LIBA BEACON 2011-Emphasized Collaborator & Hybrid Body Model to radically transform India’s Inclusive Growth Structure

Chennai: the fifth edition of LIBA’s International Business Ethics conference was successfully organized today by LIBA (Loyola Institute of Business Administration) with eminent speakers discussing a host of interesting and debatable topics each on Finance, Energy, Healthcare, International Perspective & Education with a valedictory. The year’s conference with the theme “Social Innovation: A catalyst for Inclusive Growth” was inaugurated by Mr. Soloman Prakash, India Country Director, Ashoka Innovators for the Public. The inaugural session also had Mr. P. Murari, Advisor to FICCI President, Fr. P. Christie, Director, LIBA, Fr. Amal S.J, Rector, Loyola College, Mr. Srinivasan Viswanathan, Executive Director, TiE Chennai, Prof. Mario Molteni, Director, ALTIS, Mr. K. Gowrishankar, Dean, LIBA. Beacon, the conference which has always emphasized various topics on Business Ethics this year chose to lay prominence on how social innovation is the driving force to reach the goal of inclusive growth for India. The conference saw a panel of international and national social innovators and academicians delving how social innovation can spur access to the deprived education, health, and quality of life and yet be profitable.

Emphasizing on learning experience, Mr. Soloman Prakash, Country Director, Ashoka Innovators for the Public in his keynote session said, “The needs of the marginalized in this country are being addressed by innumerable different models and diverse different firms. The models that are successful are those that are able to collaborate with different firms and, most importantly, the local people. At the core of the successful collaborative models is the idea of interconnectedness among different firms and being location specific. Models that engage end consumers by serving specific local needs and are incrementally innovative both in the idea and operationalization will eventually be successful. One size does not fit all; while that is challenging, yet therein lies opportunities for a social innovator.” Dr. Tara Thiagarajan, Chairperson, Madura Micro Finance, commented that poverty actually means lack of power; power to decide, power to access information, power to access markets. At the structural level, poor interconnectedness among village level markets is primarily the reason for huge disparity in growth. The primary goals, therefore are, to empower villages through access to relevant information and empowerment through show-casing success case studies.

Delivering his welcome address, Fr. Christie, Director, LIBA, said, “LIBA is the only Top-10 B-school of the country that has been emphasizing for several years the importance of business ethics and inclusive growth, not only in the curriculum but also in collating the best minds from across the world through BEACON, our annual conference on Business Ethics. Each year the themes have been increasing in stature and relevance.  We see this year’s theme of Social Innovation as a natural fall-out of the last year’s theme of Inclusive Growth. Social Innovation requires acute understanding of the ecosystem in which the deprived and the marginalized of the India belabor. The conference should provide the delegates a platform to understand the how to innovate socially and that requires a balance between creativity and practicality, profit motive and empathy to the marginalized, and globalized mindset and micro-localized village centric strategies.”