H.C. Coombs Lecture - 1996

Sir Roderick Carnegie delivered the 1996 H.C. Coombs lecture with an address titled “Some Thoughts on the Moral Underpinnings of Business Enterprise”.

In his lecture Sir Roderick gives some personal deliberations to seven questions; looking at what the morally correct way is to move an industry or an institution forward in the interests of the whole community.

He looks at why is the issue of the moral underpinnings of competitive business significant and worth considering today, why it matters, and how it can increase the chance of success of business.

About Sir Roderick Carnegie

Sir Roderick Carnegie was educated at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria. He completed a Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Melbourne in 1954, a Master of Arts and Diploma of Agricultural Economics from Oxford University in 1957 and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University in 1959.

He became a consultant with McKinsey's in 1958 worked in both the US and Europe. In 1962, he founded the Australian practise of McKinsey's in Melbourne and in 1967 returned to New York to become a director of the company.

From 1974 until 1986 Sir Roderick was Chairman and Chief Executive of CRA Limited a lead mining and metals company.

Since 1986 he has served as director of companies such as John Fairfax Holdings Limited, Lexmark International Inc and Lexmark Holdings Inc.

Sir Roderick was created a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1978. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Newcastle in 1985 and was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1991.

He became a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Melbourne in 2011.

Edith Cowan University. (1996, March). 1996 H.C. Coombs Lecture by Sir Roderick Carnegie. Gazette. 3(5), 2.

Trinity College – The University of Melbourne. (2020). Fellows and Senior Fellows. https://www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/about/people/fellows-of-trinity-college/fellows-and-senior-fellows

Carnegie, R. (1996, March 26). Some Thoughts of the Moral Underpinnings of Business Enterprise [Conference Presentation]. Herbert Cole Coombs Annual Lecture, Fremantle, WA, Australia.