Will our students be taught

the present out-moded system

or will universities wake up
to change the status quo
and curriculum to focus on
a sustainable future? It will
depend on a vast redesign of
the system—one mind at a
time, one community at a
time, one industry at a time,
one region at a time, one
university at a time until the
entire system has become a
sustainable system.

Ray Anderson
CEO, Interface

Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit

Let us choose to unite the power of the markets with the

strength of the universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile
the creative forces of private entrepreneurship with the
needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of
future generations.

Kofi Annan
Secretary General, United Nations

CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY

 The Call of Our Time:
Business as an Agent of World Benefit

The state of the world in the 21st century provides new challenges
to all sectors of society—over 4 billion of the world’s people live
on less than $2.00 a day, ecological breakdowns of a scope we can
barely comprehend are taking place in the atmosphere and in our
oceans and rivers, and generational conflicts in many parts of the
world are breeding hopelessness and despair of ever creating viable
communities again.
The relationship between business and society— opportunity to be the new creative force on the
including business’s search for mutually planet, a force which could contribute to the
beneficial advances that address the world’s well being of many.”
most pressing global needs—has become one of
the defining issues of this century. Throughout The power of these emerging innovations
the world, immense entrepreneurial energy is defies simple categorization into such familiar
finding expression, energy whose converging domains as: business ethics, philanthropy or any
force is in direct proportion to the turbulence, non-strategic corporate social responsibility
crises and the call of our time. initiative. One-by-one positive interruptions
are erasing the false dichotomy embedded
Today’s leading companies are expected in “the great trade-off illusion”—the belief
not only to create wealth and produce that firms must sacrifice outstanding financial
superior goods and services, but also conduct performance if they choose to strategically
themselves as model global corporate citizens. address societal challenges. Could it be—
Indeed 51 of the world’s top 100 economies with the right mix of innovation and
are companies, not countries. Business models entrepreneurship—that the creation of
like bottom-of-the-pyramid and microfinance sustainable value could become the business
and microfinance strategies are demonstrating opportunity of the 21st century? Are we
how business can eradicate poverty through actually beginning to recognize the next phase
sustainable profitability. Companies are of responsible business and global corporate
designing products that leave behind no citizenship—and beyond? Can we anticipate
waste—only “food” that becomes input into a tipping point in business practice, as well as
other biological and technological cycles. in management education and research that
Willis Harmon, physicist, futurist and founder will redefine the very nature of business’s
of the World Business Academy observed, approach to earning profits and to positively
“Business, the motor of our society, has the influencing society?

http://worldbenefit.case.edu
The strengths of business:
pragmatism, agility, innovative
capacity and entrepreneurial
spirit, its reach and connective
technologies, its continuous
improvement mentality, the
potentials of market mechanisms
and market solutions, could make
all the difference in creating a
world that is prosperous, inspired
and leads toward sustainable
societies that work for all.

David Cooperrider
Founder of the Center for
Business as an Agent of World Benefit,
Weatherhead School of Management

Partnership is critical to effectively

problem solve the challenges
facing business and the developing
world. Simply put, the issues are
too complex and interdependent,
and the resources and legitimacy
for tackling them too dispersed
between sectors, for any one group
to have all the solutions alone.

Jane Nelson
Director of the Corporate Social
Responsibility Initiative,
Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University
 The Center for Business
as an Agent of World Benefit

the case center for business as an agent

of world benefit at the weatherhead
school of management is a global forum for
research, leadership education and engagement
in management practice to advance sustainable
business-and-society innovation, rethinking the
world economy for the benefit of everyone.

The Center with its network of partners is

working to enlarge business opportunities in
this important field and to transform the relationship between business and its stakeholders,
creating sustainable enterprises, ecological balance and global human cooperation.

The nexus of B•A•W•B is the World Inquiry, a worldwide search for business innovations
that revolutionize businesses by providing clear business advantage while having a constructive
impact on society. Since its inception in 2001, the World Inquiry has uncovered thousands
of stories of important business inventions from
Rwanda and the Brazilian Amazon to Bangkok
and Northeast Ohio.

These stories are turned into dynamic

documentaries, feature articles and teaching
cases to provide models and inspiration for those
seeking business opportunities with a positive
triple bottom line. Consider Project Shakti in
which Jella Sujatamma, a female entrepreneur,
in India is working with Hindustan Lever to
fit her knowledge of poor Indian villages’ needs
with product development. Sujatamma is not
only increasing the bottom line for Lever, but
meeting the dire need for hygiene to ensure
prolonged villagers’ lives.

http://worldbenefit.case.edu
A School within the School

This school within in the last 25 years, management as a field of study

the School will have was chosen by more U.S. students than any other major with
its own concentration 500,000 students entering business programs each year. Another
half million students enter into graduate-level education at
of study; it will create
business schools, bringing the total to 1 million new business
a world-class database
students every year.
of stories of innovation;
and will provide its These students represent the next generation of business leaders
expertise to complex who will make decisions each day that will define the nature of
projects, nationally our world for generations to come. Management education has
and internationally. a critical role to play in enlarging the scope of vision and
extending the parameters of relevance for business leaders in
Myron Roomkin these times. B•A•W•B is a school within the Weatherhead
Albert J. Weatherhead, I I I
Professor of Management and Dean,
School that addresses the urgent need for leaders with this kind
Weatherhead School of Management of expanded vision and scope of action.
By enriching the existing MBA curriculum, developing new pedagogical tools and creating a new
Masters program that explores the business-and-society relationship, the Center seeks to advance
the thinking of future management leaders.
Way of shaping the intellectual frameworks and attitudes of the world’s future leaders include:
• Experiencing hands-on action projects that connect business and society;
• Connecting students with leaders and pioneers—people demonstrating that
the future is now; and
• Exposing students to global and cross-cultural contexts that challenge assumptions
and create new possibilities for business and social systems to partner.
For example, the study of microfinance has been integrated into management classes through study
of Project Shakti which stimulates discussion among the students about the creation or exploitation
of “white space” or undeveloped market opportunities. The research agenda of the school within
the School is fullfilled through institutes created by faculty with specific research interests, aligned
with the broad purpose of the Center to advance sustainable business-and-society innovation,
rethinking the world economy for the benefit of everyone. The institutes explore such areas as
Marketplace Trust and Value Dynamics, Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation and Information
Technology and Social Innovation. The institutes will continue to progress the field of business
as an agent of world benefit by publishing journal articles, convening interdisciplinary symposia
and developing new and provocative teaching cases, documentaries and simulations.
 APPRECIATIVE INQUIRy
IGNITING POSITIVE CHANGE IN BUSINESS AND SOCIETY

appreciative inquiry (ai), a powerful

methodology for strategic change and
sustainable growth, was created by David
Cooperrider, Founder of the Center for Business
as an Agent of World Benefit, with Ron Fry and
other Weatherhead colleagues. Appreciative Inquiry
redefines the way companies, organizations, civil
agencies and individuals experience transition by
focusing on core strengths and leveraging them
AI Summit on sustainability at BAWB Brazil
to reshape the future. It involves a systematic
discovery of what gives “life” to a living system
when it is most alive, most effective and most
constructively capable in economic, ecological,
and human terms. Rather than deficit-based
approaches which outline only problems, resistance
or obstacles, Appreciative Inquiry asks all
stakeholders to rediscover the best of “what is”
in order to dream boldly about—and initiate—
“what could be.” The result is an engagement by
all stakeholders in creating both a shared vision of
AI Summit at Case Western Reserve University
the future and sustainable change. Organizations
from all over the globe are using this powerful
approach to transform themselves for the future.

The purpose of the Center for Business as an Agent

of World Benefit is to advance extraordinary
business and society innovations, helping to
revolutionize the way the world eradicates poverty,
restores the biosphere and creates international
understanding and peace. The Center utilizes the
Appreciative Inquiry methodology to fulfill its
purpose and trains others in this forward thinking AI Summit at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
approach which will create history-making changes
for the world.

http://worldbenefit.case.edu
The Center as a Convener of Thought Leaders

one of the most important contributions of the center for business as an agent
of world benefit is to convene thought leaders around the pressing questions of our time.
In 2004, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for a Global Leaders Summit at the
United Nations. The Center designed and facilitated this summit with over 400 global leaders,
with the purpose of encouraging new thinking, commitment and action around global corporate
citizenship. It involved CEOs from corporations on all continents including British Petroleum,
Hewlett Packard and Morgan Stanley together with civil society, labor and UN agency leaders.
The Center’s contribution to the success of that complex global meeting is still reverberating.
In continuing partnership with the UN Global Compact, the Center has linked with the
Academy of Management to create a global forum, exploring connections between management
education and the world’s most critical issues and opportunities as expressed by the Millennium
Development Goals.

It’s not only in global forums

that the Center plays a convener
role. The Center’s colloquium
series brings the region’s academic,
business and community leaders
together with prominent thought
leaders and provides a forum for
inquiry and dialogue on ideas
such as the business opportunity
at the bottom of the pyramid
and the economic advantages of
environmental sustainability.

To sustain its connection with

its global constituency, the
Center also holds annual online
conferences drawing participants
from more than 45 countries.

David Cooperrider
Founder of the Center for Business
as an Agent of World Benefit,
Weatherhead School of Management
About The Weatherhead School of Management

since its inception, the weatherhead school

of management at case western reserve
university has received international acclaim
for developing bold ideas that redefine the way
management education is taught. This spirit of
innovation has elevated its management programs
to global prominence, earning Weatherhead a
reputation as one of the most innovative business
schools in the world.

The Weatherhead School is bold in idea generation,

creative in thinking and nimble in adapting to the
rapidly changing business environment. Weatherhead’s teaching approach delivers a unique blend
of functional competencies and interpersonal skills that organizations increasingly need. The input
we ask for and receive from industry, corporate sponsors and alumni is critical to designing curricula
that advance our graduates’ careers and the objectives of their sponsoring organizations. As a result,
the people we teach are ready to add immediate value to their organizations, their communities
and the world. It is this approach that has earned the school a place in the top 10% of the world’s
business schools for decades.

The home of the Weatherhead School of Management is the Frank Gehry-designed Peter B. Lewis
Building. The Lewis Building reflects the spirit of Weatherhead’s innovative approach and clearly
places Weatherhead in the vanguard of business education. It redefines the way a business school
should look just as Weatherhead redefines the way management education should be taught.

Case Western Reserve University

B·A·W·B
208 Peter B. Lewis Building
11119 Bellflower Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7235
216.368.3809