Responsible Business in a Time of Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen some inspired corporate responses, such as Unilever donating €100 million of food and sanitizer, and guaranteeing the jobs of all 150,000 workers including contractors. But what if you’re a small business without millions to donate? Or in an unrelated industry without relevant products to give? This talk will discuss what it means to be a responsible business, for companies of all sizes and in all industries. It will also explain the business case for responsibility in normal times as well as in times of crisis, and how companies can ensure that responsibility is consistent with long-term shareholder value.

Our speaker, Alex Edmans, professor of finance, London Business School, will draw on rigorous academic research, real-world examples, and his new book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, which headed the list of the Financial Times “Business Books of the Month” for March 2020 and was named to the FT’s “Summer Reads of 2020.”

Agenda

12 p.m. Welcome Remarks

Donna Rapaccioli, Dean of the Gabelli School of Business

12:05 p.m. Discussion

Presenter: Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance, London Business School

12:45 p.m.

Q&A from audience

1:00 p.m. Closing Remarks

About the Author

Alex Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School. Edmans has a Ph.D. from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Edmans has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given a TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” and a TEDx talk “The Social Responsibility of Business,” both with a combined 2 million views. He has appeared on Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ITV, Sky News, and Sky Sports, and written for the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and Wall Street Journal. At Wharton, he won 14 teaching awards in six years; at LBS, he won the Excellence in Teaching award for best professor across all programs. He has been named to Poets and Quants Best 40 Professors Under 40 and Thinkers50 Radar.

50 copies of Grow the Pie will be raffled off to webinar attendees.