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"I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being. As we investigate this, we inevitably come to the conclusion that a group of people get together and exist as an institution that we call a company so that they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately - they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental."
—David Packard, co-founder, Hewlett-Packard
"In a free enterprise, the community is not just another
stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence."
—Jamsetji Tata, founder, Tata Group
The mission of the Center for Socially Responsible Business:
- To advance the study and practice of socially responsible business
- To promote the values of socially responsible business
- To reach out to Bay Area firms to form an alliance of companies associated with the center
- To foster innovations related to social responsibility in graduate business education
The center's philosophical roots are based on the attitudes of thinkers and businesspersons such as Dave Packard.
The center examines how businesses can improve social conditions in practical ways, ways that do not harm—and may even help—their bottom lines. Businesses can flourish financially by doing good socially.
To this end, the center promotes the integration of ethical principles of justice and fairness into business decision-making. The center advances the study of how business activities affect human welfare and the natural world, and vice versa.
In summary, the center aims to align business interests with broader social goals.
For example, the center promotes the discovery and implementation of business policies and practices that reduce disease, hunger, malnutrition, and poverty, that improve human and civil rights, and which sustain the natural environment.
The Center for Socially Responsible Business is made possible through a generous three-year grant from the Elfenworks Foundation (www.elfenworks.org). The Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business and Mills College thank Elfenworks for its support.
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