T

he seemingly oxymoronic practice of bridging capitalism and efforts to alleviate poverty has the potential to completely redefine contemporary business. Profit-driven enterprise has historically been a main contributor to the widening gap between the world’s affluent and disadvantaged. Is it possible, then, for the private sector to learn to invest and return a profit in developing nations while simultaneously answering a philanthropic imperative? Poverty Alleviation and Profitability, a new CEMS-exclusive course at USYD, encourages postgraduate business students to reconsider how they think about poverty. Developed by Assoc. Prof., Dr. Ranjit Voola, the course combines his commitment to business education with a lifelong interest in philanthropy. The idea to teach the course as part of the MIM offering at USYD grew out of work pioneered by Dr. Voola in cooperation with other faculty, including Prof. John Shields, Dr. Kristine Dery, and Prof. Elizabeth Cowley – a group that began to explore sharing their collaboration beyond research, to teaching at all levels. Throughout the course, Dr. Voola expands upon poverty alleviation, to include social, environmental, and ecological considerations in both developed and developing nations. He is optimistic about the potential for human benevolence:

“Ultimately, we cannot just be excellent academics, but must also be thought leaders in the community, bringing real insights to the world that are relevant and useful. That’s really what our new collaboration is about. My personal assumption is that people, including businesspeople and students, want to do good. The big question is, how do they do good?” The 4 billion individuals in the developing world who exist on less than five dollars a day present the private sector with an untapped market worth 5 trillion dollars. Whilst poverty alleviation had once been the exclusive domain of not-forprofits, governments, and multinational organisations like the United Nations, there are now both moral and economic imperatives for businesses to become involved. Dr. Voola details his approach: “We need to rethink what business education constitutes. We need to broaden it so that it catches up with what consumers and governments think the role of business should be. My impression is that they do not think it is only about profit. There is a recognition that businesses are integral to the discussions around wider societal issues. This places their actions at the heart of a movement towards a more socially sustainable future.”

28

CEMS MAGAZINE

Pastoralist tribes such as the Suri (previous page) and the Maasai (above) are an integral part of the sustainable cultivation of land and livestock in drought-stricken parts of Eastern Africa, for which their nomadic farming practices have been adapted. However, inherent to their livelihoods are the vagaries of climate, animal disease, dwindling access to water resources and grazing lands, poor market infrastructure, and a lack of early drought warning systems. These factors have been exacerbated throughout history by the intervention of government, international organizations, and private business – groups that

PHOTOS, FROM LEFT: BY CARLOS BLANCO - MAASAI WELCOME, KENYA | BY HENRI BERGIUS - MAASAI PASTORALIST NEAR HIS VILLAGE, KENYA | BY HARVEY BARRISON - MAASAI VILLAGE IN THE NGORONGORO CRATER, TANZANIA |