Today’s initiatives and problems

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM : PIONEERING ETHICAL CAPITALISM

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH, 2013

There is more than one way to do capitalism. In Japan, in the second half of the 19th century, a major business leader, Shibusawa Eiichi, expressed the view that business enterprise could and should simultaneously accomplish profits and enhance public welfare. The solutions he suggested are still relevant today. This symposium aims at understanding the Asian and Western origins of ethical capitalism, mapping the evolving arguments about the responsibilities of business and the changing practices of firms, debating the relations between morality and economy for globalised economies and societies in a perspective of sustainable growth.

PROGRAM

10:00 - Morning Session > What does an approach of this major issue by history bring to us?

• Moderator: Patrick Fridenson (École des hautes études en sciences sociales)   
• Opening speech: Kazuo Kodama, Japanese Ambassador to the OECD    
• Keynote speech: Takeo Kikkawa (Hitotsubashi University), Why ethical capitalism? Origins and development 
• Geoffrey Jones (Harvard Business School), The responsibility of capitalism: past, present, future  
• Janet Hunter (London School of Economics), Business and morality: can we still learn from Japan?   
• Discussion

14:30 - Afternoon Session > Today’s initiatives and problems

• Moderator : Marcelo Bucheli (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)Keynote speeches   
• Ken Shibusawa (Founder and Chairman, Commons Asset Management), Rongo (ethics) andSoroban (business): Sustainable Capitalism    
• Lionel Zinsou (Chairman and CEO, PAI partners): What does Finance mean by corporate socialresponsibility?

Round table: Can you be ethical in global business today?

• Participants: Philippe Lagayette, president of the Fondation de France ; Hartmut Berghoff, director of the German Historical Institute in Washington ; business leaders ; officials and scholars.  

General discussion