Dialogue

The Real Purpose of Business

Date: September 08, 2007
Time: 10:30am to 12:00pm
Location: Cal Poly Pomona Campus, The Collins School of Hospitality Management, Room 1263

What is the role of business in society, and how can business leaders rise to meet the challenges of this role? Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, a top executive from the Tata Group, one of India's largest and most respected business conglomerates, will address these vitally important questions, and share with us his vision of “the Real Purpose of Business.” Further, he will discuss how business actions and practices should, and can, be grounded in values such as care, compassion, nonviolence, and courage.

Event Flyer

R. Gopalakrishnan

R. Gopalakrishnan (Gopal) is the Executive Director of Tata Sons Ltd. He is also the chairman of Rallis India Limited and Advinus Therapeutics Private Ltd., vice chairman of Tata Chemicals, and a director of several Tata companies including Tata Motors, Tata Power and Tata Teleservices.

Prior to joining Tata Sons in September 1998 as Executive Director, he served for over three decades in various capacities at India’s largest fast moving consumer goods company, Hindustan Lever Ltd. (now Hindustan Unilever Ltd.) The appointments he held from 1990 onwards were: Chairman of Unilever Arabia (based in Jeddah), followed by Managing Director of Brooke Bond Lipton India (based in Bangalore), and then Vice Chairman of Hindustan Lever Limited.

Gopal is actively involved in the field of education through his memberships in the boards of a school and two management colleges. He is also a past President of the All India Management Association.

Gopal studied physics at Calcutta University and engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

His recently published book, The Case of the Bonsai Manager: Lessons from Nature on Growing (Penguin India, 2007) is about nature, management and intuitive leadership.