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The WBA's overall goal is to change entrepreneurial attitudes and business consciousness so that business acts in a responsible way
Mr. B. Bacon, Chairman, WBA and delegation
Summary of proceedings:
The World Business Academy (WBA), the ILO and the International Institute for Labour Studies are collaborating in the framework of a three-year project "Social Transformation and Enterprise Performance". Launched in April 1996, the project seeks to provide business managers with knowledge and practical tools for improving the performance of their businesses in a socially responsible manner.
The WBA wants to promote a new paradigm according to which business shall become a steward. The Academy advocates a new business spirit that aims at enhancing the quality of life instead of simply considering financial aspects. This calls for an ethical approach to business.
The WBA has its roots in a global study on scenarios for the future (15 to 20 years) carried out in the mid-1980s by the Stanford University.
Stanford developed different scenarios that nevertheless had common characteristics: the massive transformation of national economies, globalization, liberalization, and the advancement of information technology. The scenarios predicted that business would be most affected by these fundamental changes, and that business and the market would become the single most important global institutions. In such a context, entrepreneurs could no longer off-load all social responsibility on the state. Business had to become responsible for the society. This discussion led to the establishment of the WBA as a research institute to analyse the expected changes and to develop new thinking. The Academy was founded in 1987; today, it has more than 500 members in 36 countries.
The WBA's overall goal is to change entrepreneurial attitudes and business consciousness so that business acts in a responsible way. Entrepreneurs must contribute to creating the right environment for business. As an example, an Indian entrepreneur who, after realizing the contradiction between his successful business and his country's social conditions, sold his enterprise to build up a new, socially responsible steel company (Raju Nagarjuna Group) that developed an outstanding scheme to take care of its workers. The same company participated in a bid for the construction of a sugar company in Vietnam. Despite strong competition from other companies, the Raju Group won the bid because its offer was based on a convincing regional development approach to sugar production.
This example illustrates WBA's conviction that if "business serves the whole, than the whole will serve business". In other words, when business behaves with integrity and authenticity, then it will overcome any obstacle. A second example to underpin this statement concerns an Australian company which wanted to put up a construction business in Thailand, but repeatedly failed because competitors corrupted local decision-makers. Yet, when the Australian company combined its proposal with a community development scheme that would serve the whole area and not just the enterprise, it won the bid.
WBA's main activity is the organization of meetings to promote its philosophy. The Academy wants to convince the business community that social action goes to the top line: it is not only a cost, but also a benefit. The downsizing of companies without social considerations destroys relations and may eventually lead to the "capsizing" of the company.