Beacon, the annual business ethics conference by Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), was inaugurated by Nixon Joseph, President & Chief Operating Officer, SBI Foundation, in the presence of Fr P Christie, SJ, Director, LIBA, faculty and students on February 8. This year, Beacon witnessed the launch of Dr Ajit Singhvi Micro Centre for Good Governance by Jochen Tewes, Founder, Inter-Mission Industrial Development Association, under the aegis of Centre for Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, LIBA, to promote research in the area of good governance.
The theme for the day-long conference was ‘Sustainable business practices for a better tomorrow’, which focussed on providing a platform for budding managers of LIBA to gain knowledge about the sustainable business practices from industry leaders and also how it influences the triple bottom-line — planet, people and profit.
The conference was spread across two sessions with various industry experts including Santhosh Jayaram, Partner and Head, Sustainability Advisory Services, KPMG India; Giresh Mohan, Regional Manager – South, Corporate Social Investment, ITC Limited; Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy, Independent International Advisor and Consultant for CSR; John Alex, EVP & Group Head-Social Initiatives, Equitas Small Finance Bank & Program Director, Equitas Development Initiatives Trust-Chennai; Vidya R, founder, Skillsgurucool; and M Sivakumar, CEO, ICT Academy, addressing various issues.
Addressing the students, Joseph said, “Business ethics is a system of moral principles that dictates what legitimate behaviour is in business dealings. I would like to focus on ethics as corporate governance, sustainability and corporate social responsibility, which are interlinked to ethics. Right ethics results in efficient corporate governance, effective sustainability and the right attitude for corporate social responsibility. In an organisation, individual competitiveness is to be downplayed and interdependence is to be focussed on to ensure future economical prosperity. My advice to the students entering the corporate world is to be humble and transparent in all your dealings, respect all, keep learning to not turn obsolete, challenge yourself in your profession and learn something new.”
For Singhvi, good governance is not just corporate governance in business but something that needs to exist in terms of accountability, transparency and democracy in any organisation.
Fr Christie said, “We are starting the Micro Centre as a part of Centre of Business Ethics of Corporate Governance. The Centre will promote good governance through research, publications and conferences.”