Balance Works Better: Beyond the Profit Obsession`

What makes an organization healthy? Not just profitable, not just efficient, but genuinely able to endure, earn trust, and contribute something of value.

In this live discussion, Henry Mintzberg draws on the ideas behind Rebalancing Society to challenge narrow ways of thinking about management and institutional success. Rather than treating profit as the central measure of value, he makes the case for balance: between economic goals and social purpose, between leadership and responsibility, and between short-term pressure and long-term resilience.

This is a conversation about what organizations are actually for, what gets distorted when one measure dominates all the others, and what healthier institutions can look like in practice. Expect a thoughtful evening on management, society, and the values that make collective life work better.

• A clearer way to think about organizational success beyond one-dimensional metrics
• A stronger understanding of why balance, trust, and responsibility matter in real management
• A more useful picture of what healthier institutions can look like in practice

Henry Mintzberg is the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, where he has taught since 1968. Widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in modern management, he is known for reshaping how people understand managerial work, strategy, organizations, and leadership in practice. He is the author of numerous books, including Rebalancing Society, and his work has challenged generations of leaders to think beyond fashionable jargon and narrow metrics toward a more human and socially grounded vision of management.

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