Responsibility

Climate scientists from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia have come under fire for alleged data manipulation following the release of thousands of emails and documents. As a result of ‘Climategate’, some of the climatologists involved have stepped aside or are under investigation by their university.

Was there too much riding on the United Nations Climate Change Conference which concluded in Copenhagen at the weekend?

Listen to INSEAD faculty, alumni and associates talk, and you realise that Africa is no longer just a story of disease, poverty, misery and humanitarian aid. Or of China’s hunger for raw materials and energy, while the Japanese and Koreans buy land in Africa to grow their own food. Today, Africa is also a story of investment and growth on a global scale.

In an age of dwindling natural resources and expanding economies, more countries are turning to nuclear power. According to Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, not since the Cold War has there been such renewed interest in nuclear -- though this time, the agenda is different.

E+Co is not what you would call a typical investment company. For starters, it’s not a large company with a huge amount of capital. Second, it’s focused exclusively on energy and third, it invests in only small and growing clean energy businesses from developing countries.

Healthcare reform today is being avidly discussed in political, social, medical and business circles around the world. In developing countries, the billions of dollars spent on containing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other pandemic diseases such as TB and malaria, are beginning to show some positive results. In Europe, the cost of government-sponsored healthcare is having a negative impact on GDP, while in the US, the Obama Administration is embarking on the country’s most ambitious attempt at providing universal coverage for some 47 million plus people in the country without health insurance.

What do Richard Branson and Mother Theresa have in common? They have both been agents for change. But when you put them together, you get - the social entrepreneur. It’s a concept and occupation that has been further clarified in new work being done by INSEAD Assistant Professor for Entrepreneurship, Filipe Santos.

Maybe it’s due to technology, maybe the global economy or maybe the revelations about corporate behaviour as one company after another, melting down and asking for taxpayer aid, laid bare the truth behind their balance sheets. Layman and businessman alike have come to realise that the old taboos surrounding ways of behaviour in the business world no longer work – or perhaps worked inefficiently at best.