Humanizing business through relationships

How can today’s businesses build deeper relationships for long-term value creation? In this session, McGill researchers Sonali Uppal and Johanna Lau, working with Prof. Anna Kim (McGill University) and Prof. EunJoo Koo (University of Lethbridge) on social entrepreneurship, will share real-life stories and insights on humanizing business through relationships drawn from their ongoing qualitative field research. All businesses operate within a larger ecosystem, engaging with diverse groups such as employees, customers, producers, and local communities. Yet, these interactions and connections often remain narrowly transactional and focused on immediate outcomes. We will explore how a conscious investment in forming, maintaining, and strengthening deeper social ties can generate trust, loyalty, and collaboration, ultimately contributing to long-term value creation for all participants in the business ecosystem. Based on our observations we will also share examples of strategies that businesses are using to form deeper connections.