All eyes are focused on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) this weekend to see how the heartland of corporate power responds to the message fired into the mecca of western capitalism on September 11th.

If the shock to our global economic house of cards has not awoken business leaders to the inherent weaknesses of an economically interdependent world, it's hard to know what will. However slowly the truth dawns, the game is up on "project free trade" in its present form.

The response of most mainstream economists, politicians and business people - a rousing "Let's get back to normal" and "Let's keep the economy on track" - reveals a group in denial, clinging to a world view that is wholly inadequate for a planet rendered socially and environmentally unstable by global free trade and western economic ideology.

A far more enlightened response is to allow September 11th reverberate throughout our lives and reflect deeply on our responsibilities as business people, as investors and pension-holders, as workers, as consumers and as global citizens. Until we have a world that works for everyone, we'll have a world that works for no one.

At the very least, the project to globalise business needs an equally cherished parallel agenda to globalise justice and human rights, and salvage what's left of the global commons - our food supply, our water, our natural world, even our genetic inheritance - from the ravages of unfettered profiteering.

Of course, if pursued as doggedly as the WTO's free-trade agenda, this would expose the fact that global trade only makes financial sense when business pockets the profits while society picks up the cost of its collateral damage.

Free-trade advocates claim one of its chief benefits is increased competition, with a knock-on increase in consumer choice and lower prices. But stores crammed with multiple brands and overwhelming "choice" for the world's privileged minority (that's you and me) masks the ultimate irony of unbounded competition - a highly monopolistic marketplace.

Just five firms account for nearly 70 per cent of the global market in consumer durables. Five companies account for 77 per cent of the cereals market. Three companies share 83 per cent of the global banana trade and three control 85 per cent of the world's tea trade.

In cars, airlines, aerospace, steel, electricity and electronics, the top five firms account for more than 50 per cent of the global market.

But the impact of global business is even more ominous than the concentration of our essential goods and utilities in fewer and fewer hands. The unrestricted global money market now allows these enormous companies to become amorphous - beyond the boundaries of the nation state, beyond the reach of government, and so beyond the reach of citizens like you and me.

Critical decisions affecting our lives, social structures and environment are subtly transferred from elected governments to the unelected boards of transnational corporations, and citizens everywhere on the planet increasingly find that social and environmental needs play second fiddle to the priorities of business and money.

That's why doctors and nurses, car mechanics and civil servants, farmers and factory workers have been protesting at WTO, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and G8 conventions. They simply want to be heard by the crown princes of the world's new empires.

Public expectation of business is rising rapidly as people wake up to the power of their dollar, deutchmark or pound. Research shows that 95 per cent of Britons want socially responsible capitalism.

More than 50 per cent of Europeans say business does not pay attention to its social responsibilities. Around 86 per cent are more likely to buy from a company engaged in helping society. And talented employees are looking for a company that treats people well, does good within society and actively protects the environment.

Ironically, this presents business with a world of opportunity. After all the mergers, synergies and downsizings have squeezed every drop of value from companies, there's nothing left but to become smarter. And in the emerging world order, a "smart" company is a responsible company - one that expands its worldview and puts human- and earth-centred values at its core, alongside and equal to money values.

This is not about being "nice". It's about self-preservation. It's about business waking up to where the real world is going, and getting there first.

If a company's goods or services butcher the environment, damage the social fabric, exploit people or harm customers, it will stand accused of misusing its capital and its power, and will not survive the growing scrutiny of analysts, shareholders, customers and ordinary citizens.

Capitalism must reform itself or be reformed. Business must challenge its worldview, or be challenged. Companies must broaden their agenda to include the world beyond their walls. And powerful rule-making bodies like the WTO must recognise that the only way to serve the self-interest of business is to serve the common good.

Paula Downey is a partner at internal communication practice Downey Youell Associates. She is undertaking a Masters in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath. mail@dya.ie