• “Don’t worry, they won’t fail you, you’ve already paid”, from a student to another caught cheating during exams;
• “We’ve already accepted that we need to compromise our values to work in the business world”, from a business ethics student to his professor;
• “The business ethics course goes against the grain of every other course that is taught as part of the programme”, from a student to a programme director.

If statements like these are indicative of the culture in business schools today, can we seriously expect management education to be the source of globally responsible leaders to address the urgent needs of our times?

Creating globally responsible leaders is one of the three pillars of a new vision for management education developed by the 50+20 project, a collaborative effort between the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI), the World Business School Council for Sustainable Business (WBSCSB) and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (UNPRME). Launched in June at the Rio+20 summit, the 50+20 project presented a report, which proposed a cognitive re-framing of management education, so rather than being the best in the world, business education becomes a driving social force for the world.

Anders Aspling presents 50+20 report on panel with Lifeworth’s Ian Doyle at Global Ethics Forum 2012.

The vision was also outlined at the Global Ethics Forum at the end of June where I (Ian Doyle), joined a panel with Mr Anders Aspling, Secretary General of the GRLI, to discuss how such a vision to create more purposeful business education could be implemented. I suggested the following building blocks for holistic business education:

• A clear social purpose: What is a business school for? Its time to be clear and, if necessary, to update missions. The Community Individual Development Association (CIDA) University in Johannesburg is a good example. It aims to provide education in business administration for the rural poor with a view to transforming its students into leaders of their communities in turn advancing socio-economic transformation of the country and the broader region.
• Pedagogic innovation. Schools need to work more on the pedagogic competence of their staff. This includes how staff can transmit the desire to want to discover/learn rather than assuming ‘he who knows can teach.’
• Combine theory with action-oriented research. If schools are going to have a social purpose, they will need to adapt course content so that research is centred on resolving social problems. That way, students can put theory into action and challenge it if necessary. Furthermore, this is a fun way to learn!
• Adapt management systems. Action research means that schools will need to create platforms to exchange with stakeholders on social issues. The 50+20 report calls this platform a “collaboratory.” Not only would such a platform be useful for research purposes, but it could transform the role of academics so that they become public intellectuals. To do so will also require that schools provide incentives for faculty to engage in such a process: and to be honest about shortcomings.

In the same vein, a sense of purpose requires that one measures success differently. One way to do this is to evaluate what extent research output produces results that can be used to resolve pressing issues in business and society.

• Collaborate for Systemic Change. On a systemic level, what could be some practical recommendations for action and next steps in business education to help create scale? Firstly, there needs to be a cognitive reframing of the purpose of business. Secondly, business school ranking systems currently have graduate salary as a measure of the school’s reputation. Ranking systems could be adapted to measure the social utility of projects and careers, rather than equating success with monetary worth. This will require the co-operation of business school leaders in lobbying for change to ratings systems. Thirdly, school heads would do well to reflect on the future needs of society in 5-10 years and plan for them, as government regulators and funders will no doubt follow these trends, not to mention employers. Fourthly, challenge the ‘Publish or Perish’ mentality in view of career advancement, which encourages the siloing of academics. Issues such as climate change demonstrate that the world is ill-equipped to deal with such systemic issues. Schools need to encourage interdisciplinary work and applied research so that academics are rewarded for the social relevance of their work.

Previously at Lifeworth, in a study in the Journal of Corporate Citizenship, we whittled these issues down into a 16 step process that business schools could follow to embed social purpose into all their activities.

But what might be the guiding values to implement these building blocks? I’d like to propose the following values:

Humility – an issue-centric learning focus requires a spirit of communication. This necessitates humility, not power, as people are humbled before the problem they face so that they can think together.

Love – because love tells us what is important and ultimately guides our happiness. Gary Hamel, considered the world’s leading thinker on business strategy and visiting professor of strategy and international management at London Business School, says that the word ‘love’ needs to be reintroduced into the workplace. I’d go a step further and say that the verb ‘to love’ needs to be lived out in the workplace.

Faith – to believe that there can be something other than it is, for example, the world can be a better place. If students have resolved that they need to compromise their values for the work environment then this is a sign that they have lost faith and our world then becomes stuck in a rut. People need faith so that they can be moved to action.

Accountability – the word ‘responsibility’ has been hijacked so that it only has voluntary significance but its original meaning implies a sense of obligation. It is more than just an ability to respond, and thus a choice, but a commitment to responding and a willingness to be accountable for it. Thus promoting systems for ones own accountability is the highest form of responsibility.

The 50+20 vision is timely, as it highlights that ‘responsibility’ is not something that can be instructed but can be inspired and is something that needs to be lived out. This insight is one of the key aspects of a new training course developed by Lifeworth for Globethics.net. Called ‘Voicing Your Values’, the training draws on psychological studies, executives’ personal experience, case studies, peer coaching, role play and film, so that participants:

• are empowered to create the contexts that enable ethical action.

• clarify their personal and professional purpose and associated definitions of success.

• develop a personal ethical action framework.

• can develop and deploy counter arguments to typical rationalisations for unethical behaviour.

• identify processes for working with others to create values-supportive organisational systems.

By integrating personal ethics in a professional context, managers are equipped to transform ethical reflection into ethical action.

The one day training, which also includes Training Of Trainers, so you can deploy this in your own organisation, is being offered in Geneva on 18^th October and 9^th November, and can also be offered in a location of your choice if you are able to host. A shorter version will be offered on October 11th in Crete. Please contact me at idoyle at lifeworth .com or on +33 9 52 00 53 60 if you are interested in this opportunity.

Ian Doyle,

Associate, Lifeworth.com

Some of you will be familiar with how a remission period of five years officially means that one is ‘cured’ of the ‘disease,’ as is my case. Looking back, what I find interesting is that during my convalescence and my subsequent return to health, as far as I can remember, no one around me mentioned the word ‘healing.’ Yet in whatever illness, personal or social, healing is key. Being Easter, it made me think about what the Christian tradition says about healing.

In “Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus”, author Ched Myers describes the symbolic meaning of Jesus’ actions in Mark’s Gospel. He explores the theme of healing through Jesus’ miracles. Citing the insights of theologian John J Pilch and his research into medical anthropology, he distinguishes between two approaches to the social meaning of sickness:

“Ethnomedicine places primacy on the culturally construed causes of illness…In contrast, biomedicine places primary emphasis on biological symptoms and pathogens…Disease derives from a biomedical perspective that sees abnormalities in the structure and/or function of organ systems. These are pathological states independent of whether or not they are culturally recognised. Disease affects individuals, and only individuals are treated. Illness is a sociocultural perspective that is concerned with personal perception and experience of certain socially dis-valued states including, but not limited to, disease. Illness inevitably affects others: the significant other, the family, the neighbourhood, the village…”

In this sense, we can get an understanding of the difference between ‘healing’ and ‘curing.’ Pilch goes onto say that,

“Jesus and all healers of that period could only perceive illnesses and not diseases [and therefore] Jesus’ activity is best described … as healing, not as curing [as] he provides social meaning for the life problems resulting from the sickness.”

As such, when authors use the disease ‘cancer’ as a metaphor to describe our current economic system, they refer to abnormal growth within that system and the socially dis-valued states it generates – illnesses such as inequality and poverty are two such examples.

As we seek to better understand the systemic implications of capitalism on business, people and community, we feel that ‘healing’ describes our intention. Our work, and our forthcoming book, not only addresses many of the symptoms of the ‘disease’, to use Pilch’s biomedical metaphor, but proposes strategies for business to become agents of ‘healing’ with the goal of restoring social wholeness, and thus greater well-being. In my case, having this context in mind has provided a powerful context for individual projects, as I question how our efforts and those of our clients, can best be agents of a wider healing.

For those of you who observe it, or appreciate festivals of reflection, Happy Easter!

Ian Doyle

Lifeworth Consulting

Jem Bendell by Paulo Pellegrin

“I’m delighted to hear Professor Jem Bendell has been appointed a Young Global Leader” said the head of the UN Global Compact, the largest corporate responsibility initiative in the world. Georg Kell explained “Bendell’s pioneering work on multistakeholder alliances in the late 1990s helped us at the United Nations understand how to engage business in new ways, which led to the launch of the Global Compact. We now count nearly 7,000 active participants. But that is not yet a critical mass. The great majority of companies worldwide remain aloof or sceptical. It is our aim that Rio+20 will bring a big boost to the spread of universal sustainability principles as advanced by the UN Global Compact so that the movement can reach a critical mass and transform markets for sustainable development.”

In his interview accepting the accolade, Professor Bendell discussed the opportunities and challenges for leadership today:

“One opportunity for the new generation of leaders is an awakening. Everywhere I turn, I’m hearing people asking “how long can it go on?” Financial and ecological crises are leading people to sense the need for a transformation of economic systems. In the past years working on sustainable development I’ve seen positive initiatives, products or services, but they remain marginal. Social innovations can no longer be the side show to systemic decay. Its time to team up for massive change, and take positive innovations from the margin to the mainstream. For that we need leaders who are adept at learning from the edge, because those ideas that seem strange to you today may hold the solutions for tomorrow.

“In a sense, the challenge of this generation of leaders is the same as any, to transcend the mental barriers we are brought up with, between us and them, us and nature, my generation and yours, my specialism and yours, my faith and yours. These barriers are inventions, yet we maintain them due to our egos, and fears, and our need to belong to one particular group. In an interdependent world we now need globally responsible leaders: not just leaders serving their own, but conscious of the world, and how they affect it. I’m not talking about leaders from the West, but leaders from the rest of the world, caring about all of the world.”

“One of the unique aspects of the Young Global Leader Community is that it is the first generation of leaders who are truly global citizens: they have all lived, studied and worked in different countries throughout their careers,” said David Aikman, Head of The Forum of Young Global Leaders. “They see themselves as being fundamentally interconnected and have the cross-cultural leadership skills to be successful in a globalized world. Thanks to the incredible diversity of the group, they are able to collaborate across complex systems and build informal coalitions to facilitate action on the biggest challenges facing the world today.”

In 2012 Professor Bendell is training leaders around the world, on the theme of “Healing capitalism through critical collaboration.” Destinations include: Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Beijing, Brisbane, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Istanbul, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, and Zurich.

More on Jem Bendell:

A strategist and educator on social and organisational change, specialising in responsible business development, alliances for sustainable development, and transformative philanthropy. Professor Bendell has helped create innovative initiatives, such as the Marine Stewardship Council, to endorse sustainable fisheries, and The Finance Innovation Lab, to promote sustainable finance. He leads a consulting network, whose clients include UN, NGOs, large firms and family foundations, in over 25 countries. With a PhD in international policy, over 100 publications (including four books and five UN reports) and Visiting Professorships in management (GBS and IE), Professor Bendell is an award-winning international authority on business-society relations. He works with people who seek to contribute to, and benefit from, the transformation of markets to promote global well-being. His latest book on collaboration is “Evolving Partnerships”, and his latest TEDx talk is on sustainable currencies.

Deadline July 16th.

Walpole is a not for profit organisation that furthers the interests of the British Luxury industry. Its membership comprises of over 130 of Britain’s most prestigious companies, including Asprey, Alfred Dunhill, Daks, Gleneagles, Jimmy Choo, Wedgwood, Burberry and cultural bodies such as the Sadler’s Wells, Somerset House, BAFTA and Victoria & Albert Museum.

Each year Walpole holds an award ceremony in London to celebrate the best of British luxury and culture. Luxury organisations from within the UK and internationally, put forth their nominations to win awards for various categories including; Best British Luxury Brand, Best Luxury Brand Online, International Luxury Brand, Best Luxury Brand Overseas, British Luxury Design Talent, Corporate Social Responsibility, Luxury Craftsmanship and more.
Through the awards Walpole aims to recognize and celebrate the most deserving businesses and individuals, who have achieved the pinnacle of excellence in their respective areas, and who have set a standard for business and industry within the UK. The awards truly bring together the most talented British luxury brands and most experienced British entrepreneurs and luxury industry figures. The 2009 judging panel included the likes of Stephen Fry, Lucy Yeomans, Dylan Jones, Anne Pitcher of Selfridges, Lucia van der Post, Gillian de Bono of How to Spend It, Brent Hoberman, and Richard Lambert of CBI.

Lifeworth’s CEO, Dr Jem Bendell, is a judge for the the Corporate Social Responsibility award. If you would like to be considered for an award, or propose another brand for consideration, please email one page on your case to jb@lifeworth.com and Kirstee.wilson@thewalpole.co.uk by July 16th 2010.

More on Walpole:

Walpole’s remit covers promotion of the luxury industry, the development and fostering of a community for the exchange of best practice ideas, shared experience and joint opportunities, to facilitate business development within the UK and internationally, representing members in Westminster and Brussels, to combine resources to improve issues such as IP and legislation affecting the industry alongside European counterparts, a developer of thought leadership for the industry and to promote and develop emerging brands and nurture the smaller crafts industries. The Walpole Awards this year will take place on Monday 15th November at the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

See www.thewalpole.co.uk for more information.

More on Luxury CSR Award Judge, Dr Jem Bendell

Associate Professor Jem Bendell is an advisor, educator, researcher and writer with fifteen years at the forefront of innovations in business responses to sustainable development.

With a PhD in international policy, over 100 publications (including four books and four United Nations reports), Dr Bendell is an award-winning international authority on business-society relations, lecturing in fifteen countries, and quoted in media such as The Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, El Pais, Tatler and on CNBC.

Since graduating from the University of Cambridge, Bendell has sought collaboration with people who seek to contribute to, and benefit from, the transformation of markets to promote global well-being.

Director of Lifeworth Consulting, coordinating a team of sixteen associates, Dr Bendell works with UN agencies, international charities, universities and luxury businesses, in over a dozen countries, having lived and worked in eight. He has helped create innovative initiatives, including: the Marine Stewardship Council, to endorse sustainable fisheries, The Financial Innovation Lab, to promote sustainable finance, founded and runs CSR Geneva, a network of over 700 professionals in Geneva, and the Authentic Luxury Network, for professionals promoting responsible luxury goods and services.

As an academic, Dr Bendell has lectured at business and design schools around the world, worked with the Dean of a business school in Australia to make it a leading sustainability school in the Asia Pacific, and been an academic convenor for three international conferences on this subject (in the UK, Switzerland and Australia).

Bendell’s current focus is the potential of luxury brands, international finance, management education and inter-organisational collaboration, to promote a movement towards global well-being. His “Deeper Luxury” report for WWF, on the responsibility of luxury brands, appeared in over 50 newspapers and magazines worldwide in the month of its release and continues to appear in fashion and business press today. Bendell’s fourth book, The Corporate Responsibility Movement, was published in 2009.

One participant, Pamela del Canto, who is a leading light in the sustainable luxury scene in Paris, and works with Business for Social Responsibility, is organising an informal drinks in Paris on May 7th. We are in town because of the 1.618 sustainable luxury fare, where Lifeworth Consulting’s Ian Doyle will be speaking about consumers and sustainable luxury.

Come join us. No need to confirm.

7:00 – 9 pm on May 7th, 2010

La Gare
19, Chaussée de la Muette
75016 Paris
Metro: La Muette (9)

And don’t forget to check out the show, if you are in town. http://www.1618-paris.com/

A note from Pamela Del Canto to send to your French speaking colleagues and friends follows below.

*********************

Chers membres,

Vous êtes cordialement invités à un apéritif organisé par Jem Bendell, fondateur du réseau Authentic Luxury Network et auteur de l’étude du WWF ‘Deeper Luxury’.

Occasion:

Il s’agit d’un apéritif informel organisé par Jem Bendell pour rencontrer les membres du réseau basés à Paris. Jem se rend à Paris pour assister au salon 1.618 où son collègue de Lifeworth Consulting, Ian Doyle, est invité à parler sur la consommation et le luxe durable.

Quand:

De 19h à 21h, le 7 mai, 2010

Où:

La Gare

19, Chaussée de la Muette

75016 Paris

Metro: La Muette (9)

Qui: Membres du Authentic Luxury Network basés à Paris.

J’espère que vous serez nombreux !

Chaleureusement,

Pamela del Canto

“I have been supporting a Pakistani investment fund in becoming aware of and familiar with the United Nations Principles on Responsible Investment (UNPRI)[1]. The aim is to help this fund in becoming a signatory and actively support the network and agenda in the Pakistani context.

At the beginning of the process, a dialogue was initiated with:

a) The Chairman/Managing Director and;
b) The Head of Corporate Governance and Corporate Affairs

(Both these players were kept in the loop from the beginning to insure upper level championing as well as implementation support during the process of signing up if the initiative was to go ahead).

The initial meetings were carried out with both to gauge the level of interest/ awareness in the organization about their principles regarding responsible investment and the benefits of signing up to the UNPRI. The process was then continued in an informative fashion with briefs prepared covering:

* Influence on returns
* Influence on brand
* Costs of signing
o staff,
o financial and;
o implications for fiduciary duty
* Internal Procedure for signing up

The information was then collated and presented for consideration to the Board of Directors on the 20nd of January 2010. The issue was passed unanimously and the Board was pleased to allow the company to become a signatory to the UNPRI. The matter was resolved further in the decision taken by the Board to authorize the Managing Director to be able to approve all necessary steps, measures and actions necessary to comply with the formalities needed to join the signatories of the UNPRI.

I am pleased to mention at this point that the fund that I have been talking about is the National Investment Trust limited (NITL), Pakistan’s first open ended mutual fund established in 1962 with the objective of stabilizing and developing the equity markets in the country. Over the course of its existence it has evolved into the country’s largest Asset management company, operating a number if funds in the category of Equity, Bond and Income.

The fact that the NITL has taken the step to become the first signatory in the region to this voluntary initiative on responsible investment has various positives.

Positive implications:

For the fund:

Influence on returns: Implementing the Principles will lead to a more complete understanding of a range of material issues, and this should ultimately result in increased returns and lower risk. There is increasing evidence that ESG issues can be material to performance of portfolios, particularly over the long term[2] .

Performance: through signing on the UNPRI the fund will have access to the latest research and tools for assessment of ESG issues and frameworks.

Influence on brand: The NIT would be the first asset owner to sign up not only in Pakistan but all of South Asia, and hence has the opportunity to emerge as a leading voice on environmentally and socially responsible investment as well as serve as an example and a conduit for UNPRI and other potential signatories in the region.

Networking: Building networks at the PRI in Person Annual Event bringing together signatories.

For the investment environment of the country:

Increase the visibility of the principles and environmental, Social and governance issues in the country’s investment landscape:

* With investments in Equity of 430 companies and Directorships in 140 companies, the NITL can have influence in improving the ESG structure if a significant population of the country’s companies.
* Considered a leader in the Mutual fund industry of Pakistan the NITL can influence other investment management companies in the country to consider supporting responsible investment in the country

Increase the visibility of the Pakistani investment industry in the globalised context and the international responsible investment dialogue through having an opportunity to be part of a global forum on the issue.

Platform for advancing north-south dialogue: At the PRI in Person Annual Event signatories get the oppurtunity to unlfuence the dialogue on responsible investment through brainstorming on implementation strategies, network and partners.
For the Initiative/ partnership

Local platform for engagement: Through having this large mutual fund as a signatory the UNPRI has a platform in Pakistan for increasing its visibility as the NITL can

* have influence in increasing awareness of the initiative in its investees and directorships
* can use its influence with other investment management companies in supporting the UNPRI.

Next steps:

Following the approval of the board, a letter to intent signed by the Chairman/ MD has been sent to the Executive director of the UNPRI secretariat. The next steps under way at the NIT include internal research on the following themes (staff time and my consultation time has been allocated to formulate a report covering the following by 5th Feb 2010):

* Gauging level of gap in current practice towards implementing the 6 principles in NIT operations
* Understand the types of activities that are suggested in the Principles,
* Investigate how other investors have used them

This information will then be used to begin the implementation process of the principles in the NIT from the date of approval of PRI membership.

So summing up…

Pakistan is now ready to have its first ever organization to step up in the international arena and voluntarily commit to integrating the consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into its investment decision-making and ownership practices.

With more funds and management companies signing up, the country’s the investment environment could not only be able to project a responsible image globally but begin to shape what ESG means to themselves if enough interest is generated to be able to create country network. Ones present at the moment in Brazil, South Korea and South Africa are shaping the agenda by (in addition to promoting the principles in their regions etc) by committing to capture evolving best practice on how to factor ESG issues into investment processes and to implement the Principles[3] in their own contexts.

[1] www.unpri.org

[2] http://www.unpri.org/faqs/

[3] http://www.unpri.org/files/SA_network_final.pdf

Hanniah can be contacted via our contact form.

http://www.lifeworth.com/consult/connect/

We remain connected to many urban centres around the world, with Associates in Geneva, Manila, Singapore, Grenoble, London, Paris, Toronto, Rotterdam and Brisbane.

If you are in Tamil Nadu, drop by. Email connect at lifeworth.com

Dr Bendell joins GVI due to his work as a consultant with the UN system since 1996, designing and hosting events on UN revitalisation in the early noughties, and his ongoing focus on purpose at work.

There are a three ways to navigate the site. First, you can select from the main menu. From here you can see an outline of “what” we do, including the services of strategy, creativity, communications, liaison and education:. In addition is takes you to information on the work programmes we have, including Authentic Luxury, Enterprise Trends and Engaging Change. Clicking on “with” will show you who we have been working with. If you want to see the 18 of us who are associated with Lifeworth Consulting, click on “who”. If you want to know the approach we take and the principles underlying our work, click on “how”. If you click on “Insight” you can access our latest “publications”, read our latest “news and views” or even watch us in “videos”.

Another way to navigate the site is to click on the tags in the *Jump To* box on the right hand column. The tags in this box will keep changing as the content evolves over time. A third way to delve into what we do is to click on news items, such as those in the *Where We Are* box, and then from there you can click on the category of the news item, to view related content.

We hope this will provide a way for you to get the information you need. If you like what we do, then click “connect” in the main menu to find out how to engage us, or sign up to our quarterly updates.

The site is driven by wordpress software. It again demonstrates the potential of open source software, after our new responsible enterprise careers portal, which is based on Drupal software. In the digital age, owning code is like owning the rights to using a pen and paper. I think it is in keeping with our transformative approach that we are now part of this open source movement.

Thanks to Sam Baja for working on the site for us, and thank you for visiting.

Dr. Jem Bendell
Founder/Director of Lifeworth and Lifeworth Consulting