Sustainable management, a relatively young discipline, offers private and public enterprises new development potentials. Its task is to put sustainable development into practice ("Sustainable development is a process to maintain and to develop material, ecological, economic, social, cultural and ethical fundamentals in our lives").
History of society has, however, shown that profound changes are mainly achieved by a combination of several elements. The objective of the SMIA05-Congress is therefore to demonstrate the driving elements of sustainable management: strategies and concepts, instruments, technologies, management systems, ethics, culture, etc. Presenting leading know how and practical applications, the event will highlight the benefits of sustainable management, achieved at an economic, social and environmental level.
Contrary to the majority of aspects of our society, which provide positive and negative features, sustainable management sets up mainly so-called Win-Win-effects. This unique fact explains its success across the world and represents a key message of SMIA05.
In companies, it leads to the increase of profitability, competitive advantages, innovative capacity, employees motivation, credibility, etc.
In communities, it enhances the social capital, while in national economies it allows the establishment of the framework towards qualitative growth, de-connecting economic development from the use of our natural resources.
In developing countries, it stimulates change leading multinational companies to build sustainable business models, focusing on a largely untapped market of more than 4 billion people. Their objective is to convert poverty as one of the world's most daunting problems into an entrepreneurial challenge. While enabling the poor to become active participants of sustainable development, they thereby contribute to developing a promising dynamism towards a more stable world.
A major topic of SMIA05 remains the promotion of sustainable management in SME’s (small and medium-sized enterprises). Of the approximately 75 million enterprises across the world, 90 % are SME's. They are drivers of innovation, economic growth and job creation. Accelerated introduction of sustainable management in SME's will therefore set up major progress in the development of this field.
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