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© The Open University 2010
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In the world of economics, does a person’s well-being really matter? What is more important, social objectives or profit maximisation – or are they even compatible? During a trip to Burma in 1955, Ernest Schumacher pioneered the concept of Buddhist Economics, a set of principles based on the belief that the function of business is to supply goods and services for need and true well-being. Schumacher argued that Buddhist Economics could serve as a vehicle for human development to overcome self centeredness and augment human creativity and knowledge.
Presented by Dr Mike Lucas from The Open University Business School and Alan Shipman from the Department of Economics at The Open University.
Presented by Dr Mike Lucas from The Open University Business School and Alan Shipman from the Department of Economics at The Open University.
10 Episodes
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Dr Mike Lucas of The Open University Business School explains how the experience of working and teaching in accounting and finance has forced him to a fundamental reappraisal of the idea that businesses’ objective is to maximise shareholder wealth.
Alan Shipman of The Open University Economics Department recalls the origins and optimistic expectations of the shareholder value ‘revolution’, inspired by economic ideas of profit-maximisation and a political turn against profligate management.
Dr Mike Lucas probes the shareholder value model, identifying its adverse effects on employees, consumers, the social and natural environment – and ultimately on shareholders themselves.
Alan Shipman examines the unintended fallout from the shareholder value ‘revolution’, and reasons for the rapid rise and fall of value-driven productivity and profits.
Dr Mike Lucas outlines the key aspects of a Buddhist approach to business and economics, and its potential for a fundamental break from the individualism and constant expansionism of conventional economics.
Dr Mike Lucas explains the implications of a new business model based on Buddhist economics, and how it could promote a new governance structure re-connecting the corporation with the community.
Dr Mike Lucas looks at the social implications of a new business model based on Buddhist economics.
Alan Shipman highlights the range of partnership, family, mutual and cooperative enterprises which have successfully resisted pressures to become a ‘public limited company’, and whose market leadership adds to the pressure to reform the shareholder model.
Dr Mike Lucas assesses the changes to conventional accounting methods, and management teaching, that would be needed to establish a new business model based on Buddhist economics.
Alan Shipman and Dr Mike Lucas of The Open University discuss the problems of adopting new business models in a world where accounting and business education are still dominated by profit-maximising ‘shareholder value’, and the challenges ahead for those pursuing a Buddhist economics alternative.
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