On October 6–7, the Global Dialogue of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism (CRT) was conducted within the GSOM Emerging Markets Conference 2018 as a scientific and practical seminar. 

The CRT — a long term partner of the PwC Center for CSR at GSOM SPbU — is an international network of experienced business leaders, who work with business and political leaders to design the intellectual strategies, management tools and practices to strengthen private enterprise and public governance to improve our global community.

 

The participants of the seminar

 

The Global Dialogue was entitled “Tribalism or Humanism: Will Humanity Ever Resolve the Tensions?” During the two-day seminar the participants discussed such critical questions of the convergence and fragmentation as the role of globalization and the UN Sustainability Development Goals, the role of religion and ethics, as well as the impact of modern technologies. The special attention was paid to the development of stewardship values related to the financial markets and the development of social, moral, and human capitals.

The seminar brought together the participants from different countries and organizations. Among them — Stephen Young, Global Executive Director of the CRT; Robert MacGregor, Co-Chairman emeritus of the CRT; Cosima F. Barone, Member of the Executive Committee of the Convention of independent financial advisors (CIFA); Jean-Pierre Diserens, Secretary General of CIFA; Yves Nidegger, Deputy of the Swiss Parliament (SVP); Kazuhiko Togo, Director of the Institute for World Affairs, Kyoto Sangyo; Erik van der Kooij, Director of the Feeling Europe Foundation; and Budimir Raičković, President of the Association of Montenegro Managers. The starting sessions were moderated by Irina Bakhtina, Vice President Unilever NAMET RUB, and Yury Blagov, Director of PwC Center for CSR at GSOM SPbU. Another representatives of GSOM SPbU — Anastasia Petrova-Savchenko, Yulia Aray, and Dmitry Knatko — were engaged in the debate together with the other participants of the GSOM EMC 2018 “Business in Society” track.

After the conference Stephen Young thanked GSOM SPbU for organizing the conference: “The GSOM Emerging Markets Conference demonstrated to me the sophistication of professors and students at GSOM SPbU in accurately and insightfully opening to scrutiny trends and practices in our global economy. The Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism was very pleased to hold its 2018 Global Dialogue at GSOM SPbU. The efficient, courteous, and thoughtful support from Prof. Yury Blagov and his colleagues was most appreciated. The level of discussion probed beneath surface appearances on great challenges for the world community: the sustainability of the financial system, populism, and the negative impacts of social media on social capital. A special statement was reviewed and approved on the ethics of cross community relationships to provide an ethical framework for voluntary engagements with mutual respect and concern across communal lines of ethnic identity and religious faith”.

Irina Bakhtina said that for her the most valuable outcome of the Caux Round Table Global Dialogue happened to be the very formulation of the issue that embraced the entire spectrum of moral and ethical aspects for doing and developing business long term — primarily in the context of UN SDGs. “The quality and depth of analysis and hypothesis offered via pre-read research materials, have shifted the panelists thinking towards a brand new dimension (e.g. a mutually exclusive impacts of tribalism and humanism over the nature of business) and to a larger extent determined a truly serious level of conversation. So, a decision by the Graduate School of Management at St.Petersburg State University to have CRT integrated into its annual international conference looks bold and the same time absolutely fair and timely”, explained Irina.

The 5^th International research GSOM Emerging Markets Conference 2018 was held at “Mikhailovskaya Dacha” campus on October 4-7. This year about 150 papers were presented within the conference program. The main topics of GSOM EMC 2018 included: talent management, entrepreneurship, innovations in business, marketing strategies, corporate governance and communications.