[Speech given at the World Banks' Business and NGO Conference in Washington, USA] I propose to tackle this subject of public/private partnerships from two perspectives: - first I will offer a rationale as to why business should be involved; - second I will examine why partnerships between industry, governments and NGOs are so difficult to manage and so tricky to make work. Before doing this it might be useful to outline the experience that Unilever has had with partnerships... The majority of businessmen are poorly equipped to manage the subtle give and take required in a partnership. Most chief executives are used to getting their own way and they have egos the size of Manhattan... [refers also to Thames Water (part of RWE), General Electric, BP, Wal-Mart]