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Enterprise Excellence 2Editorial Welcome! Welcome to the second edition of Transforming Business's ezine Enterprise Excellence! The response to the first edition has been overwhelming. Thanks to all of you who have fed back your comments. You've given great encouragement during the start-up phase of this entrepreneurial project. This phase has witnessed an explosion of interest and opportunity. Clearly the project has struck a nerve at what appears to be an opportune time in thinking and practice on the relationship between business and socio-economic good. I think you'll find the exhilaration and energy that this is giving the project is reflected in this edition of Enterprise Excellence. Thanks are also due to those of you who have come forward to support the project financially. Your generosity has allowed Transforming Business to gain profile and momentum. Go to the 'events' and 'resources' sections of the ezine to see some of its activity and output. Current funding only allows me to work on the project two days per week, however. As the project is only set to run for five years, this imposes a time constraint that threatens the effectiveness of the project. If, therefore, you can increase your regular donation or suggest to any of your friends, colleagues or contacts that they might be interested in becoming a Partner to the project (which involves a modest regular donation), that would be a great help in multiplying the project's reach and influence. As Transforming Business is working in such a new area of enquiry, there are very few grants or foundations that are set up to support this kind of research and development. Indeed, the vision of the project represents a challenge to the traditional grant- or aid-based model of fuelling positive social change; it focuses on enterprise – rather than charity – in its solutions to poverty. As such, it seeks to move individuals and corporations beyond philanthropy towards the integration of moral and spiritual capital in their core business activities. This emphasis does little to attract the interest of company departments of Corporate Social Responsibility (apart from the most forward-looking), which may otherwise be willing to offer support! It will therefore be individuals like you that will ensure this project achieves its potential. As a very 'lean' project, requiring minimal administrative backup, every penny that is given will go towards increasing the project's effectiveness and impact. I do hope the contents of this edition of Enterprise Excellence will be of interest, help and inspiration to you. As with the first edition, it contains a rich variety of events, news, resources, books, inspiring case studies, telling statistics and pithy quotes. You may well find it offers too much to digest in one go! For this reason, a selection of its contents will soon go on the main part of the website, allowing you to browse at your leisure. Building up an online information and research bank in this way will allow future editions of Enterprise Excellence to be more streamlined. All feedback and suggestions for inclusion and improvement are very welcome. With best wishes,
Dr Peter S Heslam, Director, Transforming Business, University of Cambridge. The resources, including quotes, contained in this ezine are offered on their own merits. They do not necessarily reflect the thinking of Transforming Business. |
