The sixth Global Ethics Forum, this time under the theme “Responsible Leadership in Action: The Value of Values”, was held by the Globethics.net in Geneva from June 25 to June 27, 2015. More than 160 delegates who came from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America attended this forum. Mr. Liu Debing, the Advisory Board Director of Center for International Business Ethics (CIBE) at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE）, and Mrs. Gao Huan, the Office Director of CIBE, were invited to attend.
The chairman of the Globethics.net, Mr. Walter Fust, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. The chairman of American Global Fund for Women, Ms. Musimbi Kanyoro made a Keynote-Speech under the theme “Leadership Art”. She believed that Leaders should be able to make a balance between different values and be practical based on missions and motivated by their visions. Besides, she also held that to be successful, leaders must understand the background, choose the right people and instruments, make alliance of separate actions, activate the relationship networks and explore other resources.
 
There was a panel discussion about “State of and Need for Responsible Leadership” on the opening ceremony. It was chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of Ethics Institute of South Africa, Mr. Deon Rossouw. Other participants were Mr. Alexander Ageev, the Director of the Institute for Economic Strategies of Russia, Mr. Jem Bendell, the Founding Director of the Institute of Leadership and Sustainable Development of University of Cumbria, Mr. Liu Debing, the Advisory Board Director of CIBE, and Ms. Florencia Luna, the Director of Bioethics Program of FLACSO. Mr. Liu Debing delivered a speech entitled with “To Guide Others with Right Missions and Visions by Keeping Learning & Practising”. He summarized the importance of responsible leadership by series of Chinese proverbs, such as “When a soldier is weak, it’s about himself, whereas a weak general may ruin the whole army”, “Gathering thousands of soldiers is earier than getting a capable general” and “Hammering steel, one shall be strong enough himself’’, etc. He pointed out that Chinese classic leadership training emphasized the inner cultivation and practices, which was typified into eight stages, quoted from The Great Learning: study of objects, gaining knowledge, nurturing sincerity, conditioning mindset, seeking perfection, happiness in homes, harmonizing nation and pacifying the world. Based on his own experience in the field of international trade for decades, he concluded that Responsible Leadership has five characteristics: Integrity, Responsibility, Passion, Win-Win Spirit and Willingness to Learn. Finally, he emphasized that we were here to share with and learn from others.
As panelist, Mr. Liu Debing also participated into another two discussions, “Improving Business Relation: Africa-China Dialogue and Praxis” and “Developing Systems and Strengthening People for Responsible Leadership”. What he mentioned in his speeches became one of the most cited statements of guests, such as “If you cannot clean your own house, how can you clean the outside, the whole world; In order to do something good for the whole society, you have to behave properly innerness”, “Chinese foreign trade follows the principle of ‘kindness, integrity, reciprocal, inclusive’, and emphasizes peaceful development and win-win results”, “Cultural differences is the result of insufficient communication as well as mistakes of understanding and awareness. For example, Loong in China is a symbol of happiness, good luck, inclusive, fortune and harmonious, it is the combination of many animals of many good qualities; However, dragon, translated from Loong, is a monster in the west.” “In order to strengthening responsible leadership, we have to build a eco system, which includes at least 5 dimensions, i.e., historical and presence-historical cultural should be combined with present situation, since one country’s common conduct cannot apply directly to another country; view of globalization and practice with localization; continuation of learning of all kinds of knowledge; Awareness of the whole society of the whole world; everybody should participate, prepare to be a leader and to be led, so the inner cultivation and self regulation is vitally important.
Later was the group discussions lasted for two and a half days, which was also the biggest feature of this forum: to give the participants more time to discuss, identify the problem, provide practical solutions and promote cooperation projects. The discussions were divided into four main directions totaling 12 questions, including how to reduce inequalities-equal access to education and job opportunities, how to improve responsible investment, how to use traditional and new media for ethical change, how to use dialogue for improving business relations: Africa-China dialogue and praxis and how to implement values-driven leadership in SMEs: practical experiences from trainings, and so on. The representatives of CIBE took part in the group discussions of Africa-China dialogue and praxis, sustainable development of SMEs, education and responsible investment.
An award ceremony for the winners of Globethics.net Global Paper Competition on Responsible Leadership was held during the forum. There were 315 papers collected from 22 countries and regions. The first prize was shared by Yue Liyuan recommended by CIBE and Shijja Kevin Kuhumba from Tanzania. Meanwhile, Yue gained the opportunity to participate in the international meetings of Globethics.net outside China.
 
The regional programme meeting of Globethics.net was held from the afternoon of June 27th to the evening of June 30th. Mrs. Gao Huan introduced the projects CIBE has conducted to promote business ethics in China to all regional representatives, and communicated with headquarter representatives on 2015 progress, cooperation in 2016 and current difficulties to explore feasible solutions. Participants expressed their appreciation to the achievements of CIBE and gave their opinions on the 2016-2019 development strategies of Globethics.net.
From 2009, cooperated with Globethics.net, CIBE has made great contributions to the promotion of business ethics study and practice. We hope to collaborate with more institutions of different countries and regions on issues of common concern through Globethics.net and bring a positive effect to the social progress and development. |
