Development Intelligence Series Breakfast Briefing and Discussion
Merchants of Modernity
Why business should stop apologising and start strategising
Development Intelligence Series Breakfast Briefing and Discussion hosted by Tshikululu Social Investments and GIBS
The perspectives and interests of those who live in rich, western countries dominate the current conversation about business and society. Activists, analysts and others – however well intentioned – do not grasp the realities of poverty and the hard choices of development outside the rich industrialised world. As a result, the debate about business, ‘responsibility’ and corporate involvement in development is distorted, with few voices from developing countries being heard and the positive legacy of business remaining unacknowledged.
Ann Bernstein, author of the recently published and much-acclaimed book: The case for business in developing economies, urges business not to let such attacks stand unchallenged. It must find the confidence and strategic vision to stop apologising, develop its own public agenda, and start propagating the phenomenal benefits of competitive capitalism for the less developed countries of the world.
At the first Development Intelligence Series breakfast for 2010, Bernstein will be presenting a new approach, one that is required to cut through an increasingly flawed conversation, which has potentially dangerous consequences for the poor and for developing countries in particular.
Time: Breakfast is served at 7h15 and the briefing begins at 8h00
Cost: R250 per delegate, regrettably only accepted in cash
RSVP: Dineo Lengane (No later than 14 April 2010), tel: to 011 771 4249, email:lenganed [at] gibs [dot] co [dot] za.
Ann Bernstein heads the Centre for Development and Enterprise, South Africa, the country’s leading policy centre for social and economic development. Supported by the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, the Epoch and Optima Trusts and the FirstRand Fund, the CDE has a special focus on the role of business and its contribution to development.
Her new book, The Case for Business in Developing Economies was published by Penguin in 2010. She is a regular public speaker and has been published by newspapers around the country, often appearing on radio and television. Her many other publications and books include Migration and Refugee Policies (with M. Weiner, London, 1999), Business and Democracy: Cohabitation or Contradiction? (with P.L. Berger, London, 1998), and Policy Making in A New Democracy: South Africa’s Challenges for the 21st century (CDE,1999).
