"Vision and ethics at the heart of training" stated the FT on April 4, 2005, in an article on leadership. Despite the brilliant title, and though the article correctly states the issue, it refers extensively to what we already know about leadership (and what doesn't always seem to work in practice; is Bush a great leader or isn't he ?).
However, ethics and vision are indeed in my opinion at the heart of training. At least in our Management School we take this serious, as you can explore on our website. The United Nations have taken an initiative, Global Compact, which is an invitation for companies, schools and organisations to adhere to an "alliance for integrety". It is nice to see that companies (as an example Deloitte) start subscribing, as much as (business) schools start doing (so are we).
Next step, if we would like to get anywhere, is to try and raise the global consciousness level concerning these issues, and that is the responsibility of all of us. Indeed, vision and ethics should be at the heart of training.
I'm currently following a class called Ethics and Globalisation" given by a representative of the UN in France. We worked on the Global Compact project and its Ten principles(http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Portal/Default.asp?).
It might seem an impossible goal to reach if we look at it in a capitalistic way but it is a basis of what we, as future managers, could improve in business and involve ourselves in a better globalisation. This should be learned in school (just like Euromed is doing right now) and the exemple is starting to be set by major mutlinationals... so we have to take ethics in account in our way of thinking because apart from beeing a way of life it might be the next step in every compagny's development.
Posted by: Etienne Laveau | April 12, 2005 at 04:29 PM
Can a company make a loss to avoid destroying Earth?
I have watched The Corporation, released in 2004 - synopsis: http://www.thecorporation.com/index.php?page_id=2 .
This movie is a work on the nature/identity of a corporation. It shows how the corporation has become an amoral person. The first purpose of a company is to make money for the holders. Most companies have this narrow view. The consequences of their activity are so called externalities.
Ethics and vision are challenges which question the real purpose of a company and our role on Earth as human beings. Can we keep on making everything on Earth ours?
The challenge is to implement a new paradigm that would stop the way corporations have worked since the Industrial Revolution. We need a new revolution that go over the economic field.
"We do not fly but we fail. We become aware before crashing"
Posted by: Cedric Chambault | April 26, 2005 at 05:45 PM