Giving business a soul: values, rules and culture

Ten years after the first conference, the annual event of the Friends of Aspen has once again drawn the attention to the business world: to the people and values involved, to project creativity and to the ability to work in a global context. Identifying the soul of business, in particular those principles which strengthen the link between enterprises, citizens and society, allows one to focus on the rules and values essential to the country’s development. Particular attention was dedicated to the value of the people who work for a business, from managerial to lower levels. A summary of a European research on how to deal with organizational instability within enterprises was presented by the CRORA (Research Center on Business Organization) of the Bocconi University in Milan. The conference also offered, as expected, an occasion to present the new members of the group and to illustrate current and future activities.