[Ailist] Message from David Cooperrider

[Dawn Dole]

Dear AI Colleagues and friends:

We have been so busy-- making great progress with the project on Business as an Agent of World Benefit. As you know in 2004 we (a team of 8 AI'ers) designed and guided an AI Summit for Kofi Annan and 500 CEOs looking at the next stages in global corporate citizenship at the UN headquarters in NY. As a follow up to that I proposed to Kofi Annan that we bring together his UN Global Compact with management scholars of the Academy of Management. Both said yes. 

So on behalf of the United Nations Global Compact, the Academy of Management, and Case Western Reserve University, I am pleased to invite you to be part of a major global event, Business as an Agent of World Benefit: Management Knowledge Leading Positive Change. The Forum will take place from October 22 to 25, 2006 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. 

We truly believe that this Forum has become a catalyst for a powerful movement in which the world's business leaders join forces with leading intellectuals to strengthen the capacity of business to address societal issues such as creating peace, eradicating poverty, conserving the environment, while making a profit at the same time. We believe that the creation of sustainable value is the strategic business opportunity of the 21st Century. 

While the website at www.bawbglobalforum.org charts the full array of benefits to change agents and senior executives in terms of state-of-the-art thought leaders, new practical tools, executive-to-executive private networking opportunities and ways to highlight the best of your organization's work and innovation, what makes this Global Forum so exciting and unique includes the following: 

.        This is not going to be yet one more tired conference on corporate social responsibility: it is a call to decisive action around a sustainability paradigm of business and society mutual benefit, one that showcases the creation of sustainable value as the business opportunity of the 21st Century-including the practical frameworks for launching sustainable value innovation both within companies and across sectors.   

.        The Global Forum has attracted world class thought leaders. Scheduled speakers include: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan; CK Prahalad (The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid);  Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard, Peter Senge of M.I.T., and leading CEOs such as the Chairman of Unilever, Patrick Cescau, Ray Anderson, CEO Interface, Bertand Collomb, CEO LaFarge, Bob Stiller, CEO of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, #1 ranked ethical company by Business Ethics, as well as senior executives from companies such as Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Toyota, McKinsey, and Boston Consulting Group. 

.        The majority of the Forum will be in small group and intimate AI dialogue. The design of the agenda uses Appreciative Inquiry in order to harness the potential of all the delegates at the Forum.

Because of space limitations at the 400 person Global Forum, I urge you to complete the simple sign up as soon as possible by registering on-line at http://www.bawbglobalforum.org/register. While the session is still some time away, we are nearly at full capacity already. In addition, if you know of any colleagues who think should be at the Forum, please let us know as soon as possible. Feel free to share this invite to clients or businesses you know where there is a learning agenda around sustainability and uniting the strengths of business with the global agenda for change. 

Don't hesitate to send me an email if you need more information. 

Best regards,

David Cooperrider