Tomorrow afternoon I'll be at 'Bonus vs Pro Bono', the second in a series of Renegotiating 'value' seminars organised through Faiths in London's Economy. This seminar seeks to explore the value of inspirational leadership in business and will be held in the St Martin's Hall at St Martin-in-the-Fields (Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ) between 4.00 and 6.30pm.
The Renegotiating 'value': what faiths offer 21st century business leadership seminar series aims to explore the benefit and challenge of faith traditions in leading sustainable businesses. A blog for the series containing information, presentations and discussion can be found at http://renegotiatingvalue.blogspot.com/.
Here are brief biographies of the speakers at tomorrow's seminar, Peter Hyson (Change Perspectives Ltd) and Baroness Uddin:
In the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a confused Alice seeks directions from the Cheshire Cat. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," says the Cat. "I don't much care where - " Alice replies. "Then it doesn't much matter which way you go," retorts the Cat. "-- so long as I get somewhere," Alice adds as an explanation. "Oh, you're sure to do that," says the Cat, "if only you walk long enough." In one sense, that might summarise Peter Hyson's life and career to date! For much of it, he’s not necessarily been totally clear where he’s been heading. He’s not one of those people who while they were still in short trousers fixed on a goal in life and single-mindedly pursued it until it was grasped and held aloft in a triumphant fist! The middle distance has often only emerged slowly out of the very definite mists of time. More specifically, that’s manifested itself in his work as a professional swimming coach, a senior teacher, a Church of England vicar, in working with the most senior leaders in leadership development and managing change and, more recently in writing novels and scripts and in TV production. A Handbook for Coaching with Meaning and Spirituality is currently with Routledge. And throughout all those areas, people have been grappling with the question that so perplexed Alice: the area of spirituality, quest for meaning and the drawing to something or someone outside of and greater than ourselves.
Baroness Uddin was the first Muslim woman in the House of Lords. Born in Bangladesh and brought up in England, she is an advociate of social reforms and equal rights. A formidable champion for women, Lady Uddin was invited to the House of Lords in 1998 for her contribution to the advancement of women's and disability rights. She began her professional and political career in the 1970's, in the East End of London, developing a number of leading edge and well-regarded services and organisations. Many of these have since come to be accepted as benchmarks for sustainable development and community engagement. Baroness Uddin has served on the Government's Select Committee on European Affairs and has chaired several Government task forces, under the auspices of the Prime Minister's office, the Home Office and the FCO. She also chaired the Government's Taskforce on Ethnic Minority Women Councillors.
The seminar costs £5.00 (pay on the door) and you would be very welcome if you are able to come. Renegotiating ‘value’ is a seminar series organised by Faiths in London’s Economy (FiLE) in association with: Ethos HumanCapital; Faith Regen Foundation; The Grubb Institute; Mission in London’s Economy; the SmithMartin Partnership; St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace.
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Jakob Dylan - Holy Rollers for Love.
Showing posts with label ethos humancapital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethos humancapital. Show all posts
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Renegotiating 'value'
The series has three seminars:
- Profit vs Prophet exploring whether making money or making a difference are opposed. Speakers: Jay Lakhani (Hindu Council UK), Abigail Morris (ResponseAbility), Mannie Sher (Tavistock Institute). Thursday 7th October, 4.00 – 6.30pm, St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG;
- Bonus vs Pro Bono exploring the place of inspirational leadership in renegotiating 'value'. Speakers: Peter Hyson (Change Perspectives), Bruce Irvine (Grubb Institute), Baronness Uddin. Thursday 4th November, 4.00 – 6.30pm, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ; and
- Stakeholder vs shareholder value exploring who it is that businesses are/should be accountable to and the difference this makes to their structure and operation. Speakers: tbc. Date: tbc. Venue: tbc.
Renegotiating ‘value’: a seminar series organised by Faiths in London’s Economy (FiLE) in association with: Ethos HumanCapital; Faith Regen Foundation; The Grubb Institute; Mission in London’s Economy; St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace.
FiLE works with faith communities in order to create coordinated faith-community responses to the issues facing London's economy.
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Zbigniew Preisner - Road.
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Ethical & Equity based finance
Today I went to an event organised by Ethos HumanCapital at the Cass Business School, as part of a series on ‘Ethical Business & Finance’, entitled Ethical & Equity based finance - Socially Responsible Investment, Islamic Finance & Private Equity: Contradiction or Common Ground?
The event brought together speakers (Vincent Neate, Head of KPMG UK's Sustainability practice; Farmida Bi, Partner in Islamic Finance at Norton Rose; and Chris Mills, Ethical Policy Manager, The Co-operative Bank) from the three core areas of Private Equity, Islamic Finance and Socially Responsible Investment to examine the theoretical commonalities and practical contradictions. The aim was to challenge current thinking and create debate leading to a better model.
Talking with another delegate before the session began brought back to mind statements made last week in my session on Transforming the Workplace by North Thames ordinands with experience of the Finance Sector. Each were emphasizing the difficulty of taking genuinely ethical stances within the sector.
As a result, it was then encouraging to hear the perspectives of these speakers who, although realistic about the challenges, were also more positive about the opportunities that exist and developments within the sector. Vincent Neate commented that, from his perspective as a consultant to major firms on issues of Climate Change, Ethics and Sustainability, there were two extremes when it came to the weight give to ethics in the sector; where people care about ethics they care deeply but where they don't, they don't care at all. Where ethics was taken seriously, the lead came from the top. Chris Mills gave an example of the business benefits that the Co-operative Bank has derived from its ethical policies as it is bucking current trends by expanding its market share at the expense of other banks with the overwhelming majority of its customers citing ethical policies as a significant reason for choosing to bank with the Co-op.
Mills argued that belief in unfettered capitalism has gone and Neate supported this view by stating that, not only is it currently not possible for the worst examples of asset-stripping to occur because there is insufficient liquidity in the markets, but he believed that private equity firms had seen the error of such actions. Bi was less optimistic, however, thinking that the sector is seeking to return to past unethical practices as soon as possible because the bottom line for many is delivering immediate profits. By contrast Ethos HumanCapital proposed a triple bottom line of people, planet and responsible profit.
Bi spoke about the specifics of Islamic Finance emphasising that it was more than simply a prohibition on interest. Other factors including prohibitions: on speculation; investment in specific goods/services such as gambling, pork, banks, arms etc.; and failures to understand the contract on either side. Such an approaches aligned well with non-Islamic approaches to ethical investment and financial services. More universal principles derived from Islamic Finance included, among others, working hard for a profit and using money earnt for social good. She felt that, despite initial optimism that Islamic Finance would emerge from the recession as a standard bearer for ethical practices, this was not occurring because Islamic Finance was a small segment of the sector which had been as affected by liquidity as other parts of the sector and because of a reluctance to go further in developing alternative models to existing financial practices. As a result, the opportunity to develop beyond the current stage achieved by Islamic Finance in the sector is being lost.
Ethos HumanCapital is a social enterprise business specialising in human capital consulting, including search & selection, as well as training & development and research with a focus on ethical finance, Charities/NGOs, Responsible media, Green & Responsible business spaces.
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Duke Special - No Cover Up.
The event brought together speakers (Vincent Neate, Head of KPMG UK's Sustainability practice; Farmida Bi, Partner in Islamic Finance at Norton Rose; and Chris Mills, Ethical Policy Manager, The Co-operative Bank) from the three core areas of Private Equity, Islamic Finance and Socially Responsible Investment to examine the theoretical commonalities and practical contradictions. The aim was to challenge current thinking and create debate leading to a better model.
Talking with another delegate before the session began brought back to mind statements made last week in my session on Transforming the Workplace by North Thames ordinands with experience of the Finance Sector. Each were emphasizing the difficulty of taking genuinely ethical stances within the sector.
As a result, it was then encouraging to hear the perspectives of these speakers who, although realistic about the challenges, were also more positive about the opportunities that exist and developments within the sector. Vincent Neate commented that, from his perspective as a consultant to major firms on issues of Climate Change, Ethics and Sustainability, there were two extremes when it came to the weight give to ethics in the sector; where people care about ethics they care deeply but where they don't, they don't care at all. Where ethics was taken seriously, the lead came from the top. Chris Mills gave an example of the business benefits that the Co-operative Bank has derived from its ethical policies as it is bucking current trends by expanding its market share at the expense of other banks with the overwhelming majority of its customers citing ethical policies as a significant reason for choosing to bank with the Co-op.
Mills argued that belief in unfettered capitalism has gone and Neate supported this view by stating that, not only is it currently not possible for the worst examples of asset-stripping to occur because there is insufficient liquidity in the markets, but he believed that private equity firms had seen the error of such actions. Bi was less optimistic, however, thinking that the sector is seeking to return to past unethical practices as soon as possible because the bottom line for many is delivering immediate profits. By contrast Ethos HumanCapital proposed a triple bottom line of people, planet and responsible profit.
Bi spoke about the specifics of Islamic Finance emphasising that it was more than simply a prohibition on interest. Other factors including prohibitions: on speculation; investment in specific goods/services such as gambling, pork, banks, arms etc.; and failures to understand the contract on either side. Such an approaches aligned well with non-Islamic approaches to ethical investment and financial services. More universal principles derived from Islamic Finance included, among others, working hard for a profit and using money earnt for social good. She felt that, despite initial optimism that Islamic Finance would emerge from the recession as a standard bearer for ethical practices, this was not occurring because Islamic Finance was a small segment of the sector which had been as affected by liquidity as other parts of the sector and because of a reluctance to go further in developing alternative models to existing financial practices. As a result, the opportunity to develop beyond the current stage achieved by Islamic Finance in the sector is being lost.
Ethos HumanCapital is a social enterprise business specialising in human capital consulting, including search & selection, as well as training & development and research with a focus on ethical finance, Charities/NGOs, Responsible media, Green & Responsible business spaces.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duke Special - No Cover Up.
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