Sep. 22, 2005

Business leaders join fight against AIDS
Karen Palmer
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

As the AIDS epidemic moves out of the dusty rural clinics of Africa and into emerging Asian markets, North American boardrooms are starting to take notice.

Russia, India and China are all facing the same pattern of infection that sub-Saharan Africa faced years ago, posing a huge challenge to Western corporations hoping to do business in those burgeoning markets.

"This is something that's going to hit us like a tsunami, economically, if we don't take steps now," says Brenda Zimmerman, a professor of health industry management at the Schulich School of Business at York University.

As the business community gets more involved in the AIDS fight, Zimmerman suggests companies will be seeking expertise in HIV/AIDS business strategies Ñ especially if those strategies benefit the bottom line.

"Given the kind of numbers we're talking about, and the implication on the globe that this disease is having, I think it's almost impossible to be an MBA student and not be impacted by this," explains Zimmerman, who has created an AIDS-oriented program for MBA students at Schulich.

"I think every business student in 2005, in their lifetime, is going to have to face up to the fact that this is a global challenge for every sector, including business."

Zimmerman got the idea of an AIDS program after attending a global business presentation about the disease last year at Princeton University.

"It was very clear that most of solutions to AIDS will need to involve all sectors: private, not-for-profit and public sector," she says.

"I hadn't thought of the business sector being a key player until that meeting. The more I thought about it, the more I realized they have the potential for tremendous impact."

The 18 students in her new program this fall have been divided into three teams, and will spend two semesters studying everything from AIDS prevention in the workplace to business-based programs that might provide drugs and treatment.

They will also look at the impact of community-based initiatives, such as building an AIDS clinic, or links with groups doing AIDS education.

They'll look at ways for businesses to increase awareness about the spread of the disease, and try to identify some of the root causes of why the disease spreads so readily in some types of workers.

The mining sector, for example, has been one of the sectors hit hardest by the spread of AIDS, since workers often live in single-sex camps far from home, where prostitution and drug use are rampant.

Zimmerman says the economic impact of the AIDS pandemic is huge.

In some African countries, where infection rates are as high as 40 per cent, companies have resorted to hiring two people for every job, knowing that at least one of them will get sick and die.

Absenteeism and turnover is incredibly high, and the disease even affects healthy workers, who are often called on to care for sick relatives.

"This is a disease that hits you in the prime of life," Zimmerman says. "It just destroys the labour market because there's nobody to hire. The people who are well are taking care of sick relatives. You end up with a country that is totally consumed by this disease and there's nothing left over for business or education.

"It's pretty damning for business," she adds. "You lose your consumer base because there's no money to spend if everybody's sick."

And children who lose one or both parents to the disease aren't likely to get the education or upbringing that will make them a productive workforce.

"That's not only a threat to business, the labour force and the consumer base, it's a threat to national security," she says.

"It's hard to get people to grasp how important this is, and how you can actually make a difference," Zimmerman adds. "Don't just wring your hands and say how terrible it is. Everyone's got potential to do something to make a difference. Things are too bad and time is too short for pessimism."

Three Schulich students are currently on internships in Russia and South Africa, helping devise business strategies for maintaining a productive workforce in countries with growing HIV-infection rates.

Nina Arvanitidis, 29, graduated from Schulich in the spring and moved to Russia last month to work with Shell.

After studying the disease at the molecular level during her undergraduate degree, she volunteered with Fife House to work with people living with HIV/AIDS and spent a year working in Ghana on education campaigns.

She is currently studying Shell's business operations to determine how the disease impacts the company Ñ knowledge she'll use to help design and implement AIDS programs in a country where AIDS rates are still relatively low, but growing at an alarming rate, particularly among heterosexuals.

Having huge multinationals like Shell onside gives the program credibility, Zimmerman says.

Although she can laugh at her own optimism Ñ calling herself an "accidental activist" Ñ Zimmerman admits she has a hidden agenda: Forcing the newest members of the business sector to look up from the bottom line long enough to see the human tragedy unfolding before them.

"If every MBA student had some awareness of this, and, in 10 or 20 years, all these students will be in all sectors all over the world, wouldn't that be amazing," she says. "Then we really could start changing the world."