisis, with high crime and a low standard of living for most citizens, which is teetering on the edge of community collapse. Applying the concepts and tools of Mega thinking and planning, and using the Bernardez two‐level business case, it has been shown how the entire city could be transformed with a positive return on investment in the first year.

How can 21st century cities respond to the challenges of massive urbanization and the dramatic cycles of boom and bust that create abrupt gentrification and growing slums? How can urban growth escape the zero‐sum game that turns zip codes into destiny and makes social mobility and integration more challenging and difficult? City Doctors is a Mega planning–based new methodology to transform cities that holds the promise of turning social and human capital into value‐adding social performance. This article presents the fundamental concepts and framework for this new approach and reviews the results of City Doctors as applied in the description of four massive, long‐term experiences in Argentina, Mexico, and Panama.

Empirical evidence and recent revisions of conventional business doctrine indicate that companies that actively promote social performance and develop their clients' markets and skills as part of business strategy have a better chance of achieving sustainable profitability and growth than those that do not. This article discusses how landmark companies, emerging economies, and in particular a Latin American company sustained success over long periods of time by developing sociallyfocused strategies. By applying the Megaplanning methodology to the development of clients and the social environment during a three-year period, an Argentinean refinery developed its local and regional market, increased its revenues and market share and reduced turnover and costs generated by social conflict, outperforming its previous conventional, Macro-focused business strategies.