The research report  titled ‘Values as a Blueprint for Value Creation’ was officially launched on 17 March 2016. This report was authored by the Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership (ALCRL), within the Department of Business Management at the University of Pretoria.

 

The report is the culmination of a project sponsored by the British High Commission in Pretoria to advance the ALCRL’s work in the field of integrated reporting. The four overarching outcomes of this eleven month project was to grow qualifications in integrated reporting; promote integrated reporting to international stakeholders; advance rigorous academic research in integrated reporting; and unlock the potential of collaboration between the UK and SA.

 

The launch event was opened by Prof Elsabé Loots, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at UP, followed by a short address by Mr Peter Boxer, the Deputy High Commissioner of the British High Commission in Pretoria.

 

Pieter Conradie from the ALCRL then discussed the most important findings that emerged from the research. According to him, the research was an explorative study into understanding the relevance of organisational value systems and how organisations view value creation. This research is important for the growing field of integrated reporting, as value creation is a central theme in this field.

 

The most important contribution of this work is that it can provide organisations with practical and constructive guidance in the way that they conceptualise value creation within their respective organisations. It does this by illustrating that sustainable value creation should include self-transcendent, as well as self-interested components to qualify as sustainable value creation. By using the heuristic of self-interest versus self-trancendence, organisations can better define its existing value creation activities, and given the internal appetite for change, put steps in place to move towards a more self-transcendent mode of value creation.

 

This work provides a novel perspective on the concept of value creation, and makes a constructive contribution to the field of integrated reporting.

 

Apart from the role of the British High Commission of Pretoria, the support of Old Mutual, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the UK Values Alliance and PwC South Africa is also acknowledged.

 

The report can be downloaded here.