Two guest speakers brought non-traditional views of technology and business to AIT on Monday, 10 April 2006.
Hong Kong- born and American naturalized businesswoman Ms. Marilyn Tam and spiritual leader Her Holiness Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi, whose teachings are supported by a United States foundation known as Humanity in Unity, spoke on the future of business and on spirituality and technology.
Ms. Tam spoke of a greater social and environmental responsibility in business in the 21st century, drawing upon her own experiences as a former chief executive officer of Aveda Corporation, vice president of Reebok Apparel Products and Retail Group and vice president of Nike Apparel and Accessories. She is currently a director of the Service Corps of Retired Executives and a founder of the Us Foundation.
Ms. Tam sees a paradigm shift in business, in which the historical belief that growth and development are always for the best is supplanted by a collective consciousness that with this growth also comes social and environmental consequences. She saw this from a young age, growing up near Hong Kong and witnessing environmental degradation a lack of living wages and other impacts first-hand.
It was these childhood memories that spurred her on to become a socially conscious businesswoman, proving to companies like Reebok that taking such steps as paying higher wages and creating better living conditions for their factory can result in better products, faster production and fewer defects. The happy result too, she said, “I know I am giving them the dignity of being human.”
Ms. Tam listed four principles to guide future businessmen and women in this new way of doing business: Tell the truth; make partners; make big mistakes; and die by your own sword.
“Live by your principles,” Ms. Tam said. “When you go back and listen to your internal beliefs, you know what’s true.”
Sai Maa continued this inward-looking theme with her lecture on spirituality and technology.
“Spirituality is going to be a word you hear more and more,” she said, “because technology is taking it away from us.”
Technology, Sai Maa said, can have negative effects on one’s system, so it is therefore essential to “use it in a way that you can be balanced.”
Not all about technology is negative, she said. In fact, “The scientific part of the brain is full of science created by the spirit.
“Information comes from spirit,” she continued. “As technicians we may not realize that.”
This technology can have positive effects, she said, noting specifically AIT’s research on water-related issues. This will benefit humankind, she said, because “soon there will be much less water in the world.”
But she also cited frustrations with technology: “How is it we have poverty in the 21st century with all this technology?
“With this type of technology, there is no reason for us to become older,” she noted as well.
What is important, she said, is awareness of the spirit.
“If we have nothing but technology, we will have robots for everything, but no feeling.”