| Business executives hold key to sustainable futures |
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| Monday, 29 August 2005 | |
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Business executives can do more than most to secure the
future of humanity, according to Australian futurist Richard
Slaughter. In doing so, they will create a better future for
business itself. Dr Slaughter's work explores some of the actions that present generations can take to avoid "stealing the future" from unborn generations. As a first step, he proposes an alliance between the long-term thinkers of major futures study centres around the world — what he calls the "institutions of foresight" — and the practical achievers of business. Old-style "business" is over; "the work of the world's best thinkers and writers is clearly indicating that business as we know it is over," he says. "A simple continuation of business-as-usual attitudes and practices leads inexorably to futures no sane person would wish to inhabit." "Leaders in the corporate sector now understand this. That is why we are seeing a shift in corporate values, a growing recognition of the wider role of organisations in society and acceptance of social responsibilities. More compelling still, we now have clear evidence from a range of sources that short-term success is frequently achieved at the cost of long-term prosperity — for an individual, an organisation or a society." According to Dr Slaughter the major social formations — government, business, education, media and so on — are caught up in learning lags. Most of them are still operating on industrial-age assumptions which have been outdated by new knowledge from many disciplines. However he and other futurists believe that more and more people are making the vital paradigm shift which releases them from industrial age assumptions and allows them to see that a viable future demands a different ethos. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 29 August 2005 ) |
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