Ενα βιβλίο για όσους αντέχουν την πολλή αλήθεια !!

 

Τον Μάιο  αναμένεται να κυκλοφορήσει το νέο βιβλίο του Κώστα Κατάρα, με τίτλο "Σιωπηλός Καινούργιος Κόσμος – Ανιχνεύοντας τη Νέα Κανονικότητα, την εποχή της Μετα-δημοκρατίας".

Στο τρίτο αυτό βιβλίο του ο συγγραφέας εξετάζει, μεταξύ άλλων, πώς ο σύγχρονος άνθρωπος οδηγήθηκε στην παθητικότητα, σε έναν μεγάλο ύπνο, και σήμερα πιεζόμενος και από τις τεχνολογικές εξελίξεις, ίσως καταλήξει να γίνει ασήμαντος κοινωνικά, οικονομικά, πολιτισμικά και πολιτικά. Τούτο, μέσα από μια τεχνολογική πραγματικότητα που ο Κατάρας προσεγγίζει με κριτική ματιά, που, όμως, μπορεί να λειτουργήσει και αφυπνιστικά για τον άνθρωπο.

Μια ματιά που δεν περιγράφει μόνον από τι κινδυνεύουμε, αλλά και ποιες δυνατότητες και προκλήσεις ανοίγονται μπροστά μας. Και, κυρίως, που θυμίζει την ανάγκη και ικανότητα που έχει η ανθρωπότητα να υπερπηδά προκλήσεις θαρραλέα , να προχωρά μπροστά και να δημιουργεί έναν καλύτερο κόσμο, παρά τις δυσοίωνες προβλέψεις. Συνιστά, ενδεχομένως, και ένα προσκλητήριο να υπερβούμε τα εμπόδια, σε αρμονία με τη γνωστή φράση «είμαι απαισιόδοξος λόγω ευφυΐας και αισιόδοξος λόγω θέλησης".

Επισκεφθείτε την σελίδα του βιβλίου στο Facebook  ΕΔΩ   και δείτε πώς να λάβετε μέρος στο διαγωνισμό , ώστε να μπείτε σε κλήρωση όπου τρεις (3) τυχεροί  θα κερδίσουν ένα υπογεγραμμένο από τον συγγραφέα  αντίτυπο  του βιβλίου.

Μπορείτε επίσης να  δείτε αναλυτικά περιεχόμενα, εκτεταμένα αποσπάσματα, αλλά και να λάβετε μέρος στο διαγωνισμό, αν επισκεφθείτε την ιστοσελίδα του βιβλίου στο :  http://costaskataras.org/siopilos-kainourgios-kosmos.html 

 

Σοκολατένια Πρόκληση

Η αμερικάνικη Lacta , (Modelez),θα πρέπει να επικεντρωθεί στη δουλειά της , δηλ να ανακατεύει γάλα και κακάο και να φτιάχνει σοκολάτα και ..κέρδη. ( ο Freedman / Σχολή Σικάγου ήταν απόλυτος σε αυτό). Όμως με τις αμετροεπείς διαφημίσεις της, νομίζει ότι έχει μετεξελιχθεί σε θεσμό (institution) του κράτους , κάτι σαν «υφυπουργείο έμφυλης ταυτότητας» για την επανεκπαιδευση της Ελληνικης κοινωνίας στην καταστροφική , αμερικανόφερτη, ακραία και φανατική πολιτική ορθότητα. Αν κοιτούσαν την κύρια δουλειά τους ίσως είχαν και καλύτερα οικονομικά αποτελέσματα και όχι να συμβάλουν με αστείους φόρους μόνο 0,007% του τζίρου για 2020(0,8 εκ φόρος σε 120 εκ τζίρο )! Την ίδια στιγμή ένας ιδιοκτήτης με έσοδο από ακίνητα πχ 15.000 ευρώ θα φθάσει σε φόρο ακόμη και 30% σε τμήμα του «τζίρου» + ΕΝΦΙΑ !!!  Επίσης, μεταξύ άλλων, αντιμετωπιζει έρευνα της ΕΕ για αθέμιτες πρακτικές antitrust, ενώ στις ΗΠΑ δικαστήρια για εκμεταλλευση παιδικής εγασίας, child slavery σε φυτείες κακάο στην Αφρική και αλλού.

Απογοητευτικά ποσοστά εμπιστοσύνης των πολιτών σε βασικούς θεσμούς δείχνει το “Edelman Trust Barometer 2021”

Στα συμπεράσματα γίνεται λόγος για ένα ”αποτυχημένο οικοσύστημα εμπιστοσύνης” που δεν μπορεί να αντιμετωπίσει την αχαλίνωτη infodemic (επιδημία πληροφόρησης) που καταδικάζει θεσμικά όργανα - επιχειρήσεις, κυβερνήσεις, ΜΚΟ και μέσα ενημέρωσης - σε μια ”χρεοκοπία” ενώ το κλίμα που καταγράφεται καθιστά επιτακτική την ανάγκη αποκατάστασης της εμπιστοσύνης μεταξύ θεσμών και πολιτών και την χάραξη μιας νέας πορείας.
Η έρευνας της Edelman-  “Edelman Trust Barometer 2021”, που επί δύο δεκαετίες έχει καταγράψει τις απαντήσεις χιλιάδων πολιτών σχετικά με την εμπιστοσύνη τους σε βασικούς θεσμούς, διαπιστώνει πως το 57% των ερωτηθέντων θεωρεί ότι οι κυβερνήσεις, οι επικεφαλής επιχειρήσεων και οι δημοσιογράφοι διασπείρουν ψευδείς πληροφορίες ή υπερβάλλουν. Πιο αναλυτικά στη Huffpost εδώ.
Τα  αναλυτικά αποτελέσματα της έρευνας εδώ.

How to Shrink Inequality

"Some inequality of income and wealth is inevitable, if not necessary. If an economy is to function well, people need incentives to work hard and innovate. The pertinent question is not whether income and wealth inequality is good or bad. It is at what point do these inequalities become so great as to pose a serious threat to our economy, our ideal of equal opportunity and our democracy." A classic article by Prof Robert Reich in The Nation.

The State of Corporate Reputation in 2020

Weber Shandwick  recently took stock of the reputation of business. The study, “The State of Corporate Reputation in 2020: Everything Matters Now”, was conducted in partnership with KRC Research and surveyed executives from 22 markets around the world. The study examines what drives reputation, why it is important to be highly regarded and the benefits that come with having a strong reputation. A primary finding from the research is that reputation today is omnidriven. That is, a company’s portfolio of reputation drivers is no longer dependent on solely a few select factors. Everything matters today, from quality of employees, to quality of products, to financial performance, to corporate culture, to community. The list goes on. In an environment where business leaders are being caught off guard by dangers that seemingly lie in plain sight, companies must ensure they are hyperalert to all factors when working to build and safeguard their reputations. See the report at : https://bit.ly/38eemnW

Economics, in the last decades, has been harmful for most people?

As Chang  had put it in Guardian: “Economics, as it has been practised in the last three decades, has been positively harmful for most people.” !! “Economists are not some innocent technicians who did a decent job within the narrow confines of their expertise until they were collectively wrong-footed by a once-in-a-century disaster that no one could have predicted.” Far from being an inward-looking, hermetic discipline, economics has been a hugely powerful – and profitable – enterprise, shaping the policies of governments and companies throughout much of the world. The results have been little short of disastrous” . A great book, a must read, for all thought leaders. Ha-Joon Chang, Prof at the University of Cambridge,  is one of the leading heterodox economists and institutional economists specialising in development economics . 

A Professor at Cambridge that  is analytically debunking the myths of capitalism in his book “23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism”. A must read.

See more here. 

Monsanto: Strong Ties, Strong Media and the challenge of editorial integrity and independence

According to Huffpost , the media and partnerships division of the venerable magazine Scientific American hosted a panel Thursday at the National Press Club featuring journalists and scientists. The event, cosponsored by a group called GMO Answers, focuses on whether science is “explained fairly in the media.” What might be less apparent is that GMO Answers requires some explanation itself: The group is a project of agricultural biotech firms meant to buttress the industry’s reputation.

GMO Answers, which was launched in the summer of 2013 to help improve the impression of genetically modified foods in the U.S., is a project of PR giant Ketchum. Funding for the effort comes from agricultural biotech companies, including Monsanto and Syngenta.
Monsanto, which sells seeds that have been genetically altered so crops can survive the company’s glyphosate weedkiller, was facing pressure in many states to label foods containing GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. GMO Answers was created as a website where people could have questions answered by supposedly “independent” scientists.
The New York Times reported in 2013 that GMO Answers would embrace a more “transparent” approach in addressing critics, who accuse big agricultural companies of “purposely hiding information.” Around the same time, Politico reported that Monsanto shook up its internal PR shop and began a “charm offensive,” visiting newsrooms across Washington.

Why organizations must look beyond corporate-social-responsibility initiatives to truly engage

Antibusiness sentiment is nothing new. Yet mending the rift between big business and society isn’t merely a worthy goal—it may represent a new frontier of competitive advantage, profitability, and longevity for today’s organizations. In Connect: How companies succeed by engaging radically with society (PublicAffairs, March 2016), L1 Energy chairman and former BP chief executive officer John Browne, McKinsey’s Robin Nuttall, and entrepreneur Tommy Stadlen offer a practical blueprint for reconciling companies and communities. Read more about this topic from McKinsey here  .

Corporate sustainability lost some of its sexiness in 2012 ?

It was an odd year for green business, and it began with some mixed signals about how far companies were coming on sustainability. A GreenBiz report indicated that progress had slowed or even regressed, but MIT and BCG also declared that sustainability had reached a "tipping point" with more companies putting sustainability "on the management agenda." A very interesting article at HBR, here .

Maria Tsakos Foundation : Our Response to Fires

Following the unprecedented and despicable fires last August on the Greek Island of Chios in Eastern Aegean, an International Congress is being organized by the “Maria Tsakos” Foundation, which is the International Centre of Maritime Research and Tradition N.G.O., at the Homerion Cultural Centre of Chios and at the Maria Tsakos Foundation in Chios on the 15th  and 16th  October.

Worth mentioning that the immediate response of the shipping, seafaring and diaspora communities and in particular the Chian one, which brings together high caliber experts from all over the world, is yet an additional  response to those “prosecuting” the Greek shipping and its benefactors, within and outside Greece.The event has four interesting sessions: “Chios and the fires”; “A scientific approach to the fires: the Chios case”; “Measures of rehabilitation from Chios’ fires”; and “Response to the fires in the middle and long term future”.

The Foundation’s activities which are global,  extend to Greece, through donations and charities. Benevolent donations have been extremely significant, particularly in Chios and Kardamyla, Captain P.N. Tsakos’ home island. You can find the full event program here. 

USA consumers show a lower trust in national business than they do in global companies.

Citizens sometimes perceive national and global companies in a different light.

Trust in global and national business is certainly correlated, according to recent research by GlobeScan. If a country’s citizens trust global businesses, they are also likely to trust its own national companies. However, in most countries, national companies are more trusted than their global counterparts. Concerns about foreign control of resources and workers, as well as national prestige, are likely to be factors in this.

There are some exceptions—as is the case of  USA that  have markedly lower trust in national business than they do in global companies. The presence of trusted and respected “household name” global companies of local origin—such as Samsung, Hyundai, Microsoft, and Coke—may be boosting views of global companies here, according to GlobeScan. At the other extreme, all the continental European countries demonstrate great mistrust of global companies. These finding need a deeper examination in order to extract meaningful conclusions. However, it seems that support the findings presented  first in the book “Nice” Capitalism, ie that Europeans brands are outperforming their US counterparts in consumer admiration and trust.

What corporations like Unilever could learn from Darwin ?

In 2011, the Unilever CEO Paul Polman   launched the “Sustainable Living Plan” integrating every aspect of Unilever’s business. The plan called for Unilever to double its sales and halve its environmental impact within a decade; “It’s a realistic and difficult business model… but in a world where increasingly people feel that the system is unfair to them or where they feel excluded, where there is an enormous resource stress, companies that don’t more actively become part of the solution will become obsolete.”,  he said recently in the INSEAD Knowledge.

“We are increasingly more successful in what I call a VUCA environment – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Polman  says. Perhaps that’s why he also understands that in today’s interconnected world, social media is a powerful tool in the hands of the people, and the consumer is not afraid to say what he wants. “In the digital age we’ve seen the power of the consumer coming up and I always tell our people here that if they can bring down a regime in Egypt in about 17 days they can bring down an irresponsible company in nanoseconds…The consumer is really the boss and there is no bigger power than the power of the wallet.” , he said.  A very pragmatic and Darwinian paradigm from a global firm and his forward looking CEO. You can see more  about  this new paradigm for sustainable growth here.

Do CSR ratings and good companies rankings matter?

Last month has been a big one for corporate sustainability rankings, with the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and the Carbon Disclosure Project releasing new reports. Also a  book called Good Company announced its own 2012 Good Company Index. And this month will bring the World Series, Halloween and, of course, the annual Newsweek “green” rankings of big public companies, etc. Read in detail in Marc Gunther’s blog. As  he suggests all these rankings rise a lot of questions. And some findings are rather discouraging . Take for example the  Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).

The DJSI World has, since its inception in 1999, very closely tracked the stock markets as a whole. Actually, it slightly trails the MSCI World Index.

That’s discouraging, says Gunther. If the index is, in fact, selecting the most sustainable companies, they ought to be rewarded by forward-thinking investors. They’re not. Here’s a chart.

IKEA Foundation : “Soft Toys for Education “ campaign was able to donate 12,4 mil euro last year

Every year, the IKEA Foundation donates €1 for every soft toy sold in participating IKEA stores in November and December. The donation goes to Save the Children and UNICEF , and is spent on children’s educational projects.

The IKEA Foundation was able to donate  €12.4 million in 2011. 

Since 2003, the Soft Toys for Education campaign has:  raised €47.5 million, supported over 70 projects in nearly 40 countries, helped more than 8 million children receive a better education.

The projects improve education in Asia, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. With the funding, program  partners help schools become more child-friendly with well-trained teachers for all children, girls and boys, including those from ethnic minorities and those with special needs.

Harvard Business School: education program on Corporate Social Responsibility

Harvard Business School (HBS) will host an executive education program, Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to CreateBusiness and Social Value, from October 17–20, 2012 on the HBS Campus.  Corporate Social Responsibility will address the challenge of balancing business objectives and social accountability.

“Corporate Social Responsibility is a crucial element of any business strategy,” said Kash Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing and faculty chair of Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value.  “Corporate Social Responsibility will help corporate executives focus, align and integrate their CSR initiatives to create shared value for firms and communities.”

Brands in the Edge of Ethos : You Want Success? Start a Mass Movement.

There’s a new talk in the marketing world now and it has to do with… movements. The goal is to use people as Media, exploit their causes  and , ultimately, find and  push their buy button in their brain . How? This is where  the book ‘Uprising: How to build a brand and change the world by sparking cultural movements’ explains how brands can become part of something that is changing the advertising industry. Author Scott Goodson is founder and chairman of the agency, StrawberryFrog. Perhaps a good read for selfish  brands with a vision to become tiny hidden persuaders  and manipulators, exploiting the so-called Social (?) Media.

Monsanto and other Global Brands Give Millions to Kill GMO Labeling

New campaign finance reports reveal that Monsanto Co. just contributed $4.2 million to defeat Proposition 37 in California / US, which would require labeling of genetically engineered food, according to consumer watch dog Right to Know .  That is the largest contribution in the race.  Total contributions from major global brands to defeat Proposition 37, amount to $25 million.

Thus far, the “Big 6” pesticide companies (Monsanto, Dow, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont) have contributed $13.5 million to defeat Proposition 37. See details in the link. http://www.carighttoknow.org/monsanto_gives_4_2_million_to_kill_california_gmo_labeling_initiative

The two pillars of any successful Community investment

Financial commitment and active engagement are the two pillars of any successful community investment according to experts. . And Bell Canada seems to know well this rule.
The largest communications company in Canada, has just published its 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report online. The report meets the Global Reporting Initiatives GRI–G3 A+ reporting level.
Among other things, the report details Bell’s leadership in sustainability including the company’s recognition from the FTSE4Good Global Index, the Jantzi Social Index and Oekom Research.
The report features detailed performance data and qualitative descriptions of several key corporate responsibility initiatives. The five main sections of this electronic report address the issues that are most relevant to the company’s business and to its stakeholders.
However, of particular interest is the company’s Community program : a five-year, $50‑million Bell Mental Health Initiative and other community investments. Bell people are actively engaged in their communities. In addition to giving time and money to worthy causes, many employees are playing leadership roles, mobilizing themselves and others by getting involved. The company encourages community involvement through internal campaigns, volunteer grants, payroll and credit card deductions, and organizing volunteer teams. See more and download the report here.

CSR conscious companies have better access to finance ?

This is under examination in a recent Harvard paper by B.Cheng, I. Ioannou and G. Serafeim.
Authors investigate “whether superior performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies leads to better access to finance, hypothesizing that better access to finance can be attributed to reduced agency costs, due to enhanced stakeholder engagement through CSR and reduced informational asymmetries, due to increased transparency through non-financial reporting." To read the complete paper use this link.

CSR :Top five trends of Q2/2011

“ With the maturing of CSR (and some will say, the ‘commercialization” of CSR), the conversation is revolving more and more around the deeper integration of sustainability into business value, strategy, culture and the intersection of CSR with core business lines” says Adine Mees of CBSR. See the full story here.