8 September 1998 Social Responsibility advocate to speak at Lincoln University – businessman Dick Hubbard coming for AUS meeting

Dick Hubbard, founder of New Zealand Business for Social Responsibility, a new group launched in Auckland last month to challenge the Business Roundtable's view of social policy, will speak at Lincoln University on 16 September in a forum open to all staff, students and members of local communities surrounding the campus.

Hosted by the Lincoln University branch of the Association of University Staff, the forum will be in the Stewart 1 Lecture Theatre starting at 12.40pm.

Mr Hubbard will speak to the theme Universities for Social Responsibility?, a subject AUS feels is of such public interest that it has been decided to throw open the meeting and in addition to staff, students and residents of local communities, all members of the University hierarchy including the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Council members, have been invited.

"It is hoped that Mr Hubbard's address will prompt serious debate on the business model that the Government is forcing on universities," says AUS spokesperson Dr Rupert Tipples.

The thrust of the new organisation founded by Mr Hubbard and launched by Commerce Minister John Luxton, is that companies should incorporate social responsibility into their philosophy and workplace. Mr Hubbard is the principal of a nationally successful breakfast cereal business.

"For too long it has been argued that the only beneficiaries of business should be shareholders," says Dr Tipples. "Now Mr Hubbard is presenting an alternative business model in which shareholders are only one of the stakeholders in a business. Other stakeholders include the local community, customers and staff members of the business. Thus, in universities, the stakeholders would include not only the Government, which claims ownership, but also local, national and international communities, the employers of graduates, and students and staff.

"The latter two groups hardly figure in current Government thinking. Nevertheless, they are important to the local community as Lincoln University is one of the biggest employers in Selwyn District. Staff and students are consumers who help the local economy and community to thrive.

"Everyone is invited to hear what Dick Hubbard has to say on ways in which businesses should perform and how that might apply to universities."

FOOTNOTE:

Mr Hubbard, Managing Director and Founder of Hubbards Foods Ltd, Auckland, is a long-time member of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology and has been a Fellow of the Institute since 1984. He was presented with the Institute's JC Andrews Award in 1992. He is also well-known for his previous chairmanship of the NZ Food Standards Committee.

While in Christchurch he will address a branch meeting of the NZ Institute of Food Science and Technology on the topic ‘Should businesses be more socially responsible’. This meeting is in the Canterbury Horticultural Society's rooms (Watling Lounge), in South Hagley Park, starting at 5.30pm. Cost $7 per head. Contact the branch secretary, Ron Hooker, on 388 9269 for further details and bookings.

Dr Rupert Tipples, Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, Applied Management & Computing Division, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand