Happiness and Profit -  Well-being as alternative objective function for business?

 An interactive Conference for academics, practitioners and policy makers

For:    All those interested in cross-sectoral dialogue on alternatives to current business paradigms.

With:

·         Prof. Dr. Bruno Frey, University of Zuerich, Warwick Business School

·         Nic Marks, New Economics Foundation , London

·         Romina Boarini ,  OECD, Paris

·         Peter Braun, CEO of Weleda AG.

·         Joachim Weckman, founder and CEO of Maerkisches Landbrot GmbH,

·         Dr. Kai Romhardt (Buddhist monk and formerly at McKinsey&Co.)

When:            June 12^th, 2012, 9am-6pm

Where:           University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

For early bird specials please register here (until May 3): http://www.amiando.com/JDLEJCP

Happiness and Profit

In current times of turmoil business as usual is not an option. The debate on alternative ways to conduct business has only just begun but it is widely anticipated across management practice, policy makers, and academia. In this conference, the Humanistic Management Network together with its partner organizations is examining a simple, yet often overlooked alternative to business as profit maximizing venture: business as agent of societal well-being.

To examine the question of viable alternatives to business as usual, we will start the day looking at trends at the national and international policy level. Well-being indices are widely adopted as complements and even substitutes to traditional economic measures (e.g. GDP) to guide policy making. We will have experts from Academia ( Prof. Dr. Bruno Frey) and Policy (Nic Marks, New Economics Foundation and Romina Boarini of the OECD) highlight the experiences with well-being as alternative objective function and then discuss what lessons could be applied to the business level.

In a second part we will focus on what businesses stand to gain from switching from profit maximizing to maximizing stakeholder well-being. We will have representatives of leading businesses that already work to increase societal well-being. Peter Braun, CEO of Weleda, Joachim Weckman, founder and CEO of Maerkisches Landbrot GmbH, Kai Romhardt (Buddhist monk and formerly at McKinsey&Co.) as well as representatives of other businesses will discuss their experiences with well-being as objective function of business.

After each of the keynote panels participants will be actively involved in developing an agenda for research, practice and policy to move the question of alternatives to "business as usual" forward.

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We welcome your interest and active participation and invite you to join us.

Please register here: http://www.amiando.com/JDLEJCP

Early Bird Fee only until May 3rd.