The very distinguished list of speakers and panellists included the CEO of EPSON Europe, the CEO of ENEL, Senior Chairman of Microsoft EMEA, European Head of Funds Trading and Structuring of Goldman Sachs, the Global Director of HR at Unilever and the CEO of E. Capital Partners Indices as well top academics from Wharton School of Business, SDA Bocconi, IMD, INSEAD and more.

Building on the four previous conferences, the theme of this year's conference was ‘Corporate Sustainability, Strategic Management and the Stakeholder View of the Firm'. The event examined the challenges faced by managers, educators and policy makers in attempting to mainstream sustainability and responsible business practice to support European economic growth. In particular, the Colloquium explored how corporate responsibility issues affect and impact business strategies and how corporate sustainability can contribute to the strategic management of stakeholder relationships.

Conference Highlights

Keynote Speeches

• George Soros, Chairman of the Soros Management Fund, Open Society Institute and the Central European University Board of Trustees, delivered a keynote address in which he stated that government must take the lead in CSR as business will always face a complicated trade off between pursuing bottom line profit and being ethical. For this reason, it is vital that governments provide the regulatory environment and incentives for companies to invest in CSR and integrate it into their business strategies. Soros also noted that transparency and accountability are crucial in the fight against corruption, especially in those nations with vast natural resources, something Soros and others have termed the "resource curse".
• Mario Monti, President of Bocconi University and former EU Commissioner for Competition, delivered another keynote speech. In his address, Monti emphasised the link between corporate responsibility and competitiveness due to reduced transaction costs and stated that that globalisation has entered a new phase where its acceptance is being questioned by many of those whom globalisation has left behind, a deficiency which must be addressed. In his view, it is the role of government to stimulate companies to integrate CSR into their business. This will, according to Monti, help competitiveness by reducing the need for regulation and by extension transaction costs.

Panel Sessions

The first panel session consisted of a mix of leading academics (Wharton School of Business, INSEAD and Bath University's School of Management) and business executives (Microsoft, Shell, and Janssen Cilag, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) who explored the relationship between corporate responsibility and strategic management. One of the bottom-line conclusions that emerged from the in-depth discussion was that there have been some major shifts in the mindset and attitude towards corporate responsibility and in management schools and corporations, but that there is a long way to go until it is in the "bloodstream" in these organisations.

The second panel session included a cross section of top academics in corporate responsibility as well as high level business executives from EPSON, ENEL, E. Capital Partners Indices, Goldman Sachs and Unilever. During the discussion, panellists gave excellent insights into how CSR is making a positive impact on their organisations at the level of management, employees, customers and how, in the words of the panellists, it is fast becoming a "truly central management tool".

EABIS' 2nd Annual Education Training and Exchange

For the second year, EABIS organised The Education and Training Exchange (sponsored by Johnson & Johnson) which functioned much like a ‘fair' or ‘market place' and provided a platform for interactive and creative exchange of successful education and training initiatives from the academic and business sectors. During an informal two-hour session, attendees were able to freely circulate, network and choose among 60+ short presentations on successful corporate responsibility education initiatives in action at corporations, research projects underway at universities and how corporate responsibility is being integrated in business school courses.

Included in this year's Education and Training Exchange were such leading international businesses and academic institutions as Microsoft, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, Heineken, Procter & Gamble, Ashridge Business School, ESADE, SDA Bocconi University, London Business School and many others. The full catalogue of initiatives will be available on the EABIS website shortly.

Learning Workshops

The learning workshops, titled the Symposium Series, enabled both presenters and attendees to engage in deeper discussions on the opportunities and challenges for content development and implementation of education and training on corporate responsibility. This year's Symposium Series included the following six topics that were explored in detail by academics and practitioners:

• In-Company Training
• External Training and SME Capacity Building
• Masters Programmes
• MBA Curriculum and Case Study Development
• Executive Education
• Faculty and PhD Development

Research and Knowledge Development Tracks

Day Two of the Colloquium focused heavily on the 20 research and knowledge development tracks that enabled attendees to meet in smaller groups to drill further down on a specific subject of interest to their research projects and daily work. Among the 20 sessions available included Strategic Management and Stakeholder Management, Corporate Sustainability from a Resource and Knowledge Perspective, Corporate Sustainability from an Industry Structure Perspective, Corporate Sustainability from a Social Institutional Perspective and Small and Medium Enterprises and Responsibility.

Related Documents

• Programme. Download
• Call for Presentations from Companies and Academic Institutions for the 2nd European Corporate Responsibility Education & Training Exchange (deadline was on June 15th). Download the call and application form.
• Call for Presentations and Reflective Papers from Business, Government, NGO and other Practitioners (deadline was on May 31st). Download.
• Call for Papers from Academics and Reflective Practitioners (deadline was on April 30th). Download

Further information: Prof. Francesco Perrini This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more information on the project visit the project pages' above on the right.

EABIS Colloquium 2006 host partner: SDA Bocconi School of Management