4th annual B·A·W·B online conference a success

by Janet Roberts

On April 26 and 27, 2007, the 4th annual online conference "Business as an Agent of World Benefit: What’s Next" invited participants from 60 countries to envision what is next for the field of social responsibility and sustainability, as well as what is next for the community of people connected by their work toward business as an agent of world benefit.

The first day of the conference opened with mini-documentaries on Fairmount Minerals and Shaw Industries, followed by a video report on the Business as an Agent of World Benefit (B·A·W·B) Global Forum 2006 and presentation from the B·A·W·B Global Forum 2006 key note speaker, Patrick Cescau, CEO of Unilever. A multimedia presentation on The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)'s development of the Principles for Responsible Management Education rounded out the morning.

At noon Chris Laszlo, partner and co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, Inc, and author of The Sustainable Company: How to Create Lasting Value through Social and Environmental Performance held the first live presentation of the summit. Laszlo framed the conversation of the entire conference by offering an overview of sustainability as a core business strategy for competitive advantage and spoke about trends and opportunities as we look to the future.

A lively discussion was facilitated by Angel Cabrera, senior advisor, UNGC and president, Thunderbird School for Global Management and Manuel Escudero, head of Networks and Academic Initiatives at the UNGC, as they shared exciting updates on the development of the Principles for Responsible Management Education. The initiative, developed during the B·A·W·B Global Forum 2006, aims to encourage business schools and other academic institutions to increase their attention and contribution to responsible corporate citizenship.

David Cooperrider, professor and chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior, and faculty director of the Center for B·A·W·B at Case Western Reserve University, rounded out the first day of the conference with a presentation and live chat discussion on approaches and mechanisms for addressing massive problems in business and social responsibility. He spoke to attendees from the point of view of management and what it needs to organize the tools we have as a world to deal with these very complex issues.

Day two of the online conference focused on what is next for the B·A·W·B community.  Ante Glavas, manager, B·A·W·B Global Forum 2006 and B·A·W·B Global Forum 2008 at the Center for B·A·W·B at Case Western Reserve University, presented a preview of the B·A·W·B Global Forum 2008, currently in the development stage. During the B·A·W·B Global Forum 2006, participants and organizers alike committed to hold a forum every two years and connect management schools with management practitioners.  Glavas introduced the theme for the next global forum -- Business as an Agent of World Benefit: Managing as Design in an Era of Massive Change -- and discussed with participants what the best elements and features would be to design such a forum.

Conference host, Nadya Zhexembayeva, director of the World Inquiry at the Center for B·A·W·B, hosted the last online conference sessio. She spoke about how to move the field of B·A·W·B forward and reflected on what particular institutions and individuals in the B·A·W·B network can do to create new opportunities that will move the community forward. 

Conference attendees could then watch digital case studies in multimedia format around the work of Unilever, Fairmount Minerals, and Sherwin Williams, as well as a public recording of the presentations by Cescau of Unilever and C.K. Prahalad, the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

As the end of the conference drew near, the virtual halls were filled with excitement, with new discussion boards growing by the hour and resources flying from one participant to another. As students shared their intent to bring these ideas into their future workplaces, classrooms and meeting rooms, the conference suddenly became the living image of "what’s next" -- a vibrant network of global collaboration and rapid change for business and society.