2002 COS Round Table. "How global would we be? The tension zones and responsibilities of today's managers"

Friday, May 24th through Saturday, May 25th, 2002

The Theme of the Round Table

Bear with us for a moment and remember:

The year 2000 seems far away:
Booming economies, rapid growth and innovation drive, instant techno $ millionaires, mega mergers and acquisitions worldwide.

Then the often predicted, but strangely unprepared for, burst of the technology bubble. Unimaginable amounts of creative energy imploding, turning markets towards recession, imagined value into real loss.

Globalisation is praised as the friend or condemned as the foe of human progress. Increasingly insistent questions are being asked about the scope, aim and impact of making the world one huge market place governed by the laws of homo oeconomicus. Questions around how to combine global and local values, standardisation with customisation, quick shareholder ROI with organisational and environmental sustainability.

Then, in 2001, the September 11 disaster happens.
Fundamentalist Islamic terrorists hitting at the core of both the Western capitalist symbols and the heart of US military power, murdering thousands of people, triggering a war against terrorism which had never seen such world wide support before.

The justified uproar and consequent action against the terrorist activities worldwide has covered but not muted the underlying questions: Questions to our western societies and organisations which are now asked by more people, with more urgency and more worry.

In 2002, the Enron /Andersen crisis makes it very clear that the threats cannot simply be attributed to ?external enemies?, they reside in our own yards.

How to deal with and manage responsibly the cultural impact of a dominant economic model - characterized increasingly by the US-style business practice of primary focus on shareholder value, financial market dependency, short term cycles, commercialisation and standardisation ? on societies which live in different value systems and development stages. Reversely, operating globally has a profound impact on organisations, including ethical questions and connected leadership dilemmas.

Many have individually been prompted to rethink their work-life balance and primary personal value commitments.

The questions of global governance cannot be the theme of a COS Round Table, although they form the backdrop to manager?s everyday decision making:

We would like to use this COS Round Table time to discuss some of the tension zones which all of the above creates in our organisational and managerial reality:

• Culture versus globalisation
• Corporate social responsibility going global
• Leadership dilemmas in a global corporate environment

• Alexander Kouzmin, Chair of Organizational Behaviour, Cranfield School of Management, UK
• Amin Rajan, CEO, CREATE, UK
• David Grayson, Director, Business in the Comunnity, UK
• Claire Preisser, Program Manager Business Dialogue The Aspen Institute, Initiative for Social Innovation through Business, USA
• José Luis Nebril, E-business Transformation Manager, ORACLE, SP
• Juan Ribas, Director, Pro-Management, SP
• Martin Rahe , R+D Director, EADA, G