Events,News

Merchants of Modernity – business briefing and discussion

6 April 2010

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.

Date: 21 April 2010
Venue: The Restaurant, Gordon Institute of Business Science, Melville Road, Illovo
Time: Breakfast is served at 07:15 and the briefing begins at 08:00
Cost: R250 per delegate, regrettably only accepted in cash

Please RSVP no later than 14 April 2010 to Dineo Lengane on 011 771 4249 or lenganed@gibs.co.za.

Click here for directions and a map to the GIBS campus

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 Foundation, all managed by Tshikululu Social Investments, 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 this year. 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).