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Neil
Buhne on CIM Talking Point
The Chartered Institute of Marketing Sri Lanka Region has
organised a programme titled “Ensuring Sustainable Business
Development” under the CIM Talking Point series which
will be held on 10th July 2008 from 6.00 p.m to 8.30 p.m at
Palm Lounge Galle Face Hotel, sponsored exclusively by HSBC
- The world’s local bank. The Institute is honoured to
have Neil Buhne - United Nations Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian
Coordinator in Sri Lanka and the Resident Representative of
the United Nations Development Programme in Sri Lanka as the
Keynote Speaker.
The programme will encompass areas of sustainable business
development, good governance and responsible corporate citizenship
educating participants how the private sector could contribute
towards enhancing the triple bottom lines. Buhne’s presentation
will also elucidate the role of the UN in this regard.
Giving an insight into the topic, Buhne says “The role
of business in development has long been limited to a narrowly
defined concept of social responsibility of corporations,
thus mainstreaming and in essence isolating corporate social
responsibility into a few development projects run as part
of human resources, legal affairs, marketing and branding
or communications departments. The triple bottom line then,
was about making sure that corporations and the private sector
were seen as ‘good’ players within their sector
and thus enhancing market share or profitability.”“The
role of business in society is essentially the public role
of a private company. It is thus about how the private sector
chooses to extend the dividends of globalisation and liberalisation
to the people. The people in this case are the employees,
the greater community, suppliers, producers, buyers, consumers
that sustain the private sector both locally and globally.”
Bhune counts over 24 years of service at the United Nations.
During his tenure he has served in several countries including
Sudan, Bhutan, Pakistan and Malaysia, Belarus and Bulgaria
and has served in numerous positions. The United Nations in
Sri Lanka has a long history of partnerships since the arrival
of the first UN Resident Representative in 1952. Today,
the United Nations help support Sri Lanka in a range of development
activities that include poverty alleviation, good governance,
post tsunami reconstruction, human rights, health, education,
human settlements, and environment, energy and disaster
risk management. The United Nations has also extended
its humanitarian assistance by supporting national efforts
for relief and recovery of both people displaced by conflict
and by the December 2004 tsunami.
The programme will be complemented by a panel discussion,
directed by Rohan Pandithakoralage, Director Human Resources
of Aitken Spence Group Ltd.; Kavi Seneviratne, Managing Director
of Kelani Valley Plantations; Anusha Alles, Manager - Corporate
Social Responsibility Division of Brandix Apparel Ltd. and
Dr. Rajiv Meewakkala, Marketing Director of Ceylon Tobacco Company
PLC.
The CIM Talking Point series has been powered exclusively
by HSBC since the launch of the series in 2004. The Institute
has initiated the CIM Talking Point series as a part of the
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme with the
objective of aiding the members of The Institute to progress
in their professional careers while empowering marketers and
the business community to successfully face the challenges
ahead of them.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world’s largest
and most prestigious professional body for marketing with
over 50,000 members worldwide. The Chartered Institute of
Marketing Sri Lanka Region is the fastest growing CIM body,
with nearly 1,080 members and almost 3,000 student members.
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