19 November 2007

WBCSD: New publication "Doing Business with the World"

The development focus area of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released a new flagship publication "Doing Business with the World - The new role of corporate leadership in global development".

The WBCSD's development focus area's objectives are:
  1. Raise awareness of the business contribution to development, helping business and non-business stakeholders understand what is possible by providing case studies, guides and tools that advance our understanding of development challenges and opportunities;
  2. Advocate for change by working collaboratively with multiple stakeholders to create a more enabling business environment and seek synergies between official development assistance (ODA) and foreign direct investment (FDI);
  3. Act by working with our members, Regional Network partners and other stakeholders to broker new business ventures that are both good business and good for development.
The publication gives a very good introduction of the area of business and development working together. From a Marketing perspective (I still have this in my blood) it's a great peace, thouroghly researched information presented with plenty of graphs etc. From a more critical development perspective someone could say "all great talk... what's the real action?" I see it as a necessary stepping stone to bridge the gap between business activities and development requirements such as environmental protection, poverty reduction etc. What'syour take on it?

An interesting quote summing up nicely the role of business:
“Business is the most important engine of economic change. It brings employment, goods, revenues, knowledge and skills development. We must also recognize that the most important role is probably not that played by the multinationals, but by the small and medium enterprise sector, the SMEs.

We as global companies can provide the catalyst to partner with SMEs to mutual benefit. We can access their local expertise and markets; they can access our technologies and business skills for local momentum.”

Michael Pragnell, CEO, Syngenta

Read the full PDF report from WBCSD.