We have recently been able to observe a growing recognition among companies and senior managers that alongside political, economic and environmental risks there are also ethical risks which can have devastating consequences for the success of a company, and even threaten its survival.
There has been a tendency to believe that morality potentially restricts company profits. That is a misconception. In fact, companies that do not manage their values are nowadays even being excluded from major projects.
The point is to see ethics as a positive factor in the profile and to make full use of this resource in making a company successful.
By investing in material assets, human capital and corporate culture, companies lay the foundations for sustainable returns that are in tune with the markets, ensuring healthy profits for themselves and their shareholders. Corporate policy of this kind is already reaping rewards the form of stock market prices. The good news is that it pays to behave well, because over the long term morality and profit-making converge. The conference Ethics, Finance and Politics on 19 May 2011 is an interdisciplinary platform providing a unique opportunity for information, meetings and the exchange of ideas.
While specialists such as Prof. Dr. Dr. Homann (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich), Prof. Dr. Julian Nida-Rümelin (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich) and Prof. Dr. Günter Faltin (Freie Universität, Berlin) cast light on Ethics, Finance, Politics and Entrepreneurship, exemplary entrepreneurs such as Anne-Kathrin Kuhlemann (Managing Director of Konvergenta), Sandra-Stella Triebl (Chief Editor and Publisher, Swiss Ladies Drive GmbH), Volker Weber (Chair of the Forum Nachhaltige Geldanlagen, a German Ethical Investments Forum) and Clemens von Stockert (Value Management FRAPORT AG) will have a chance to present innovative aspects of their work.
Information and creativity born of different perspectives can be exchanged fruitfully if the conditions are right, as they were in the Renaissance on the piazzas of Florence. The purpose of this exercise is to generate new ideas, and this is known as the Medici Effect.
In the same way, interdisciplinarity stimulates everyone concerned. This, and our partnership with the universities in Munich (LMU) and Berlin (FU), both winners of the German government’s Excellence Initiative, will ensure that our conference meets a broad response among entrepreneurs, academics, staff and students.
With depth and a light touch, we will be pointing a way out of the economic crisis and the much lamented lack of values in society.
For all those taking part, this is an opportunity – 20 years after the fall of the Wall and the peaceful revolution – to help determine the future of business and the arts in Berlin and at the same time to enjoy doing something positive for the next generation.
The conference will take place under the patronage of the City of Milan.