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The Bulletin

January 19, 2012

January 19, 2012

The Bulletin

Page 7

A change in the weather

In the year of Occupy everything: Time to start listening to the 99 per cent
BY MARIIANNE MAYS WIEBE The Bulletin Though it may have faltered at times for its lack of a definitive aim, the Occupy movement has had obvious moral authority and influence. The protests that were sparked in response to the recent global financial crisis spread across North America like wildfire after beginning on Wall Street last fall. If the movement has accomplished anything, its certainly put economic inequality on the radar for public debate. On December 8 and 9, the I.H. Asper School of Business hosted Occupy Lombard, two interactive public forums to discuss the relationship between businesses and societal inequality, the basis of the Occupy movement. The public forums featured panels of experts speaking on the issue, followed by a moderated discussion with the audience. The first panel took place in Aspers downtown location on Lombard Street, the James W Burns Executive . Education Centre. Designed for business professionals and tailored for a downtown audience, the first event featured panelists Art DeFehr, president and CEO, Palliser Furniture, Occupy business school: Hari Bapuji, panel Alan Freeman, economist, Michael organizer and associate professor, Asper. Benarroch, dean, Asper School of He shared how wage equity was maintained within the Palliser Furniture organization to ensure that income inequality was managed (CEO pay not more than 10 times employee pay). DeFehr advocated an improved ethical approach to conducting business, saying that globalization should be addressed thoughtfully in business, rather than an overall strategy of slashing costs. Brent Bailey of The Winnipeg Foundation spoke about community-building to combat inequities. Giving back, he said, reflects the foundations vision of a Winnipeg where community life flourishes. He added that in spite of Manitobas reputation as Canadas most generous province, the needs far outpace the organizations ability to help. Finding funding partners to match giving and developing programs that emphasize education and nurture potential are two possible solutions, he said. Richard Workman emphasized the inevitability of the force of globalization on the labour market. He noted that the rising standard of living in Canada does not reflect the reality of a societal model shift from paternalistic to selfsufficiency. His reality check was directed at education, advocating that students and professors actively prepare for the new reality, including a need for the right education and concrete skills that cannot be easily replaced. Bapuji: Bringing Occupy to business world Panel organizer Hari Bapuji has been instrumental in bringing home the pointed questions forwarded by Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy movements to business, where he believes they belong. They address their subject right in the name of the movement, he points out, Wall Street, the heart of business. The Occupy movement has made its point, says Bapuji. And its time for business to start paying attention. Photos by Mariianne Mays Wiebe The professor in business Asper School of Businesss Reg Litz introduces the Occupy Lombard event. administration who studies crises at the intersection of business and society has been putting those questions to The urgent nature of the economic crisis and the business since last fall. His article on the online Harvard lack of response from business compelled him to think Business Review, co-written with Suhaib Riaz from the about ways to bring [this part of the] conversation into University of Massachusetts, was the first to address the the public domain. question of an appropriate response to the Occupy It prompted him to organize the panel, with the movement from business and business schools. help of Aspers Scott McCulloch, community & alumni In that article from October 14, 2011, the authors relations adviser in the deans office. contend that Occupy Wall Street has a lot in common Bapuji has also been writing to other business schools with Indias anti-corruption movement. A glance at across Canada and the U.S., to spread the idea of similar whats happening in India shows the potential power of public forums across the continent. He established a basic Occupy Wall Street and its potential weaknesses. Such panel format to include an economist/political scientist, a a comparison also reveals the need for businesses to community leader, an industry leader, a business academic address the issues raised by the Wall Street protesters and a business school/university administrator. before its too late, they write. Specifically, says Bapuji, the questions that need In his own research, Bapuji asks why the problems addressing are: Do businesses contribute to economic of common people are not reflected in economic crises. inequality? Does economic inequality affect businesses? There is mostly a dismissal of those problems; people How should businesses address these issues? losing their jobs, for instance, he says. An online presence has also been added, which is Business is the focus of Occupy Wall Street but no intended as a hub where business can address the urgent one is talking from the business side, he points out. issues forwarded by the Occupy movement. Consumers are the stakeholders in business. We need to With files from Hari Bapuji >>For more, see: www.beif.net remember that and engage with them.

Photo by Mike Latschislaw

U of Ms David Barber talks weather at the Visionary Conversations series.

BY TOBY CYMAN For The Bulletin The unseasonably warm winter Winnipeg enjoyed until recently may not seem frightful, but its ensured that climate change is a topic thats on the mind of many Manitobans. Fitting then that it was the topic of the latest Visionary Conversations entitled Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful. David Barnard, U of M president and vice-chancellor, hosted the conversation at the Schultz Theatre in St. Johns College on the evening of December 14. In his introduction, Barnard recognized that the future of human civilization will be largely determined by our changing climate. The first speaker of the evening was David Barber, Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science and director of the Centre for Earth Observation Science at U of M. Barber presented the seemingly mild statistic that, in the last 150 years, the earths surface temperature has increased between 0.5 and 0.8 degrees Celsius. Though this may not seem like a huge increase, it is. 15,000 years ago the global temperature was only 4 degrees colder and that put Manitoba under the Wisconsin ice sheet. Brooke Milne, the second speaker, approached climate change from an anthropological perspective. While its hard to reconcile the two topics, Milne, a professor of anthropology, explained how the long-term perspectives of archeology (and the related field of paleoanthropology) can offer valuable insight on how humans have dealt both successfully and unsuccessfully with major climactic events. The third speaker was John Hanesiak from the department of environment and geography in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources. He spoke about climate change as it relates to thunderstorms. The four ingredients for thunderstorms moisture, instability, a lift mechanism or trigger and wind shear are also changing with the climate. An agricultural perspective was brought by Paul Bullock, the final speaker of the evening. A professor of soil science in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Bullock began by saying what an impressive feat it is that we can produce and distribute enough resources for the seven billion people on the planet. Resources are finite, he said, but our intellectual and adaptive capabilities have so far overcome those limits. But, he questions, will the challenge of feeding the population for the 21st century finally outstrip our ingenuity? A question-and-answer period followed with queries and comments regarding food security, the role of the sun in arctic warming and the ethics of geo-engineering. Responding to a question about resource exploration in the arctic due to the melting sea ice, Barber said that, thirty-five per cent of the worlds undiscovered fossil fuels are in the Arctic Ocean. Bringing the evening to a close, Digvir Jayas VP (research and international) summarized that climate change is indeed happening and raising urgent issues in a variety of fields. Though there are more questions than answers at this point, in the future, we will be judged on how we take action today he said.

Bapuji: Its time for business to start paying attention

Business and Hari Bapuji, Asper School of Business. The second panel at Fort Garry Campus attracted students and staff from across the U of M. Panelists were Rick Workman, CEO, Workman Associates and formerly with IBM, Brent Bailey, Winnipeg Foundation, Art DeFehr, David Barnard, president and vice-chancellor, Radhika Desai, political studies, and Bapuji. To open the second panel, moderator Reg Litz, professor, Asper School of Business, quoted economic expert Richard Reich from his bestselling 2010 book Aftershock: The Next Economy and Americas Future: How much more inequality can we take? Reich outlines the perils of an economy with wealth concentrated in the top one per cent. Structurally, contends Reich, the model is unsustainable. Americas wealthiest continue to use their wealth for market speculation, while the middle class goes deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living. As an Occupy Winnipeg representative noted, Occupy reflects a major dissatisfaction with the results of the response to the economic crisis, said Litz. Hari Bupuji, panel organizer and associate professor in the Asper School of Business at the U of M who is researching the financial crisis, further illuminated the dissatisfaction. In spite of calls for change, he noted, no one in the business community is doing anything. He demonstrated the instability of an economy characterized by wealth concentration in 1 per cent of the population with an illustration of an inverted pyramid. How stable can it be? he asked. The levels of inequality matter, Bapuji said. High economic inequality lowers human development, increasing human resource costs for organizations. Low trust levels result in low motivation and low productivity. He suggested a number of strategies that business leaders can use to reduce inequality within their own organization and in society. Radhika Desai focused on macro-economic trends to show that the rising divide between the rich and poor during the last 30 years constrained growth and was bad for business. Historically, she said, greater equality leads to higher economic growth. She further argued, paraphrasing Marx, that business and capitalism can self-destruct by reducing wages to workers and the middle class, who are the consumers for products of businesses themselves. Art DeFehr suggested business leaders contribute to increasing economic inequality through unethical practices and a lack of vision about broader roles of business in society. Summarizing arguments, President Barnard noted that all of the panelists agreed that business should address inequality. One way of doing so, he said, was to engage in thinking about what the economy is and who it is for, and to think deeply about these issues. There is also hope in academics at a publicly funded institution, he added, in their seeking understanding of issues at a deep level, shaping policy and advising business. To understand community engagement in a larger context: both teaching their students to see from the specialized knowledge of their own domain, but also in terms of personal, social and collective responsibility in order to gain a collective understanding, he said.

ONEER CREATOR CHALLENGER TRAILBLAZER ADVENTURER REBEL VISIONARY INNOVATOR EXPLORER DEFENDER

>>Watch: youtube.com/watch?v=8m sh0vNlXE&feature=relmfu

TOGETHER WE YOURSELFARE TRAILBLAZERS

Giving should be personal. Its always best to choose a cause that has special significance to you. For me, that means the University of Manitoba. My family and I are all alumni and one I day Idsupport the Tache Arts Project because group, so my connection to like my daughter to join that I am really excited about what this project means for our campus and our community. The U of M trains many of the universitymusicians,personal. professionals who are known nationally and is very and theatre the artists,
internationally as pioneers and mavericks and this project will significantly enhance their capacity my work, my family life and I define myself throughto break new ground in their careers. how I give

DEFINE

VISIONARY
C O N V E R S AT I O N S

WATER: TOO MUCH, TOO LITTLE, TWO LAKES

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Join our expert panel for a discussion of issues that impact the environment and the quality and supply of our critical water resources.
ROBERT B. SCHULTZ THEATRE, ST. JOHNS COLLEGE, FORT GARRY CAMPUS RECEPTION IN GALLERIA - 6:30PM TO 7:00PM SPONSORED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PANEL DISCUSSION 7:00PM TO 8:30PM

back to my community. How do you define yourself? Rejeanne Dupuis Architect, Physical Plant

Visit umanitoba.ca/giving to join me in supporting this community of creators.

Visit:

Please RSVP to: government_community@umanitoba.ca

umanitoba.ca/giving

umanitoba.ca/giving to join me in supporting this community of creators.

UPCOMING VISIONARY CONVERSATIONS

APRIL 11, 2012 Human Rights and Gender Issues JUNE 13, 2012 The Food we Eat
U M A N I TO B A . C A / V I S I O N A RYC O N V E R SAT I O N S