Abstract: The relentless expansion of the financial sector reinforces a mechanistic mode of management thinking and practice that dooms any serious efforts to achieve true sustainability in the global economy. The goal of a small number of giant global financial firms to maximize their own value in financial markets, even if that entails destroying most non-financial businesses, will render useless any programs to align business activity with the imperatives of Earth’s life-supporting biosystem. True sustainability will be an impossible goal unless steps are taken to rein in the activities of financial firms to the point where they have no significant influence over the operations of non-financial firms.

Link here to download the single-page file Tom used in his presentation.

Biography: H. Thomas ("Tom") Johnson is Professor of Business Administration at Portland State University (Oregon) and Distinguished Consulting Professor of Sustainable Business at Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Washington. He was named one of the 200 leading management thinkers living today in a survey published by Harvard Business School Press in 2003.
In 2007 he received two awards for distinguished lifetime achievement: the American Society for Quality Deming Medal and the Seminal Contributions to Accounting Literature Award of the American Accounting Association.
Winner of the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research in 2001 and 2007, Tom received in 2007 the American Accounting Association’s highest award for research, the Seminal Contribution to Accounting Literature Award, for his co-authored book Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting (Harvard Business School Press, 1987).

Tom's full bio is available at the website link below.

Contact: Tom can be reached by e-mail at tomj@sba.pdx.edu for additional information about this conference session.

Website: www.pdx.edu/sba/fp-h-thomas-johnson