Dr. Wakhid Slamet Ciptono, a faculty member of the UGM Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB UGM), was inaugurated as a full professor of management on Tuesday (Apr. 30).
During the inauguration ceremony at the UGM Senate Hall, he delivered a speech titled “Management Practice Awareness: Optimizing the Values of Economic Happiness and Business Goodness.”
According to Professor Ciptono, business management based on the capitalist economic system involves a social dilemma: choosing between profit and ethics. Capitalist classes prefer profit as the primary indicator of success, disregarding social and ecological ethical values.
“This phenomenon is referred to as success that brings calamity, success for the capitalist class and calamity for the working class,” he said.
He mentioned that the period from 1800 to 2014 showed that capitalist system practices provided economic returns on contributions, making it more advantageous than collapsed socialism and communism systems.
However, from 2014 to 2024, global society has experienced anomalies in capitalist practices lacking awareness.
According to him, one effort to transform capitalism is by introducing the concept of conscious capitalism, which awakens business companies to no longer have narrow perspectives aimed at maximizing profit based on economic values but to develop broader perspectives and noble goals, such as social and ecological benefits for business sustainability and human welfare until the end of time.
In his speech, he explained four fundamental principles of conscious capitalism. The first principle is the noble purpose of business companies compared to merely gaining profit for their owners.
The second principle is that companies should fully understand the interdependent relationships of all stakeholders with wisdom and sagacity. The third principle is conscious leadership.
“Lastly, the fourth principle is conscious culture, which is capable of embedding conscious capitalism practices integratively,” he said.
In the context of Indonesia, Professor Ciptono stated that the gap between the wealthy capitalist group and the people’s group is widening. Therefore, a dynamic balance between Pancasila ideology and axiology is needed for the way of life of the Indonesian nation.
“We may know what Pancasila ideology is, how many principles there are, but its action or axiology is lacking,” he said.
A business entity’s perspective as a giver of love is needed to realize a better world. Profits obtained from business activities by the capitalist class are used to give financial returns on contributions to the working class with sincerity and love.
“This application creates value through aligning the interests of stakeholders and minimizing potential conflicts of interests while maximizing benefits for all stakeholders,” he explained.
In conclusion, Professor Ciptono mentioned that achieving balance is the greatest challenge for management practice awareness in Indonesia to optimize economic happiness and business goodness.
Therefore, courage and honesty are needed to realize a balanced organization as contained in the Pancasila ideology.
The Chair of the UGM Professor Council, Professor Mochammad Maksum, also delivered a welcoming speech after conferring the full professorship on Professor Ciptono, mentioning that he is one of the 460 active full professors at UGM.
Meanwhile, at the faculty level, Professor Ciptono is one of the 28 active full professors of 45 full professors held by FEB UGM.
Author: Dita
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Photographer: Donnie