Editor’s Note:
Peter Drucker, one of the management Gurus of the century, who contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation, once said, “Religion and politics have had their day; now business would shape society”.
As we have seen over the past few decades, the words of Peter Drucker did come true. Business did and still is playing a huge role in shaping the society. It has brought remarkable innovations in meeting people’s needs, making life comfortable and reducing the drudgery of daily chores. But this entire process has resulted in making the consumers greedier and the businesses more profit oriented. The sole purpose of many businesses now is just to make profit at any cost. “Progress” and “Growth” are the only terms that people associate with business. If financial and material rewards are the forces that spur people to work to propel such progress, would we be able to avoid the greed – trap that has plunged economies of many countries?
To answer such questions and to discuss the way ahead for business, a number of Business leaders, Bureaucrats, professionals, media, NGOs and other concerned people have been coming together, every alternate year for the Caux Initiatives for Business (CIB) International conference in Panchgani, India, jointly hosted by Initiatives of Change, Japan and India. If you wish to know more about the CIB Framework please write to us by email. At one of the CIB Steering Committee Meetings (SCMs), held on Feb. 28, 2013, the thought of the e-Newsletter came up. This monthly CIB e-newsletter gives us another platform, apart from the
biennial CIB conference in Panchgani, to share and discuss issues, questions and concerns. It may help to change the terms people associated with business…from just “Progress” and “Growth” to ‘Ethical’ yet ‘Competitive’! We would also urge you to make this forum as interactive as possible so that everyone reading it is benefited. Letters to the editor might be helpful in this process.
We are aware that many of our readers, apart from being very successful in their fields, also have inspiring stories of change. So we would request you to send us articles, supported with photographs if possible, that you feel are relevant.
– Neha Mukherjee