Participating in Hollywood

Fast Company this month features an interesting look at Jeff Skoll, the eBay founder who has turned to Hollywood with the desire to create meaningful, socially relevant feature films. He has a heck of a track record: His Participant Productions company has funded "Syriana," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Good Night and Good Luck" and the forthcoming "Fast Food Nation," among others. The most compelling fact in the story is this: All of Participant's films thus far have been profitable save for "North Country." The takeaway from that? "Here's the first secret of pro-social business: When you give outstanding people the chance to work on something they care passionately about, often you get a great result."