EABIS - the European Academy of Business in Society is an alliance of companies, business schools and academic institutions that is, with the support of the European Commission, committed to integrating Corporate Responsibility and sustainability issues into the heart of business theory and practice in Europe.
Each year EABIS organises a multi-stakeholder Colloquium, a unique platform for all stakeholders engaged in Corporate Responsibility to debate the future role of business in society. The Colloquium is EABIS’ biggest annual event which distinctively brings together around 300 representatives from business, research, policy bodies and think-tanks. In the past the Colloquium focused on issues such as global governance or competitiveness. This year’s Colloquium which took place on 11 – 12 September 2008, hosted by Cranfield University School of Management (UK), explored issues and priorities around the topic of “Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability: Leadership and Organisational Change”.
The conference highlights included:
- Video welcome message from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales who challenged participants not only to tackle research questions, but also to inquire about the necessary mindset, skills, and knowledge tools to equip future leaders
- Keynote speeches from: Sir Michael Rake, Chairman of BT Group plc and former Chairman of KPMG International; John Elkington, Founder of SustainAbility; and Prof. Dexter Dunphy from the University of Technology Sydney
- High-level panel debates involving CEOs and University Presidents from leading institutions focusing on critical challenges to organisational change as well as innovations and new approaches in successful leadership of organisational change
- CR Knowledge and Learning Forum – A dynamic marketplace-style event profiling current and future activities of EABIS and its members at the frontier of CR issues in collaborative knowledge development & learning
- Breakout workshops with presentations of new knowledge, development and learning projects on topics such as private equity, climate change, sustainable value creation for shareholders and society, system change and the challenges of transforming organisational culture
- New dynamic approaches, giving participants a greater opportunity to share their opinions and questions beforehand and through 6 breakout session during the conference and including more interactive elements then ever such as the speed networking, the business lunch, and the table chairs at the Gala Dinner
- Presentation of the European Faculty Pioneer Awards with a special ceremony during the Gala Dinner at Woburn Abbey
The focus of the conference was on how to shift attention from external engagement to internal integration and how to drive the processes, systems and structures of organisational change. Along with the panel discussion, 80 paper and case studies on Organisational Change and Sustainability written by from senior researchers, business managers and international think-tanks were presented.
The conference thus drilled in what is the main challenge for organisational leadership today: managing the complex interface between external pressures and expectations on adaptation and performance, and the evolutionary – sometimes transformational – change required within the organisation to fully integrate social and environmental issues into strategy and operations.
In the final plenary Jane Nelson, Director of CSR Initiative at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, provided a comprehensive and effective overview of the insights and take-aways of the Colloquium, highlighting key gaps and challenges. The main gaps she addressed are between what society and companies themselves think they ought to be doing and what they are actually doing and between what Business Schools and Universities think they ought to be doing and what they are actually doing. Simon Pickard, EABIS Director General, emphasised the fact that, in order for leaders of tomorrow to be different from leaders of today, a new set of value-based human, intellectual, skills and qualities is required. Only this way, will it be possible to make responsible business practices operational and effective in day-to-day decision making processes.
For more information regarding this year’s Colloquium please click here. The 2009 Colloquium will take place on September 21-22 hosted by IESE Business School, Barcelona, more information to be published in due course on the EABIS website.
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