What Contemporary Business Leaders Could Learn from the Thoughts of Sun Tzu (BC 540 ~ 482)

This chapter examines the scaling and diffusion of green entrepreneurship between 1980 and the present. It explores how entrepreneurs and business leaders promoted the idea that business and sustainability were compatible. It then examines the rapid growth of organic foods, natural beauty, ecological architecture, and eco-tourism. Green firms sometimes grew to a large scale, such as the retailer Whole Foods Market in the United States. The chapter explores how greater mainstreaming of these businesses resulted in a new set of challenges arising from scaling. Organic food was now transported across large distances causing a negative impact on carbon emissions. More eco-tourism resulted in more air travel and bigger airports. In other industries scaling had a more positive impact. Towns were major polluters, so more ecological buildings had a positive impact.

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Forging a British World of Trade

10.1093/oso/9780198816713.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

David Thackeray

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

New Zealand ◽

United Nations ◽

International Collaboration ◽

League Of Nations ◽

Business Leaders ◽

Trade Relations ◽

Historical Role ◽

The Eu

Brexit is likely to lead to the largest shift in Britain’s economic orientation in living memory. Some have argued that leaving the EU will enable Britain to revive markets in Commonwealth countries with which it has long-standing historical ties. Their opponents argue that such claims are based on forms of imperial nostalgia which ignore the often uncomfortable historical trade relations between Britain and these countries, as well as the UK’s historical role as a global, rather than chiefly imperial, economy. This book explores how efforts to promote a ‘British World’ system, centred on promoting trade between Britain and the Dominions, grew and declined in influence between the 1880s and 1970s. At the beginning of the twentieth century many people from London, to Sydney, Auckland, and Toronto considered themselves to belong to culturally British nations. British politicians and business leaders invested significant resources in promoting trade with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa out of a perception that these were great markets of the future. However, ideas about promoting trade between ‘British’ peoples were racially exclusive. From the 1920s onwards colonized and decolonizing populations questioned and challenged the bases of British World networks, making use of alternative forms of international collaboration promoted firstly by the League of Nations and then by the United Nations. Schemes for imperial collaboration amongst ethnically ‘British’ peoples were hollowed out by the actions of a variety of political and business leaders across Asia and Africa who reshaped the functions and identity of the Commonwealth.

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Capitalism Beyond Mutuality?

10.1093/oso/9780198825067.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Keyword(s):

Social Science ◽

Social Contract ◽

Well Being ◽

Business Practice ◽

Business Leaders ◽

Social Scientists ◽

Economic Paradigm ◽

The Social ◽

Modern Economic ◽

Great Output

Our quest for prosperity has produced great output but not always great outcomes. The list of concerns is growing and familiar. Fundamentally, when it comes to well-being, fairness, and the scope of our humanity, the modern economic system still leaves much to be desired. In turn, trust in business and the liberal market system (aka “capitalism”) has been declining and regulation has been rising. A variety of forces—civic, economic, and intellectual—have been probing for better alternatives. The contributions in this volume, coauthored by eminent philosophers, social scientists, and a handful of thoughtful business leaders, are submitted in this spirit. The thrust of the work is conveyed in the volume’s titular question: Capitalism Beyond Mutuality? Mutuality, or the exchange of benefits, has been established as the prime principle of interaction in addressing the chronic dilemma of human interdependence. Mutuality is a fundament in the social contract approach and it serves us well. Yet, to address the concerns outlined here, we must help evolve an economic paradigm where mutuality is more systematically complemented by reasoned and elective morality. Otherwise the state will remain the sole (if inadequate) protector and buffer between market and society. Hence, rather than just regulate power we must also educate power. Philosophy has a natural role, especially when education is the preferred vehicle of transformation. Accordingly, the essays in this volume integrate philosophy and social science to outline and explore concrete approaches to these important concerns emanating from business practice and theory.

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