Conference Board

The Conference Board is a U.S.-headquartered membership organisation for business. It describes its role as providing "knowledge about management and the marketplace to help businesses strengthen their performance and better serve society."

History

According to its own website:

The Conference Board was born out of a crisis in industry in 1916. Declining public confidence in business and rising labor unrest had become severe threats to economic growth and stability.

A group of concerned business leaders, representing a variety of major industries, concluded that the time had arrived for an entirely new type of organization. Not another trade association. Not a propaganda machine. But a respected, not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization that would bring leaders together to find solutions to common problems and objectively examine major issues having an impact on business and society.

The Conference Board's stature and credibility have grown far beyond what any of its founders imagined. But it has remained faithful to its original ideals and mission.

According to William Domhoff:

The Conference Board, founded in 1916 as the National Industrial Conference Board, is the oldest of the existing policy-discussion groups. It was originally a more narrowly focused organization with a primary interest within the business com¬munity itself. During the 1930’s and 1940’s it drifted to an extreme right-wing stance under the influence of its executive director, who often denounced other policy groups for their alleged desertion of the free-enterprise system.(Eakins, op.cit., chapter 5) Only with the retirement of this director in 1948 did the board move back into the mainstream and begin to assume its current role as a major voice of big business. Further change in the 1960’s was symbolized by the shortening of its name to Conference Board and the election of a CED trustee as its president. By 1977, when its president was selected by President Carter to chair the Federal Reserve Board, it was one of the most central and important of the policy groups.

The Conference Board has been innovative in developing international linkages. In 1961, in conjunction with the Stanford Research Institute, the board sponsored a week-long International Industrial Conference in San Francisco. This international gathering brought together 500 leaders in industry and finance from 60 countries to hear research reports and discuss common problems. The International Industrial Conference has met every four years since that time. Along with the “sister� committees which the CED has encouraged in numerous nations, the International Industrial Conference is one of the major institutions in the international policy discussion network that has been growing slowly since the 1950’s.

Alliances

As part of its effort to help business in the global marketplace, The Conference Board works with a wide variety of organizations around the world. Following is a partial list of these "alliances":

Asia-Pacific

• The American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand
• Asian Institute of Management, Philippines
• Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute, Malaysia
• Confederation of Indian Industries
• Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce

Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management National Council of Applied Economic Research, India Singapore Institute of Management SPRING Singapore (Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board) Singapore Trade Development Board

Europe

CEDE - La Confederación Española de Directivos y Ejecutivos (CEDE) Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies IFL - Swedish Institute of Management IMI - Irish Management Institute NIVE - Nederlandse Vereniging voor Management TÜSIAD - Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association

Latin America

la Asociación Mexicana en Dirección de Recursos Humanos, A.C. Centro de Estudios Economicos del Sector Privado, A.C., Mexico Fundacion Mexicana para la Calidad Total, A.C. Instituto Chileno de Administración Racional de Empresas, ICARE Instituto Para el Desarrollo Empressarial de la Argentina Mexican Business Council for International Affairs US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce/ Northeast Chapter

North America

• The Center For Creative Leadership
• The Conference Board of Canada
• Families and Work Institute
• Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government
• International Association of Business Communicators
• Leader to Leader Institute
• National Institute of Standards and Technology

External links

New York
The Conference Board Inc.
845 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10022-6679
Tel: (212) 759 0900
Fax: (212) 980 7014

Brussels
The Conference Board Europe
Chaussée de La Hulpe, 130, Box 11
B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: (32) 2 675 5405
Fax: (32) 2 675 0395
E-mail: brussels AT conference-board.org
Website http://www.conference-board.org/