BC to co-sponsor international summit on business ethics
Boston College is the co-sponsor of a major international summit on business ethics to be held in Vatican City.
The Business Ethics Summit, which will take place on June 4 on the premises of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, will gather 70 high-profile international contributors including CEOs, representatives of the Vatican, academic lecturers, and the most relevant institutional stakeholders to share their visions on business ethics, according to organizers.
Brian K. Smith
Representing BC will be Brian Smith, the David S. Nelson Chair and associate dean for research in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development.
“Today, all companies are called upon to reflect on their ability to manage the onset of ethical dilemmas that may affect their decision-making process,” reads the event announcement. “Applying certain ethical and moral principles to the corporate dimension can help create attractive businesses both internally and externally and inspire the transformation of the business into the engine of sustainable and equitable economic growth. In this context, the Business Ethics Summit aims at analyzing the theme of ethics applied to business through the comparison and analysis of best practices and case studies.”
The summit seeks to offer an overview on ethical and moral principles to explore how companies can be ethically led according to the guiding principle “from growth to prosperity,” which brings the concept of financial growth back into a human dimension.
Each participant will make a three-minute presentation to provide the basis for a highly interactive debate, the collective knowledge informing “an innovative case study on how to implement ethical principles in the workplace.”
“The theme of the summit is very well aligned with the Boston College mission, taking a holistic perspective on how people interact with technology, and including ethical and spiritual dimensions in our reflections about how technology can serve and not impede humanity,” said Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School.
This is the second convening of the Business Economics Summit. Last year’s event revolved around four main pillars: the human economy, the tech economy, the climate economy, and the impact economy. Participants explored the ideas of philosophers John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, and Confucius, and discussed how to apply those principles to the business world.
BC joins this year’s event as its academic partner. Other partners include Lunasa Human Academy, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, and Axpo Holding. For more on the summit, see businessethics.ai.