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Business at the Crossroads: Aligning Commerce, Earth and Humanity
This Webcast was recorded on March 12, 2008.
Download slides of Business at the Crossroads (PDF)
Environmental and social issues have historically been of peripheral concern to business.
At best, companies have felt compelled to “give back” to society in the form of philanthropy or other good deeds directed at the natural environment or the community.
Today global companies stand at a crossroads—facing terrorism, environmental destruction, and antiglobalization backlash—while searching for new sources of profitable growth.
So rather than treating social and environmental issues as expensive luxuries, many companies are now fusing social mission with competitive strategy.
This Webcast explores the integration of sustainable development and environmentalism in business strategy and illustrates how such practices can increase shareholder value and competitive position.
What you’ll learn:
Join us to discover business practices that are more inclusive, more welcome, and far more successful—for both companies and communities, worldwide. For example, you’ll hear about:
- Paths to profitable sustainability: Shattering the “trade-off” myth
- New commercial strategies for serving the “base of the pyramid”: What enterprises have learned about doing business in income-poor regions
- Becoming indigenous—for real, for good: Codiscovering new opportunities, cocreating new businesses with the poor
- Learning from leaders: best practices from companies such as DuPont, HP, SC Johnson, Tata, P&G, and more
About the Presenters:
Stuart Hart, Ph.D., is one of the world’s top authorities on the implications of sustainable development and environmentalism on business. He is currently the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. He also serves as senior research fellow at both the Davidson Institute (University of Michigan) and Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Mr. Hart is author of the best-selling book Capitalism at the Crossroads and wrote the seminal article "Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World", which won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in Harvard Business Review.
Jeana Wirtenberg, Ph.D., is president of Jeana Wirtenberg & Associates, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in building sustainable enterprises through leadership, culture change, collaboration and learning. She is cofounder and Director, External Relations and Services, of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (ISE) at Fairleigh Dickinson University, focused on bringing people together to learn how to develop and lead thriving, sustainable enterprises that are “in and for the world.”
Working with CEO's, Presidents and VP's of Fortune 500 companies, Jeana has helped organizations reach the highest levels of performance excellence by aligning their vision and values with business strategy. She is lead author on several recent articles on sustainable enterprise, the future of organization development and she is also one of the lead authors on AMA’s report: “Creating a Sustainable Future: A Global Study of Current Trends and Possibilities 2007–2017.”
For additional training on this topic, consider these AMA seminars:
To learn more, read these AMACOM Books:
- Where We Stand, by Seymour Garte, Ph.D.
