Peter Dhillon, CEO of the Richberry Group of Companies - Canada’s largest grower of cranberries, is partnering with the University of British Columbia (UBC) to establish the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at the Sauder School of Business.
Sauder and UBC alumnus Dhillon have together committed $7.5 million in funding toward the partnership, which will support the study, teaching and promotion of values-driven business practices locally, nationally and around the world. Dhillon’s goal through the centre is to create a model that inspires other universities to teach students the value of ethics in business.
“I’m partnering with Sauder to help ensure we are doing all we can to equip future leaders with the ethical perspectives they need to navigate the increasingly complex world of business,” says Dhillon, also the chairman of Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., the world’s leading producer of cranberry foods and beverages. “There is an impression that you can’t do well in business unless you set ethics aside. I want to break that image. You can be caring, you can be thoughtful, and still be successful.”
“Our partnership with Peter will greatly enrich our learning and research environment and allow Sauder to become an innovator in, and a model for, values-based business education and outreach,” said Sauder Dean Robert Helsley, Grosvenor Professor of Cities, Business Economics and Public Policy. “We look forward to working closely with him as we build the centre into a leading voice in the dialogue supporting the development of ethical perspectives on business.”
At a recently-held press conference announcing this initiative, Dhillon said in his speech, “By integrating ethics more properly into academic curriculum, I believe that each student that goes through Sauder will have a clear standing on how they should behave in the business world. It is my hope that the centre will instil necessary guidance that will cultivate our new business leaders. It is also my hope to see business leaders focus on doing the right thing and not just on profit and losses.”
The idea of a centre on business ethics came into Dhillon’s mind a couple of years ago when talking about it with a friend he was visiting in Florida. “We talked about the ethical issues, misbehaviour in the corporate world, and what could be done to not go through what we did in 2008, which was the credit crisis,” he says, adding, “I talked to the university and we realized that there was no comprehensive program in any business school that actually dealt with business ethics. I wanted to take that initiative and I did.”
Ash him how important is the role of ethics for a business or a businessman, and Dhillon emphasizes that it’s very important. “It’s a virtue, they must have ethical behaviour.”
“The impact of Peter’s gift will be substantial,” says UBC President Arvind Gupta. “Not only will it allow for the creation of new thinking that can have an immediate influence on the way organizations run, but its ripple effect through the students it touches will be felt in British Columbia and around the world.”
Once it’s open, the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics will be the first centre at a Canadian business school to take a comprehensive approach to the study, teaching and promotion of business ethics. The centre will occupy a prominent space in the Sauder School of Business building on UBC’s Vancouver campus.
