Notícias

In an increasingly global world, living through an accelerated technological revolution, SEAL Group and Católica Porto Business School have organized a lunch cycle called Beyond Business, which features a national or international guest to address strategic topics of interest to organizations. This experience, which aims to go “beyond business,” challenges the guest and participants to engage in a dynamic, table-to-table discussion, creating a unique sharing environment. For the first edition, held on April 1st, guests had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Isabel Pires de Lima, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Serralves Foundation.

Image: Isabel Pires de Lima

The Director of Católica Porto Business School, João Pinto, opened the event with the opening speech. “This initiative is part of the expansion of the Corporate Club of the Executive MBA at Católica Porto Business School,” he began. “But it is also an initiative that aims to further strengthen the connection to practice, create a positive impact on society and businesses, and discuss new ideas and ways to view reality,” he concluded.

The theme of this first edition focused on art and culture, highlighting the need for leisure, with Isabel Pires de Lima beginning her speech with “the evolution of society toward a subordination to the acceleration we live in, which is an endogenous form of violence.” For the former Minister of Culture, this acceleration “prevents the enjoyment of moments of suspension, due to the feeling of guilt that the individual has for not doing what they should be doing.”

Isabel Pires de Lima further emphasized that “humanities and the arts can play a role of resistance” in a healthy questioning that should exist, resisting this accelerated pace, movement, and robotic hyperactivity. “We can slow down, create pauses, make reflections. Yes, we can“, she responded, before highlighting that young people are also affected by the difficulty of integrating “new knowledge into a previously known world. We must be able to offer them stories, narratives, that allow them to expand their inner world and their relationship with others.”

The event was closed by Sérgio Almeida, Founder of SEAL Group, who, in a summary, emphasized “the need to create moments of sharing and networking where executives can think and reflect on dynamics that go beyond their organizations.“

New editions of Beyond Business are scheduled, with dates to be defined soon.