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Enterprise Excellence 1
New Resources A Whitefield Briefing Paper by Peter Heslam has recently been published, entitled The Role of Business in Making Poverty History: Liberation vs Transformation. This paper serves as an initial theological rationale for Transforming Business. If you'd like to receive a free copy, drop Peter an email (psh20@cam.ac.uk) including your postal address and he'll send you one. The film The Corporation has gone from being a film being shown in a cinema near you to a DVD you can watch in the comfort and privacy of your own home. Better still, you can watch it in an informal setting with your friends, colleagues or discussion group as it now comes complete with additional material and a topic index, both designed for group discussion. For a review of the film by Peter Heslam go to www.licc.org.uk/culture/the-corporation The film's official website, through which the DVD can be ordered at www.thecorporation.com Anyone interested in a fuller discussion of the issues raised by the contemporary Plc might like to consult Dr Michael Schluter's Cambridge Paper on this issue, entitled: Risk, Reward and Responsibility: Limited Liability and Company reform' (http://www.jubilee-centre.org/cambridge_papers/index.php?cat=1&page=2) The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has published Business for Development: Business Solutions in Support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This report makes the business case for sustainable development by illustrating how the private sector is taking an active role in the achievement of the MDGs (see adjacent box below for a list of the MDGs). Highlighting conducive social, legal and business frameworks as the most important factor affecting investment, the publication recommends that businesses invest in the development of strong regulatory and legal frameworks, building the capabilities of local enterprises, and improving core infrastructure. The report can be downloaded at www.wbcsd.org The results of a survey of global opinion leaders in business, civil society and the media on the role of business in international development have been jointly published by the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard), the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum and Edelman. The survey found that leaders in all three sectors are agreed that business has a central role to play in development, chiefly in the creation of jobs and building local businesses. The report is entitled Business and International Development: Opportunities, Responsibilities and Expectations – www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/Perception%20Report%20FINAL.pdf The Economist has published an article on 'The Hidden Wealth of the Poor' which provides an overview and assessment of microfinance in the fight against poverty. In describing the origins of microfinance it highlights the key role played by Opportunity International, 'a not-for-profit organization with Christian roots'. See The Economist of 03-11-05: www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5079324 For an editorial in Christianity Today about how churches can be more supportive of business people, see www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/009/10.37.html Peter Heslam has written Globalization: Unravelling the New Capitalism (Grove Books). This short book seeks to clarify the term 'globalization', to chart various responses to it, and to offer an ethical framework within which its potential can be assessed (www.licc.org.uk/articles/article.php/id/76) This summer the level of attention that was paid to issues of global poverty in the media was unprecedented, largely due to the G8 summit at Gleneagles and the Live 8 concerts. For a reflection on this phenomenon by Peter Heslam that highlights the role of business in poverty alleviation see www.licc.org.uk/capitalism/g8. Below the piece are links to further resources. For a column by Peter Heslam on the transformative potential of the chocolate industry, recalling the business activity of George Cadbury but sparked by the new film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory see www.licc.org.uk/culture/george-and-the-chocolate-factory This reflection has generated a great deal of interest, not least amongst those on the inside of Cadbury Schweppes! It is followed by a list of additional resources. To read Tony Blair's address to the Labour Party Conference in September, in which he challenged delegates to embrace globalization as both inevitable and as a development full of potential, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4287370.stm Many business leaders are unfamiliar with the Millennium Development goals (MDGs). This the finding of the survey noted in the next box below. The eight Millennium Development Goals form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest people. The goals are:
The Financial Times has recently published the following items that may be of particular interest to readers of Enterprise Excellence:
Subscribers to FT.com can find these resources at www.ft.com. The book Globalization and the Good, edited by Peter Heslam, which focuses on the ethics of the global economy, is published in the UK by SPCK (www.spck.org.uk/cat/show.php?0281056579) and in the US by Eerdmans (www.eerdmans.com/shop/product.asp?p_key=0802828450). Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, has endorsed this book with enthusiasm. He writes: 'This book represents the views of some of the leading spokespeople on the issue of globalization. I welcome it wholeheartedly.' |