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Enterprise Excellence 2
New Resources Recent articles by Peter Heslam, director of Transforming Business, include the following: 'Standing up to Big Business', Connecting with Culture, 20th Jan 2006 (www.licc.org.uk/culture/standing-up-to-big-business). 'Ending the History of Poverty', Spirit in Work, issue 6 (March 2006). 'Business in the Elimination of Poverty: An Alternative Paradigm, in Faith in Business, 9.4 (Winter 2005/06). 'David Cameron: Taking Care of Business?', Third Way, vol 29, no 2 (March 2006). 'Prosperity through Economic Empowerment', Faith in Business, 10.1 (Spring 2006). Review of John Ashcroft and Michael Schluter (ed) Jubilee Manifesto, in Faith in Business, 10.1 (Spring 2006). A new report entitled Understanding Entrepreneurship has been produced by the Kaufman Foundation. Subtitled 'A Research and Policy Report', it reports on theories, applications and policies, focusing chiefly on the US. Some of the leading researchers in the field of entrepreneurship are contributors to the report. The document is available online here. The Kauffman Foundation, already a major sponsor of research on entrepreneurship, has announced a new release of its Entrepreneurship Research Portal – a clearinghouse for multi-disciplinary research on entrepreneurship. It also provides events listings and data sets targeted to the entrepreneurship research and policy community. The Entrepreneurship Research Portal can be visited by clicking here. Business leaders are becoming increasingly aware that contributing to development can create profitable new business opportunities. Per capita income is rising in the developing world, opening up vast markets at the 'bottom of the pyramid'. The World Bank Institute is the capacity development arm of the World Bank. It aims to help countries share and apply global and local knowledge to meet the challenges of development. To this end, it has produced an excellent new report entitled Business Action for the MGDs: Private Sector Involvement as a Vital Factor in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The report is available here. Dr John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, has released an Interim Report on human rights and business. The report offers a useful overview of this issue and outlines the legal framework for identifying binding private sector responsibilities. A two-page response to the report by Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) can be found here. The Christian business organization CABE has produced an attractive laminated card that can stand on your desk giving thirty-one 'principles for those in business.' Peter Heslam, an active member of CABE, was part of the consultation process behind this resource. The 31 principles mean that every day of the month you can be inspired by a different principle and seek to apply it in to your work. Stephen Green, the newly appointed Chairman of HSBC, says about this resource: 'I warmly commend these Principles to all those engaged in business and commercial life.' CABE has also published the recent Hugh Kay Memorial Lecture delivered by Prof Laura Nash of the Harvard Business School. The lecture is entitled 'Reframing Faith and Work for Lasting Success' and it is published with a summary of the proceedings of the conference 'Takeover by the Company?: Finding Wholeness in the Changing World of Work', which preceded the lecture. Another recent CABE publication is 'Is Profit Enough?' by Patrick Lavin. This is the text of the tenth CABE paper, held recently in central London. Copies of these three publications are available from CABE, 24 Greencoat Place, London SW1P 1BE (www.cabe-online.org). Making entrepreneurship work for South Africa is not about government spending money on new programmes designed to create more entrepreneurs and start-up businesses. The key is creating a conducive environment by removing the barriers to entrepreneurship and to the operations of small businesses. Thus argues Susan Anderson, fellow of the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, in a short article for the Free Market Foundation for South Africa. Read the full article here. To read a new report by Enterprise Africa! on the potential of the taxi industry in alleviating poverty in South Africa, click here. The influential business think tank Tomorrow's Company has produced a report entitled Tomorrow's Global Company, based on a major international conference it held at Wilton Park (UK) last year. Copies from Philip Sadler info@tomorrowscompany.com Measures taken in the name of social responsibility that lead to a company failing in the marketplace undermine the value the business can add to society and lead to negative impacts. The business-sponsored think tank Business in the Community has produced a report entitled Marketplace Responsibility: What Does it Mean to be a Responsible Business in the Marketplace? It claims that business responsibility is about how companies manage relationships with customers, suppliers and with other companies – from product development to sourcing, buying, marketing, selling and promotion of products and services. The report can be downloaded here. Research shows that many business leaders are unfamiliar with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Although we listed them in the first edition of Enterprise Excellence (1.1), we've decided to repeat them here, as they are mentioned several times on this new resources page. 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:
On the back of the success of its publication Enterprise Solutions to Poverty (see Enterprise Excellence 1.2), the Shell Foundation has issued a related report: Aid Industry Reform and the Role of Enterprise. Click here The author, Dr Kurt Hoffman (a Patron to Transforming Business), was involved in the development community, working closely with aid-based development NGOs, before becoming Director of the Shell Foundation. He became disillusioned, however, with aid as a solution to poverty. The report reflects this background, pointing instead to enterprise as the only sustainable route out of poverty. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) recently held the KPMG Lecture on 'The UN Millennium Goals and the role for business'. In fact it was more like two mini-lectures, one by the leading UK economist Professor John Kay and the other by Geoff Lye, Vice Chairman of SustainAbility Ltd. Following their presentations, the two speakers held a lively and compelling engagement with each other and with the audience. To hear for yourself, click here The voice of Jeffrey Sachs is rapidly becoming one of the most influential in the area of international economic development. Professor Sachs is Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His book The End of Poverty is being vigorously discussed at the highest levels of government and economics the world over (see the books section of the ezine, which features this book). As Director of the UN's Millennium Project, Sachs has overall responsibility for the report Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Download here. You don't have to be a student at Columbia to witness Sachs in action. The internet offers a selection of video and audio recordings made of his lectures. Simply scroll to the bottom of this web page. The briefing paper Business and the Millennium Development Goals: A Framework for Action is the result of collaboration between the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum and the United Nations Development Programme. It provides an action framework on how business can work with government and social agencies to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report is relevant to all sizes of company, not just big business. It's also useful to those in the development community who are willing to work with the private sector. It provides a basic overview and some illustrations, rather than exhaustive analysis. Its chief concern is to provide answers as to why the MDGs are important to business and how business can contribute to their achievement.. The report is available here. A wealth of resources on social capital, including links to recent articles, reports and books, can be found at a web site called the Social Capital Gateway. The site also contains concise information on definitions of social capital, how it relates to economic growth and how it can be measured. See here. Unilever have spelt out its perspective on the contribution of business to economic development. Antony Burgmans, chairman of Unilever, has called for greater emphasis on open economies. In his view, free trade is in the interest of all, because it leads to greater economic growth, and therefore to more wealth, jobs and prosperity. He fully supports the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which he sees as a key challenge for humanity at this point in its history. Burgmans laid out his views in the fourth Jelle Zijlstra Lecture by Professor Tony Atkinson, at the Free University of Amsterdam. For a transcript of his speech, see here. Burgmans' argument follows an earlier contribution to the debate about the role of business in development made by Hans Eenhoorn, former Senior Vice President of Unilever and member of the UN's Millennium Task Force on Hunger. His lecture on this issue, given at the Commonwealth Business Council conference at Chatham House, can be read here. How can economic growth be accelerated to reduce poverty? This was the question addressed by the World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Conference on 25 and 26 April 2006 in Washington on 'Microeconomic and Institutional Foundations of Growth'. A distinguished panel addressed the theme 'Moving Out of Poverty Traps: From Vicious to Virtuous Poverty Circles.' More information and an online video recording, can be found here. Gleanings from the The Economist:
Can you suggest any further resources for the next edition of Enterprise Excellence? Peter Heslam, the editor of the ezine, has plenty of ideas but he's more than willing to consider your suggestions. His contact details are on the project's website under the 'Contact' tab (www.transformingbusiness.net). |