This is the proposition at the heart of a programme of inquiry, dialogue and practical learning being convened by the Enlightened Enterprise Academy. We are inviting thinkers, leaders, specialists, practitioners and people with different experiences and perspectives to examine the case for a more enlightened approach to enterprise, challenge its assumptions and help develop what it would mean in practice.

Enterprise is central to how we shape our collective future. The term includes organised human endeavour across the private, public and plural sectors, from businesses and public services to universities, charities and civic organisations. Through these enterprises, people mobilise knowledge, resources, technology and power. They influence how value is created and shared, whose voices are heard, and how society responds to the challenges it faces.

Our technological and productive capabilities have expanded dramatically, but our ability to understand their wider consequences and act wisely together has not kept pace. Knowledge is dispersed across disciplines, professions and institutions. Decisions made within one organisation can have consequences across whole systems, while many of the most important challenges exceed the understanding and agency of any single organisation.

The opportunity is therefore larger than making organisations more efficient, innovative or adaptable. It is to develop enterprises that are clearer about their purpose and responsibilities, more capable of connecting different forms of knowledge, and better able to learn and act with others, across industries and sectors, as circumstances change.