Aim

To promote and advance harmonious approaches to entrepreneurship to address the Sustainability challenge facing the planet.

To address the issue of sustainability, ecopreneurship, humane entrepreneurship and social enterprise have each been developed to complement the traditional wealth creation or economic approach to entrepreneurship. Harmonious entrepreneurship, based on systems thinking, recognises the inter-connectivity of the ecosystem and integrates or harmonises all four approaches, creating a 21st century model for business that is intended to help save our planet.

We recognise that the global ecosystem is composed of interconnected elements, which means that, in Popper’s terms,  the solution of one problem creates another. In accordance with Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, this interconnectivity requires that if entrepreneurship is to help ameliorate the ‘Sustainability’ problem it must address each of the connected elements together, rather than separately as has been the case traditionally.

Our founding principles can be traced to a forthcoming article written by Professor Kirby and Dr Iman El-Kaffass (World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable  Development, 2020). In it the authors  provide two case studies comparing  the deleterious, negative  consequences for Sustainability stemming from the more traditional wealth creation forms of entrepreneurship with the more positive outcomes resulting from the Harmonised approach.

View our Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society Principles of Practice here.

As HRH the Prince of Wales observes in his book ‘Harmony a new way of looking at our world’ (2010) “any environmental and social problems that now loom large on our horizon cannot be solved by carrying on with the very approach that has caused them”. We are thus further influenced and supported by the ideas of the Harmony Institute (Dr Nicholas Campion, The Harmony Institute at the University of Wales Trinity St. David (UWTSD) which critically explores what constitutes ‘Harmony’, and how this can be applied in society.

Objectives

• Support educators to facilitate ‘Harmonious Entrepreneurship’
• Equip young adults with the knowledge, competences  and skills to launch a Harmonious Entrepreneurial venture
• Encourage research into ‘Harmonious Entrepreneurship’ and the outcomes resulting from its application
• Recognise & disseminate research findings and best practice through publication and conference presentations