Dr. Alfredo Sfeir-Younis presents a public talk:
“Spiritual Entrepreneurship: A Blueprint for Corporate Enlightenment”
Monday, May 4
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel — (Front courtyard. Rain location: Presidents Hall)
Innovation Park
For quite some time, the corporate world has paid a great deal of attention to business entrepreneurship — celebrating and rewarding individuals for their keen awareness of the nature and scope of business enterprise. The result? Massively expanded markets, globalized corporations, and enormous profits for those skilled at playing the game — but at great cost in terms of environmental and social destruction.
Recently, attention has shifted toward social entrepreneurship. A social entrepreneur is not only aware of business fundamentals, but also of the potential and actual impacts of business on the world — both the human and natural environments. This shift has led to many new concepts, ideas, and strategic patterns of thought (e.g., social corporate responsibility, triple bottom line). However, social entrepreneurship is proving itself limited and insufficient, despite great efforts to achieve a new set of corporate goals.
Dr. Sfeir-Younis proposes a new paradigm — spiritual entrepreneurship. The spiritual entrepreneur is not only fully aware of the business and external environment of corporations, but also of his or her self. Self-awareness, inner identity, and inner consciousness are the foundations of both social and business entrepreneurship. Thus, without spiritual entrepreneurship, the corporate world will continue creating poverty, destroying the environment, etc. This presentation will address a number of corporate issues that help define the nature and scope of spiritual entrepreneurship. Examples include values and belief systems, realization of corporate goals, avoiding management by terror, and adopting a new paradigm in business: A Blueprint for Corporate Enlightenment.
Presented by the Penn State Outreach Energy and the Environment Committee, Penn State Outreach Open Minds Committee, and Innovation Park at Penn State.
Alfredo was hired as the World Bank’s first environmental economist in 1976 and later appointed director of the World Bank Office in Geneva, Switzerland. He served as special representative to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization from 1996 to 1999. In both institutions, he worked in the general fields of human rights, peace, and social justice. Alfredo has authored numerous books, articles, and lectures internationally on spirituality and global issues. He is particularly interested in developing approaches that include the spiritual dimensions of sustainable development, the role that human values play in national and global policy, and the elements that enliven the soul of business. He has received numerous awards, including Lifetime Ambassador of Peace (2001), World Healer Award (2002), and Peace Ambassador Award (2006). Alfredo is currently president and founder of the Zambuling Institute for Human Transformation, a non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C., aimed at creating a grassroots world forum on human rights and human responsibilities and mainstream spirituality in public policy and business.
