NEWS RELEASE
20 August 2001
Finding
the ethical bottom line
UniSA’s Smartlink manufacturing and values seminar series
Sometimes the words ‘ethics’ and
‘business’ may seem incompatible. Now, however, there is an increasing
need for companies to be accountable in areas far beyond profit alone.
More and more, survival in today’s economy is reliant on ethics and
values as well as making money. From employee conditions to environmental
responsibility, businesses need to concentrate on their philosophy as much
as their profitability.
What are the skills, values and virtues
required by the manufacturing industry today? Jim Platts, from the
University of Cambridge, examines these issues as part of UniSA’s
Smartlink seminar series. The series will run from September 25 to 27 in
Adelaide and will tour other venues around the Australia.
Platts spent 23 years in industry before
becoming a lecturer at Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing.
Specialising in design and manufacturing, he has studied ethical ownership
and leadership in manufacturing, with a particular interest of how this
translates to diverse cultural settings.
In his seminars Platts draws on historical
examples of manufacturing during the industrial revolution in England’s
North.
For the Protestant groups of the time,
manufacturing incorporated what is known today as the triple bottom line
– if properly designed, the work process benefited the workers, the
products benefited the people who received them, and the wealth generated
benefited society as a whole. Today’s businesses must likewise strive
for a triple bottom line that is accountable to society and the
environment as well as the accountant.
Platts will discuss the skills that made
this possible more than 100 years ago, and how they relate to business
today. He will examine the values needed at the heart of manufacturing,
and the virtues and skills that make those values achievable, and lead
discussions on the role of the Australian manufacturing industry in
today’s ethical environment.
Seminar session times are as follows -
Seminar title: Manufacturing & Values
Date: 25 September
Time: 4:30-6:30pm
Location: Education Development Centre, Hindmarsh
In
conjunction with the Inner West Business Enterprise Centre
Seminar title: Leadership
and Values
Date: 26 September
Time: All day event
Location: Adelaide Town Hall
In
conjunction with the South Australian Centre for Manufacturing and
Manufacturing Society of Australia
Seminar title: Leadership
Date: 27 September
Time: 7:15-9:00am Breakfast seminar
Location: Radisson Playford
In
conjunction with The Institute of Engineers Australia
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli (08) 8302 0966 or 041 8823673
email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
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