Evaluation
of the 2001 Forum

 Virginie Lecourt, HEC, july 2001
   
  Home The second FIMES was held at HEC, on May 25th-26th, 2001. Of an audience of approximately 250 people (2/3 from the business sector, 1/3 from academic institutions, of which 50 were students), a majority said they were very satisfied with the Forum (73% were "extremely" and "very" satisfied, 26% were "satisfied"). The participants especially appreciated the diversity offered throughout the Forum. This diversity included the many countries that were represented (England, Canada, France, India, United States, Mexico, Nigeria, Switzerland...), as well as the many different ethical and spiritual traditions included (martial arts, Buddhism, Christianity, Humanism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mohawk, yoga, Zen...).
Furthermore, the participants drew a substantial amount of practical information from the many executives that gave presentations : Mr. Dutton, CEO of Rona, Mr. Saint-Olive, CEO of the Réseau-entreprendre, France, Mr. Servitje, CEO of Grupo Bimbo, Mexico, Mr. Quig Tingley, CEO of The Body Shop Canada, Mrs. Alice Tepper Marlin, President of the Council on Economic Priorities, New York, etc.
The Forum was opened by three individuals, each representing different links to the business community, namely the academic, private and public sectors: Mr. Toulouse, Director of HEC, Mr. Ouimet, CEO of Ouimet Cordon-Bleu and Mrs Valerie Clements, Director of Strategic Planning with Human Resources Canada.
Honouring debate and exchange, the audience was invited to engage in discussion with the speakers after each of the 4 panel sessions, totalling 4 hours of dialogue, interspersed with classical music.
Finally, the HEC Speaker Series on "The Search for Meaning at Work" was launched and our inaugural speaker was the philosopher Michel Serres. As one of the participants expressed, "it is essential to be able to debate subjects such as philosophy, ethics and spirituality in a business school".
The next Forum will take place at the business school at the University of Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley, in 2003, and will be organised in partnership with HEC. Furthermore, other well known speakers will be invited to HEC within the cadre of the new "Search for Meaning" Speaker Series.

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