Just over a week ago, a US pizza billionaire sold his empire for $1 billion (£655 million) and announced philanthropic plans to donate the bulk of it to charity.

A C.S. Lewis book Mere Christianity had inspired Domino Pizza founder, Thomas Monaghan, to rethink his attitude toward wealth. Already a committed Christian, the book changed his entire outlook and sent him off in a new spiritually, as opposed to materially, motivated direction.

His unexpected actions stunned Wall Street, but could easily be interpreted as the business philosophy advocated by Irish-born Sabina Spencer (47) being taken to its logical extreme.

Ms Spencer, a management consultant, is a guest at this weekend's annual conference for Network Ireland, the organisation for women in business.

She will speak tomorrow about redefining the role that businesses, individuals and communities must play to ensure a sustainable future for our global society.

The outlook of companies nearing the end of the millennium has evolved considerably, the blurb on her mini-biography explains:

"Creating a world of physical safety and spiritual freedom is an enormous task. But if each of us can make a difference in our own sphere of influence, the world we want is within our grasp."

The unapologetic mention of spiritual freedom may have already set off warning bells in more traditional business purists. But trends suggests it is they, not Sabina Spencer, that could be out of touch.

In recent years, massive multinationals have sought out the likes of Ms Spencer to consult with those in leadership roles about how better to motivate staff and increase productivity in an atmosphere of ongoing change.

Explaining the processes and structures she has introduced for past clients she talks about "the human spirit" and "a sense of inspiration" and "spiritual energies".

Irresistible as it may be to suggest it all sounds very Absolutely Fabulous, Ms Spencer backs it up with a sound analysis of how priorities within business have changed.

The thrust of her argument is that business is one of the only institutions that has a vested interest in sustaining a global society. "Their profits and success depend very much on being able to work across borders and create new markets," she observes.

Advances in media and technology has brought the world closer together. "In the past we could pretend we were all separate. Now, we acknowledge that in the end we are all interconnected, whether it is through our ecology, the environment . . . we all walk on the same earth," she says.

It is this recognition that fuels her belief that the way to increase productivity is to have better quality work relationships. This factor informs many of her strategies. "There is an increasing realisation that there is more to managing organisations than just control . . . it is about understanding people, listening to them, appreciating, acknowledging and accepting them," she says.

Asked whether she has come up against any kind of corporate resistance to this motivational philosophy she answers emphatically in the negative.

She acknowledges that in the past the belief existed that we brought our heads to work and left our bodies and souls at home.

"This has changed," she says. "The human part of us is being viewed as more and more important. Without it we are not fully alive, not fully functioning and so cannot achieve as much".

Ms Spencer talks with an accent that sounds as though it were mixed in a melting pot - the legacy of a lifetime spent travelling and working across continents. She was born to English parents in Killiney, Co Dublin, she reveals proudly, but considers Dun Laoghaire where she spent the first three years of her life, her home.

Based in London, her academic qualifications include an MSc in Organisational Development and a PhD in Global Leadership. But she never expected to end up in her current position when she began her working life as an air stewardess.

Past clients include Esso, Shell, British Airways and 3M. The reason, she believes, for her services being so in demand is that many leadership roles are now occupied by the children of the 1960s. As the flower babies bloom they are having a profound effect on global human resources strategy. People in senior roles "are having a real deep look at values", she says.

Anxious not to be perceived as espousing intangible and ineffective initiatives, Ms Spencer says that the issues she touches on are "very real". "The two most successful commodities on the market are drugs and weapons. It suggests we have an issue with fear and security. In that environment people need more motivation," she says.

Does she makes a lot of money? "It depends on who I am working for," she says. "It is all part of the process of distributing wealth. I like the Robin Hood principle."

She feels as a woman she has an advantage in discussing the role of business in the environment and how we can achieve a more sustainable global society. Women have been cultured differently - "we are allowed to fall over and cry, men are told to be tough and carry on" - and she believes that with an added emphasis on female values "the world could be a better place".

"If we can bring into profile more of the female qualities, either by developing them in men or bringing women more into the front line, we will enjoy much more happiness, much more security and a longer term future as a species."

When delivering these ideals her eyes are focused firmly on the bottom line; "I link what I do into the direct effect of a companies profitability. It is not seen by them as an optional extra, but as an essential," she says.

The Network Ireland Conference takes place in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, tomorrow and Sunday.