RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT
Local Pathways to Global Wellbeing
St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
June 20 to June 24, 2005
Happy Businesses, Sustainable Investment and Fair Trade.
Ten practical steps for operationalising Gross National Happiness in Business.
If happy companies are to be able to focus on their wider responsibilities to the community, the environment and their employees it is essential that both owners and managers adopt a long-term time horizon.
While most conceptualisations of gross national happiness envisage a role for businesses and the private sector, this role is rarely explicitly stated. This paper explores, and gives practical examples of, the concept of a happy business, as one which pays due attention to the interests and wellbeing of all employees, shareholders, the environment and the wider community within which it operates. Happy businesses recognise the positive interaction between these different stakeholders, and adopt sensible, long-term solutions to mitigate potential conflicts before they arise.
The paper then draws upon the experiences of two important international economic movements in order to examine potential practical steps for the operationalisation of gross national happiness in business. Sustainable investment emphasises the importance of the attitudes and incentives of owners of capital. For example, if happy companies are to be able to focus on their wider responsibilities to the community, the environment and their employees it is essential that both owners and managers adopt a long-term time horizon. Several mechanisms are proposed for encouraging such a long-term mindset including the introduction of delayed voting rights, delayed dividend rights and the use of short-term capital gains taxes. The Fair Trade movement similarly offers several practical through its encouragement of small-scale, sustainable, "more-than-profit" businesses and the establishment of long-term fair or happy prices for key economic goods and services. The paper concludes by proposing ten practical steps to be taken towards the creation of happy businesses.
David Gait
Sustainable Investment Consultant and Emerging Markets Fund Manager
Edinburgh, Scotland
Wk: 0044 131 473 2296
Hm: 0044 131 226 6834
davidpgait@yahoo.co.uk
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