My experience in business school was largely a very positive one and the knowledge I gained during that time has proved invaluable to my career. I have to admit however, that I was a little unprepared for the unilateral way in which business students are taught to make decisions and quickly became frustrated with what seemed to be THE mantra of the corporate world: "maximize shareholder profits". If I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase, I would be a rich woman! Maximize revenues; minimize costs, cut redundancies, etc, etc. I was taught that every business decision must have the singular goal of maximizing shareholder wealth at the expense of nearly all other considerations. This never felt quite right to me and I often wondered whether I was really cut out for the world of business…

What about creating value for other stakeholders? And I don't just mean customers. We all know the importance of maximizing customer value.... But how do business decisions affect employees and their families, communities, the environment, society as a whole? How often is the goal of maximizing shareholder profits detrimental to other stakeholders? How often do business leaders have to make decisions that contradict their personal values all in the name of profits?

Looking at the state of today's economy and the number of companies in trouble, is it possible that the cumulative results of all those decisions might not have been the best ones? Could today’s economic crisis really be the result of a business world in search of meaning?

That is the theme of an interesting conference/panel discussion happening on Tuesday, June 9th at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal. The conference, hosted by Esse Leadership, in collaboration with IDE conseil will be animated by Remi Tremblay, President of Esse Leadership, who asks the question, how can business leaders reconcile their personal values and ethics with sound business decisions? He argues that there is no crisis of leadership, but rather leaders in crisis... and asks the question do sound business practices and personal ethics necessarily have to be mutually exclusive?

The panel will feature keynote speaker Dom Hugues Minguet, a Benedictine Monk who specializes in teaching business leaders to be more present in their decisions. It will also include some of Montreal and Quebec City's top business leaders who will address how today's business leaders can adapt and make decisions that will better fit with their own values and how they can find meaning in those decisions.

I believe this will be a very interesting conference for anyone looking to create meaning in their own careers and comes at just the right time in our collective corporate history. Hopefully it is only the beginning of discussions about how to be successful in business while creating value for ALL stakeholders. Anyone interested? info@esseleadership.ca.