EBBF member Foad Ghalili (standing, in photo) sends in this story about his company, Epoch International, which manufactures electronic products like circuit boards and ID card readers. Located in the city of Dalian in Northeast China, where concern has often been expressed over workers’ rights, Mr. Ghalili shares this story about one step they have taken to incorporate employee well-being into their business model:

Doctor visits are generally done in China only when you have a health issue that needs to be addressed. Regular health checkups are still in their infancy at best. We initiated a company sponsored health checkup program a couple of years ago for our work force. The majority of the employees are from the surrounding towns and villages working in an electronic manufacturing environment.

The first year when the program was initiated, not everyone understood and they were not willing to go to the doctor without having any visible health issues. To ease their apprehension, the program was made voluntary at first. Upon receiving the results of the initial groups, a series of health issues were identified, some that required immediate medical attention and in one case surgery. There were a few that had Hepatitis and one case was severe enough that she was quarantined for three months in a hospital to bring her condition under control. Needless to say that the employees that had initially opted to sit out were asked to go through the checkup as well. Read the rest of this entry »

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We are aware of the quite amazing variety of projects that EBBF members and the participants of the EBBF/IEF Annual Event are taking forward.  That is why we want to highlight how much each one of us is doing and trying to assist us to progress our ideas. At this year’s EBBF Annual Conference we therefore decided to introduce a new feature: “the projects room”. You can share the project you are working on now, applying one or more of EBBF’s core values which will then be featured online on the EBBF website and printed on a wall in the Projects Room at the conference. You may want to indicate what you need from the EBBF community to move forward your project. Your project could be a new idea you want to implement in your work environment or outside of it.  Post your project clicking here. 

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Consultant and EBBF member, Georgeanne Lamont, sends in these comments on the relationship between a thriving, sustainable business and taking care of the businesses greatest wealth, the human beings who work there. This care is at the essence of “spirituality”.
Sustainable working must be spiritual working - cutting ourselves off form our main resource which is our human spirit can only cripple us. Drawing on spiritual tools and drawing on the infinite inner resources within us is the way through the demanding turbulence of today. Forgiveness for example can cut through swathes of timely meetings and resentments. Trust speeds all work along. Courage is necessary for innovation. Compassion transforms irritations and tiring confusions. Much of what modern business requires - innovation, productivity, creativity, agility, resilience – can in fact be met not by looking outwards for more material resources but by drawing on the immense resources within ourselves.
Sustainability is a spiritual issue and the reason so many are falling by the wayside is that they are trying to use the old tools in a new world and refusing to use spiritual tools that are there waiting to be sued and have been there for thousands of years.
Here’s a selection from her article “The 21st Century Challenge” which was just published in the HRINZ magazine:
For some people work is a positive, fulfilling experience. I was recently interviewing some engineers about their work. “I’ve had 20 years that, as an engineer, could not have been better,” said Ian, his face lighting up in memories of adventures at work. “It’s a pure joy to work here,” said Graham with a smile. “We have values and we live by them in our work.”
Sadly, Ian’s and Graham’s experiences are far from typical. For many that sense of fulfilment and adventure at work is swallowed up in the stress of rapid, destabilising change, disconnection, disillusionment and discouragement as leadership and management appear to lurch from one crisis to another.
The critical factor preventing businesses from thriving is low engagement - where staff lack energy and enthusiasm - according to research from the 2007 Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study (1) carried out with 90,000 workers across 18 countries. Their research has shown that globally there are very low levels of “full engagement”, e.g. just 14% among UK workers. Just look at the direct cost of this under-engagement for companies: “They studied 50 global companies… and discovered an average increase in operating income of 19.2% in high-engagement companies, while it fell by 32.7% in their low-engagement counterparts.” (emphasis added) (People Management, 20 March 2008, p 73)
The phenomenal pace of change that we now face is intensifying the need for massively increased agility, productivity and efficiency. This need cannot be met by working in the old ways. The key to producing a quantum leap in income and productivity is the increased engagement which comes about when people access their inner resources – their values, their vision, their sense of meaning and purpose. There is a proven methodology that can be used to tap into the hidden wealth of talent and energy within the organisation and release it as the fuel to drive creative change and vibrant engagement.

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Daniel Schaubacher, EBBF representative to European institutions, sends in this news:

From July 11 through 16, I was invited by Caux Business Initiatives, of Initiatives of Change International www.iofc.org to participate in the Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy Conference, and speak in a plenary on Purpose Beyond Profit: Spiritual Values and a New Work Ethic, and run a workshop on Values-driven Leadership. Held in the former Caux Palace now called Mountain House, overlooking scenic Lake Geneva, the conference gathered business people and concerned citizens from all continents, and was host to a global farmers’ dialogue which dealt with the present food crisis. The venue and informal conference atmosphere provided many opportunities to network with participants who share EBBF and Baha’i values.

For more information on a talk touching on how the current financial structures facilitate corruption around the world, click here. And more information on the conference.

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News just sent in by EBBF member Leonor Gimelfarb: 
“On 9-11th October AIESEC in Germany is holding its annual conference “Strategic Autumn Meeting”. 350 students, all of them serving on their local AIESEC boards, will plan together activities and projects for the new academic year. For the second time EBBF has been invited to conduct workshops on global issues. “During one day selected AIESEC partner have got the opportunity to present their views on global issues”, says Melanie Sarrach from AIESEC Germany’s national board. EBBF members Fritz Klüber and Shervin Setareh have agreed to run workshops on Energy and Social Innovations respectively. With 57 local chapters and hundreds of members Germany is one of the largest AIESEC countries. EBBF is very pleased to see the cooperation develop.

Warm Regards

Leonor”

Click here to find out more about the EBBF - AIESEC partnership.

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Ever wonder how ethical your business and business decisions are? In the EBBF publication “Ethics and Entrepreneurship: An Oxymoron?” which is included in the Responsible Entrepreneurship Anthology, George Starcher presents a model representing the stages of ethical consciousness an individual or business might have. (Those familiar with Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development will notice a resemblance.)

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Stage 1: “Might Makes Right”. Decisions and actions in this first and lowest stage of ethical consciousness are based on very simple physical and material power. It is a very Darwinian existence in which “might makes right”, “survival of the fittest”, and the “law of the jungle” prevail. Activities of the Mafia and the oligarchs such as extortion and price-fixing enforced by physical threats could be considered to be Stage 1 behaviour.

Stage 2: “Anything Goes”. Actions in this stage are still very self-centered and materialistic. Entrepreneurs in this stage seek to maximize personal financial gain or simply survive in difficult situation by doing anything that produces a profit as long as they do not get caught. Producing, distributing, and selling drugs or pornography would fall in this level, as would practices such as false representation of products, bribes to government officials, stealing, not paying taxes, false declarations for customs, and failure to respect written or oral commitments. In this stage actions are taken Read the rest of this entry »

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(Excerpts from the EBBF publication “Responsible Entrepreneurship: Engaging SMEs in Socially and Environmentally Responsible Practices” by George Starcher)

Doing good can be good for business. There is a wealth of studies and examples of the business benefits of socially and environmentally responsible business practices. These can be found in environmental management, social and environmental reporting, human resource management, human rights and community involvement as well as other areas. But most of these studies have been carried out with large companies. What is more important is to develop a business case that is relevant to SMEs and covers activities frequently carried out by entrepreneurs. The benefits of this business case include:

• Operational cost savings. Investment in environmental efficiency measures such as the reduction in consumption of energy and raw materials, waste reduction, and recycling often yield significant savings. Reductions in absenteeism and staff turnover and reduced healthcare costs as a result of responsible and enlightened workplace and personnel practices also are reflected rapidly on the bottom line.
• Increased revenue. Responsible entrepreneurship can help companies strengthen loyalty with existing customers and gain new customers and contracts with large companies provided they are competitive on price, product quality and service. New markets which are accessible to SMEs include eco-tourism, organic farming, “green” wood products, and ecoservices. There are also opportunities to take more ecological approaches to product design and even to market services such as floor covering rather than simply selling rugs. Read the rest of this entry »

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“Every few hundred years in Western history, there occurs a sharp transformation… Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself - its world view; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions. . . . We are currently living through just such a transformation.”

Thus begins “Emerging Values for a Global Economy”, an EBBF statement that highlights the organizations’ principle thesis: “that business leaders should look to the moral and spiritual wisdom and principles of the great religions of the world for practical guidance in addressing the challenges facing us at this pivotal point in history. Such wisdom includes adherence to the principles of justice, respect, trustworthiness, integrity, and unity; it derives from sources as ancient as Judaism, Hinduism, and Christianity, and from the more recent revelation of Bahá’u'lláh, founder of the Baha’i Faith.”

It then continues to describe the twin pillars on which it is founded:

The European Baha’i Business Forum was founded on the twin principles of the oneness of humanity and of unity in diversity. These principles are strikingly congruent with the emerging global society. Read the rest of this entry »

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In a fresh interview to appear in the upcoming edition of Inspire magazine, EBBF talks to Marieke Kersten and Victor Wollaert (on right, beside caravan used for a recent meeting with a client), partners running a junior consultancy firm called JongeHonden in Utrecht, Holland. In this excerpt from what was a very lively conversation, Marieke and Victor share their excitement about working for a company that is truly concerned about the growth of its employees, the ‘young hounds’.

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EBBF: Partnering junior consultants with senior consultants is clever enough. But this isn’t just any consulting business. What makes your company special and what makes you so enthusiastic about it?

Marieke: Well, for one JongeHonden has a very specific organizational structure and business model which is not primarily focused on making lots of money as quickly as possible, but rather on enabling young people to discover working life and those aspects which they like most. Where does their personal strength lie? What can they bring to the table? How can they enjoy work by doing what they like and are good at? We want to give them a lot of freedom and responsibility, both in running and organizing their external projects, but also by actively taking part in running and improving our own business and the overall concept of JongeHonden. So one thing is the learning. The junior is enabled to learn a lot in a short period of time by working side by side with seniors and the seniors get their projects done faster and better, on the one hand, and are at the same time often inspired and energized by working with a young, motivated and resourceful junior. So we try to establish a partnership between juniors and seniors consultants. They learn from each other. This partnership is very important, and there is a sense of equality in that, a respect for what you bring to the table. Partnership between junior and senior, and also between JH employees, entrepreneurs and freelancers, and also between a man and a woman with Victor and me. Fostering this learning process is of huge importance to me.

We also try to lower the threshold for the jonge honden to explore the possibilities of entrepreneurship and over the last year and a half about 11 (out of now some 30 plus people working at JongeHonden) have become entrepreneurs within JongeHonden, and some others are outside but are still working closely with us. …

Victor: Learning is more important than making money. If you look at this from an outside perspective, it seems crazy. Surely there could be other ways to organize JH much more effectively—in terms of money making. But we’ve deliberately chosen to do it this way, to let everyone work on administration. And what we see is a high learning curve. Everyone has maximum responsibility for the company. As bosses we create a framework in which jonge honden can function, we try to coach them, but they have responsibility for their career at JH. And their participation is limited to three years. After that, we kick you out. We are ‘Young dogs’, and we should stay young.

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CSR Europe is seeking an experienced and motivated Products and Services Coordinator to join our team in Brussels.

The ideal candidate should be interested in CSR themes and activities and have at least 2 to 4 years work experience in the field of sustainable development or corporate social responsibility. He/she must have proven experience in project management, coordination of working groups and conferences, writing of reports, and good research skills.

We offer a position with a lot of learning opportunities in a motivated, international team. The candidate will have the chance to work independently, to create his/her own networks, and to use innovation and creativity in assisting in developing existing and new services. Read the rest of this entry »

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