News and Cluster Activities
EBBF and Women's International Network (WIN)
Submitted by George Starcher & Adrian Kielhorn
Adrian Kielhorn and George Starcher were warmly received by Kristin Engvig, Founder and Director of WIN , to discuss their work in developing a knowledge centre on the "Partnership of Women and Men" as found on their web site , WIN can be briefly described through its mission "inspiring women worldwide" and its vision to "bring a strong, authentic and different leadership with a global perspective which inspires and guides communities, corporations, supranational institutions, political organizations and entrepreneurship worldwide."
It does this by developing, empowering and connecting feminine leaders worldwide through the W.I.N. Global Forum, W.I.N. Corporate Networking Group, W.I.N. Community and W.I.N. development activities.Kristin confirmed that in her experience, women do manage differently than men but there are significant geographic differences and that there are distinctive feminine values and wisdom, including sharing, caring, collaboration, compassion and win/win approaches and relationships.
She added that "men in feminine cultures often act more feminine than women in more masculine cultures."
She went on to discuss some corporate policies and practices that contribute positively to the partnership of women and men and confirmed some recent research that public companies with women on their boards of directors tend to have better corporate governance. In conclusion she said that men play a crucial role in creating appropriate conditions for this partnership by believing in a "fair" world.
Four years in a row
Submitted by Beppe Robiati
February, a sunny weekend on the hills of Acuto near Rome welcomed students from the faculty of economics from different Italian universities. These students were invited by the National Headquarters of AIESEC who, for the fourth year running asked EBBF to organise this event.
Fifty students and young managers from fourteen different universities participated in this " full immersion " course which aimed at imparting the a new vision to these future administrators; a vision that made clear that managers can succeed if they collaborate with the development of an ever-advancing society, and - as the Universal House of Justice says- " by allowing people and institutions to build the new foundations of a new social order which cultivates the limitless potentials which are latent in human conscience ".
EBBF presenters included Mr. Arthur Dahl, Mr. Saba Mazza, Mrs. Mehry Sefidvash, Mrs. Sandra Luschi, Mr. Enrico Giraudi, Ms. Denise Cumella, Mr. Alessio Brusemini , Mr. Cesare Fera and Beppe Robiati who presented themes like environmental sustainability, ethical management of human resources to be considered as spiritual gems, the management of energy, a new international ethical conscience, the view that an organization is about people's spiritual growth, the 'know-how' of communication innovation towards new models, the concept of leadership as an example of change and transformation towards a new sense of awareness. Quoting Baha'u'llah, " Indeed in the estimation of men of wisdom keenness of understanding is due to keenness of spiritual vision " allowed the participants to immerse themselves in an atmosphere of love and spirituality.
- An article appeared in the newspaper "Il Denaro" describing the weekend event.
The program was a roller coaster of morning music, readings from spiritual writings, games, questions and artistic sessions organized in an excellent way by Mr. Naim Abid and Mr. Francesco Cappellaro. All of this created a spiritual athmosphere of learning and deep love which stressed the importance of the innovative vision of EBBF.
The evening of Saturday was an evening where the participants expressed what they had learnt through music, poetry and art . A film crew which was present has recorded a video throughout the event.
EBBF at the Triple Bottom Line Conference
Financial institutions are playing an increasingly important role in engaging companies to become more socially and environmentally responsible. Two EBBF
members, George Starcher and Marcello Palazzi, were among the 520 participants in the conference on socially responsible investing held at the Bourse in Paris
on 9 and 10 November. This annual event brings together a wide variety of asset managers from banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other
institutions together with agencies that evaluate and rate companies on their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) performance. It is organized by former
EBBF member, Robert Rubinstein, founder of TBLI, Triple Bottom Line Investing. Of particular concern this year was the risk inherent in climate change and of
increasing carbon emissions.
George Starcher moderated a well attended workshop on Microfinance at which speakers from North America, Asia, Latin America and Europe described the
different models and diversity in practices of microfinance institutions and the emergence of microfinance as an asset class of increasing interest to investors.
Microfinance is also an important tool in poverty alleviation.
You can read more insights into this topic of Ethical Finance in EBBF's Knowledge Centre on this topic.
Master of Business Administration at the Universitá Pontificia
Submitted by Sandra Luschi
The scene was set in the Università Pontificia, prestigious headquarters of the Catholic Education, Domenicani in particular, where we could breathe an international, multiethnic and "holistic" atmosphere.
I found myself introducing the MBA course titled "ethics, responsibility and spirtuality" in front of a motivated group of MBA students.
After describing EBBF and its background I decided to break the ice to better approach such a complex subject that both intersted but also worried them, I therefore asked each of them to think of a person for whom they felt great admiration, regardless of whether they be famous or not.
As the students expressed their admiration and the reason for choosing that person we ended collecting on the board a list of values that everyone shared, expressing the spiritual dimension that is part of each human being which is an underestimated source of strength and success in the toughest of challenges.
It also became evident how each of those qualities were necessary for the promotion of a new sustainable development of humankind.
I also shared my own most admired person sharing with them the profile of Bahá'u'llah, the richness of His innovative indications aimed at creating a society in continuous progress.
Having reached this point of the presentation the only challenge became that of trying to follow the original plan for the presentation, as the participative approach of the students had them intervene frequently with questions and comments often of a provocative nature which became excellent points for reflection and sharing.
By using every contribution and creating a harmony from the diversity of the opinoins bringing them to a common vision we touched upon quite a number of themes for example the way in which the search for consensus can be brought about by the art of consultation (with great satisfaction expressed by theMBA students).
Many questions pre-empted topics covered in the following slides such as the reference to "a new world order" and a global world government together with the development of sustainable approaches to growth.
The students gradually came to join the logic that was offered and were enjoying hte fact of gaining a new reference in their horizon, captured by its organic and copmlete nature.
I finished the last slide, worried about my timing when I looked up at the clock and find that we had reached exactly 17:30. That is when I was pleasantly surprised to notice that no break had been requested in the three and a quarter hour program: they were all totally concentrated for the entire length of the presentation, the only part that suffered was the tone of my voice at the end of the talk!
