Leadership Symposium Brussels 2013

World Forum for Ethics in Business calls on private sector to take forward shared value practices

Exemplary case studies from multinational organizations and ethical leadership tools were in the spotlight at the 9th International Leadership at the European Parliament on 15 November 2013 that paved the way for a new paradigm for businesses that can be scaled up to global impact

Brussels, 19 November 2013 – Mutual agreement that a shift is needed for businesses to move away from the traditional, short-term oriented approach to a new paradigm wherein businesses generate economic value by tackling society’s major needs and problems as a core value proposition was the major take away at the recent annual WFEB Symposium.

The spirit of the conference towards creating this new paradigm became evident right from the inaugural speech by WFEB President Rajita Kulkarni who called for action, responsibility and commitment from the corporate sector and challenged the audience by asking ‘What commitment do we have to take for long-term sustainability? What can the private sector do to partner governments, NGOs, aid agencies to e.g. accelerate the process of relief and rehabilitation in disasters as we are seeing them now in the Philippines?

WFEB co-founder HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar emphasized in his video message during the inaugural panel that ‘All pillars of society have to come together to create shared value. The base of shared value is humanness. We need to create wealth by empowering people at the bottom of the pyramid’.

IFC’s Vice President Snezana Stoiljkovic alerted that the world needs to create 600 million more jobs over the next decade. ‘Open and transparent connections to local and global market are the way out of poverty’ she said and added that ‘inclusive business models play a critical role’.

Novartis, Bosch and Ikea were amongst other the companies presenting their shared value concepts and sharing their expertise as a way to create shared value.

Mr Rainer Wieland, Vice President of the European Parliament pointed out the multiplier effect of a business: ‘Business is a strong aggregate for creating wealth, it is an engine to create not only wealth for one person, but also jobs.”

The launch of the first module of the historic online ethical leadership curriculum was amongst the highlights of the conference that brought together more than 250 leaders from 45 countries from all sectors of society.

Designed in easy self-study modules, this curriculum aims to empower leaders with wisdom and tools to strengthen their responses while facing ethical dilemmas and measure ones ethical score. This free of charge e-curriculum features videos, success stories of inspiring ethical leaders, case studies and assessments. This was developed in partnership with Educomp and the World Bank Institute.

The conference also saw the conferment of the ethics in business award, an annual prize conferred by the World Forum for Ethics in Business to honour individuals and companies that have demonstrated the importance of human values and ethics in life and in the business arena.

The Ethics in Business Award 2013 in the category Outstanding Corporation went to Novartis, received by Mr Jürgen Brokatzky-Geiger, Global Head of Human Resources, for the company’s ongoing efforts in implementing shared value practises and their deep commitment to CSR, which is inbuilt in the company’s business model.