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AI in the Press: Article Detail |
Case's New Centers for Business as Agent of World Benefit Ties Bottom-Line Success With Promoting World Economic Progress
PRNewswire
Date: 06/22/2004
Case's New Centers for Business as Agent of World Benefit Ties Bottom-Line Success With Promoting World Economic Progress
CLEVELAND, June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Striving to help businesses make the world a better place in which to work and live, Case Western Reserve University has established the new Centers for Business as Agent of World Benefit. Devoted to rethinking the world's economy, the Centers will help businesses boost their bottom-line success while advancing societal benefit in the areas of social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and new forms of public-private leadership for regional and global collaboration.
Judy Rodgers, as the new executive director of the Centers, will partner and unite the working world with researchers and action work across Case's campus. "The 21st century can become," says Rodgers, "a time when the dynamism of business is aligned with the local, regional, and global agenda for constructive change."
A signature element of the Centers' work is Appreciative Inquiry, a strength-based method of analysis and development pioneered at Case's Weatherhead School of Management that leverages an organization's or community's core strengths for accelerating innovation and positive change. It is a planning method -- often involving thousands of people in the room at the same time -- that has achieved international acclaim:
The Global Compact at the United Nations, for example, has recently called upon David Cooperrider, Case professor and one of Appreciative Inquiry's founders, to use the large group approach to advance U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's vision for a global, sustainable economy by working with 500 CEOs and world leaders, attending the Global Compact Summit meeting at the U.N. in New York City, June 24. Hundreds of companies like BP, Pfizer and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters are participating. Speaking about the purpose of this work Kofi Annan said: "Let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of future generations."
Case Centers for Business as Agent of World Benefit -- to be launched on June 24 with a three year, $3-million seed commitment from the university and private donors -- have three components that draw from Case's powerful, innovative learning and research environment:
A Network of Institutes: The interdisciplinary work of the Case Centers is organized around seven founding programmatic initiatives which focus on research, action learning and multi-stakeholder dialogues ranging from town hall meetings to international conferences, as well as media and online initiatives.
Founding Institutes include:
- Weatherhead Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (WISE)
- The Institute for Community Engagement as Business Strategy
- The Institute for Global Leadership
- The Institute for Advanced Appreciative Inquiry
- The Institute for Corporate Governance
- The Institute for Regional Economic Issues
- The Institute for Business Partnership for Youth & Schools
The World Inquiry: The Centers have launched a worldwide search into what it means for the business sector to be an agent of benefit to society. Framed as a longitudinal "call to inquiry" into successful business-society innovation, the World Inquiry uses proprietary software to continuously search the world for stories of business-driven social innovation, archiving these stories and leveraging those representing significant innovation into the public eye and into greater visibility in the management education and research community. Eventually the Centers plan for a news service dedicated to constructive business-society innovation. Case is now forming a partnership with the new TV program called Ethical Marketplace.
The Case Initiatives for Business and Society. The Centers will be the conceptual umbrella for a range of curriculum, research, and outreach initiatives across the colleges at Case that explore positive social impact including:
- Specialized corporate citizenship curriculum in the MBA, the new Master's in Positive Organizational Development and Change and undergraduate electives on Leadership and the Global Agenda
- Cross-university collaborations with specialized areas such as the Case Advanced Power Institute, the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center, the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations and the Center for Global Health
- A Business and Society Colloquium Series and a World Fellows Program
- The creation a global award, akin to a Nobel Prize for Business as Agent of World Benefit
Commenting on the significance of the new university center of excellence, Case's President Edward M. Hundert, M.D. said, "Business is not just a matter of regional but of world affairs today; and it is time for all of us to aim higher in our educational quest to serve humanity. This exciting initiative is an investment advancing our mission to be a powerful learning environment and a destination for the world's boldest thinkers and finest educators."
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Sciences. The Commission on Presidential Debates selected Case to host the U.S. vice presidential debate on October 5, 2004. http://www.case.edu .
SOURCE Case Western Reserve University
Web Site: http://www.cwru.edu
Online Resources:
News Release online
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