Ezzat Zahrai: Business Changes, Values Stay the Same
In this interview EBBF co-founder Ezzat ('Eric') Zahrai, former president of an international specialty chemical manufacturing company, reflects on the rapid changes in business and on the relevance of the values-based discourse that EBBF began two decades ago. He also shares some details on how he has striven to apply EBBF’s core values to his work.
Ezzat lives with his wife, Annete—also a member of EBBF—in the outskirts of Paris, where they enjoy the beauty of country life, as well as hiking, reading and traveling. They have three grown children—all of whom have chosen careers in business!
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EBBF: The nature and speed of business has changed a lot in the 20 years since you helped co-found EBBF. Do you think EBBF's mission and principles are still relevant to the present business landscape?
Ezzat: In my opinion the whole world has changed dramatically, including business, and it continues changing. Of course, the world has always been changing, but the difference now is that the change is so fast that sometimes we cannot keep up with it. The world has contracted and we are dealing with people of different countries and cultures. We are so interconnected; a company here whose workers are sleeping at a given moment has others working in Japan and Australia! Also, in the old days business didn’t really worry much about the environment, but today we realize that it has a major responsibility with the stewardship of our natural resources.
Another change is the role of business itself. As Willis Harman, a visionary thinker and writer said, “Business has become the most powerful institution on the planet. The dominant institution of any society needs to take responsibility for the whole—as the church did in the days of the Holy Roman Empire.”
We also realize that the system we had at the beginning, with Adam Smith’s description of the market as an ‘invisible hand’, for instance, is now faltering. So in fact we need these core values so that business can better contribute to the well-being of humankind. EBBF’s values are very relevant. These values—ethical business practices, social responsibility, partnership of women and men, non-adversarial decision making through consultation—are in fact the ‘road map’ for business today no matter what its size.
- With his wife, Annete, attending a Rotary Club event
EBBF: What have we learned in these two decades about helping businesses and workplaces move towards becoming promoters of human well-being?
Ezzat: Well, first of all, while we were among the pioneers thinking that business needed to go beyond the bottom line of its balance sheet, we weren’t the only ones at the time. And, in fact, we have learned that there are so many other organizations that are enhancing consciousness about the need for the same values EBBF came up with 20 years ago without us knowing about it. And this is very encouraging.
But we do realize that we are still far, far away from the well-being of humankind, and not just in regards to business. We still have lots of road to cover.
EBBF: With the present economic recession, the stark disparities between the reality of sub-prime lending and investor bonuses, the Euro under attack, what would you say is one of the most pressing issues business has to resolve in order to live up to EBBF's vision to be a force for the 'well-being' of humankind?
Ezzat: Well, first of all there are quite a number of experts who are working on these issues and could say things in a much more authoritative way than me. However, one thing that comes to my mind is that one cannot solve the problems of today while continuing to use the same elements which created those problems in the first place. We have to have something otherwise they will persist. What we need, I can summarize in one word: Trustworthiness. This might sound to some like wishful thinking, but it is what is missing, and not just in business, but in every aspect of human life—in our relationships with our co-workers, with our neighbors, and of course with all humankind.
So what we must do now is focus on how to create trustworthiness, so that it emerges from the realm of utopia into reality.
- Ezzat with his wife, Annette
EBBF: How have you tried personally to reflect your beliefs and values in your business and current work?
Ezzat: When I was active in business I was in charge of European Operation of a Chemical Company. One particular thing I managed to practice to a certain extent in my management committee was the principle of valuing diversity. I had created a management committee composed of people from different European cultures: My HR manager was a Dutchman, my Marine business Manager was Danish, the controller of the group was from UK, and my industrial market manager was French. Thus we were able to find good solutions to our problems because we really had consultation with opinions inspired by different cultural backgrounds. We really saw the fruits of unity in diversity.
This brings us to the second point. We also took consultative decision-making very seriously. All sorts of subjects were brought up during committee meetings and we sincerely strove to reach decisions in which all of us or a majority agreed. We didn’t always have the same opinions, but this was the moment when people could share these diverging points of view, and try to reach a shared vision.
I must admit that it didn’t always work smoothly, and sometimes I acted autocratically imposing a decision that had been made by my superiors. But these occasions were few and far between. Indeed, often I would go into a meeting thinking we had to make a certain decision and come out with a better, corrected idea. Consultation really helped me get input from people from all backgrounds and cultures.
Although I am now retired from active business I keep up my contacts with like-minded organizations where I try to share these ideas of values-based thinking, and learn from others. This summer, for example, I’ll be participating in a round table on Corporate Responsibility organized by the OECD. I’m an associate member of the governing board of the “Cercle d'Ethique des Affaires” in France. And through my intervention a superb article written by an EBBF member (Jean-Pierre Méan) on what EBBF thinks of the situation of business today, appeared in a recent “Entreprise Ethique” issue.
EBBF: What advice do you have for the next generation of EBBFers as they set out to make a difference in their workplaces?
Ezzat: With a great deal of humility, the best advice I can give to others—and to myself—is to go out there and to try to put these values that we know are so important for the world today into practice, both in our mind and our daily activities. I say first in our mind, because once we believe in the concept we can find ways to apply it.
