Organizations around the world have been under pressure from both the media and consumers in recent years, in reference to two issues that concern society the most: climate change and inequality, among many other threats to well-being. human. Hence the demand on companies to adopt the necessary measures to make them sustainable projects, which give priority to people and the health of the planet, which are responsible and instead of pursuing profit maximization as a priority goal, also share among themselves the main priorities, that of corporate social responsibility and a good reputation that shows that things are being done well, with social sensitivity and environmental concern.
There is a “Responsible Business Education” report from the prestigious Financial Times, in which there are many examples of business schools accommodating to calls for reform from students, teachers, employers and communities alike.
To such an extent this concern is vital for this new time of great sensitivity in society, which forces companies to be excessively careful in their actions, that business schools will also have to take into account in their programs. In fact, business education reports are adapting the methodology of their business school rankings to increase scrutiny and credit for activities related to sustainability and social purpose.
But metrics have their limits
As the broader debate on corporate environmental, social and governance responsibilities has shown, some issues are a little tricky to quantify in an easy, comparable and comprehensive way. The same is true within education, which has a fundamental role in training the next generation of managers and entrepreneurs.
This is why the Financial Times launched its “2022 Awards for Responsible Business Education” to ensure that a wider range of activities are qualitatively scrutinized to showcase, reward and incentivize individual examples of best practice. For this, there has been a distinguished panel of judges who have deep experience and passion in the field of organizations, and come from all over the business world, non-profit organizations, and also from the academic field.
An important takeaway from this second year of the awards is that the strength of the inaugural winners was not unique. They received another impressive list of submissions from around the world and identified many strong projects. Clearly, good academic researchers may not always be the best candidates for disseminating or implementing their ideas more widely. What has been done is that, for the second edition of this award, that is, for 2023, the criteria have been modified, since after having focused for the first edition on alumni, entrepreneurs and intra-entrepreneurs “generators of changes” as the key “outcomes” of business schools, the focus has shifted towards examples of practical work from students who “learned by doing” during their courses in projects with third-party organisations.
The important role of mechanisms that link them with useful projects
While the efforts made by individual winners deserve praise, their work also highlights the important role of mechanisms that link them to useful projects. ESMT in Berlin has a “Responsible Leaders Scholarship”, for example, which allows Masters graduates to offer free support to organizations facing social challenges in low-income countries.
For another winner, the Hult Prize was an important hotbed, in the form of a global competition that challenges college students to tackle social problems through business and provides funding to help them test their ideas.
Innovative Approaches to Pedagogy
Recognizing the central role of what is taught in the classroom, the 2023 prize has been created for innovative approaches to pedagogy, specifically prioritizing decision-making for sustainability or climate change adaptation.
A growing range of business schools provided a large number of relevant teaching cases, which are influential because they reach large numbers of students. The judges concluded that some of the best material went beyond traditional cases, providing online training, simulations, coaching, mentoring, and even meditation.
Several were co-authored by multiple authors at different business schools and made available online free of charge, in a way that provided the widest possible reach to their peers elsewhere.
Academic research with social impact and evidence of acceptance in practice
The final prize went to academic research with social impact and evidence of acceptance in practice. The best ones were generally written by multiple authors based in different institutions, faculties, business schools and countries, published in a wide range of media.
Attributing causality is never easy. Yet too often, scholars continue to define impact simply as publication in peer-reviewed journals, which provide rigorous peer review but have a limited readership. The best ones at least seek reports of their research in the media and at professional outlets.
Spread your ideas more widely
By contrast, the best entries (articles made available online) described their authors’ efforts to disseminate their ideas more widely, engage in public debate, and engage directly in decision-making with public and private sector organizations. His success metrics were far more astounding, in fields as diverse and significant as modern slavery and organ transplants.
Good academic researchers may not always be the best candidates for disseminating or implementing their ideas more widely, nor should the pressure to find practical applications be allowed to compromise their intellectual freedom.
Business schools require more efforts
However, business schools require greater efforts to encourage them to focus on societal challenges, connect their ideas to action, and revise incentives that are too oriented toward research disconnected from teaching or results.
4 ways business schools can train leaders for a better world
Business schools play a key role in training the ethical business leaders of today and tomorrow.
Young people recognize that business ethics are essential. And the company itself is increasingly aware of its impact on the future. In response, business schools are reframing their approach to ethics and sustainability to incorporate human rights and environmental values into their curriculum, research, and impact.
Academic authorities including representatives of the “Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business” (AACSB), Thunderbird School, Lagos Business School, The Global Education Department of the Financial Times, INCAE Business School (Costa Rica) and St. Gallen University (Switzerland) attended together for a dialogue during Uniting Business Live.
They discussed how to recondition academic institutions for a greater social and environmental impact through the fulfillment of a basic objective: prioritizing four central points, as we will see below:
1º) Definition of a moral mission and impact
Business schools must define their mission and impact in promoting human rights and striving for the achievement of ecological goals.
While all academic institutions have a key role to play in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4, which refers to education and lifelong learning, they can also contribute their research and activities to advance many other goals. of the 2030 Agenda.
Over the decades, universities and business schools, due to various self-regulatory and government incentives, have evolved in purpose: from teaching-driven to research-driven and now impact-driven.
It is in this area that accreditation agencies have the greatest power to change. Some key accreditation agencies such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) have already created standards related to mission and social impact for the accreditation of business schools around the world. The AACSB 2020 Standards dictate that the research, teaching, and activities of accredited schools, whether internal or external, must have a positive social impact.
Dr. Sanjeev Khagram, Director General of Thunderbird School (which is accredited by AACSB) agrees with these standards, stating that “from my point of view, that is where it starts – it is the mission!”. And he asks: “what is our mission?”, adding “and all our missions have to do with impact and everything has to lead to that impact”.
2º) Develop a job that is relevant at the regional level
Business schools do not exist in a vacuum. It is important that business leaders of today and tomorrow are equipped with the necessary tools to operate ethically within their regional context.
Wilfred Mijnhardt (Rotterdam School of Management) said there must be clear links between the regional ecosystem and the schools’ mission and impact. His position is clear: “you want a regional ecosystem to serve and, based on your mission, you find your metrics.”
While the pursuit of achieving the 2030 Agenda is global, giving high priority to regional focus on specific issues could be the key to global success. Business schools should follow the example of the more than 10,000 companies participating in the United Nations Global Compact that have come together and identified regionally relevant lines of action for their stakeholder communities.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are also issues that need to be understood at the regional level. In countries that are home to a wide variety of languages and ethnicities, the issues related to inclusion are different from those that are home to homogeneous societies.
Dr. Enase Okoned (Lagos Business School) explains: “in Nigeria we have 250 tribes and 400 languages and so for me inclusion has a different connotation as it is also about making sure we can reach people across the country who do not have access to the same quality of education.”
3º) Integration of sustainability in the core teachings of the business
The way to train ethical business leaders does not only imply teaching sustainability courses in business schools. Sustainability must be understood as a transversal theme to all core business competencies. Dr. Urs Jäger (INCAE Business School and St. Gallen University) states that: “we need to educate not sustainability experts, but rather integrate all sustainability topics into experts from other functionalities like the digital revolution.”
Integrate sustainability into all business teaching
Integrating sustainability into all core business teachings is a logical step for impact-based business schools, since while companies and youth are increasingly concerned with social and environmental issues, company hiring departments they still prioritize people with core business skills. Hiring professionals who have all the basic business skills and a deep understanding of sustainability issues is great for businesses.
Andrew Jack, editor of the Financial Times’ Global Education section, makes a further case for integrating sustainability as cross-learning of core business skills rather than stand-alone subjects. He says Jack that “very often when I talk to employers, they say they prefer to hire people with basic business skills and then add sustainability expertise.” So there’s a caveat in going too far with these new abilities at the expense of the underlying abilities.
4º) Measurement of impact
Measuring impact is crucial to assess progress in pursuit of a positive social mission.
Metrics are fundamentally important. While there are some things that can only be captured anecdotally or qualitatively, there is also a core set of activities within higher education institutions that can and should be measured to enable comparison and benchmarking.
In terms of research, universities and business schools can and should make their contributions to the issues addressed by the 2030 Development Agenda.
Wilfred Mijnhardt (Rotterdam School of Management) provided details on the work being done in mapping and compiling research related to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) through the creation of bibliometrics and altimetry. He stated that “I recently developed an SDG mapper to make sure that we can consult all the publications related to the SDGs”. In turn, Andrew Jack of the Financial Times highlighted the importance of ensuring that research is applicable to business today. “So we’re not just writing a paper saying there’s some interesting research here on SDG4.” It corresponds to the acronym in English of “Sustainable Development Goal 4”. And Jack added that “we are actually saying that there are new, original, impactful and implementable ideas in this research.”
Consistent metrics across business schools could also be useful in assessing social impact. In terms of measuring the progress of activities, stakeholders could evaluate the information submitted by schools with the aim of extracting best practices.
Indicators and metrics should be developed in intra-company collaborations. As business schools become impact-based, the dialogue needs to focus on identifying the right metrics to truly measure the value of contributions and impact.
Creation of knowledge in a global context
In the last decades, the leading business schools have developed values that materialize in very solid assets, such as the knowledge base of a consistent intellectual production, also counting on a transnational perspective to convert postgraduate students into potential business leaders. . But that, in addition, the graduates of an MBA or any other postgraduate course, assume a very clear commitment: to improve the state of the world and create a community without borders with a safe and trustworthy environment for all interested parties to interact and meet. connect.
A context of global instability
The year 2020 saw the emergence of a global pandemic against a backdrop of global instability. Geopolitical tensions were heightening as the COVID-19 virus spread across both hemispheres, exposing relations between countries and seriously affecting the perceptions that citizens had of their leaders, and at the individual level, the perception that a person had from others (be they co-workers, neighbors, etc.).
This context, which has worsened during 2022 due to the Ukrainian War, has given rise to two new challenges for business schools:
– Guarantee the creation of knowledge
In the first place, business schools must have the capacity to guarantee the creation of knowledge without interruptions as a consequence of both the impact of recent past crises and those that may arise in the future. They have to offer a clearer picture of the risks and solutions that postgraduate students face today and will face in the medium term.
– The consequences of increasing sophistication
Second, as educators, business schools must understand the consequences of the increasing sophistication and complexity of the global economy and adjust their international education curricula accordingly. Undoubtedly, the NT’s are an essential player to consider in any decision of the management of a postgraduate institution, be it operational or strategic.
The creation of knowledge depends on the productivity of teachers. Maintaining continuity in productivity during the pandemic has required greater use of technology to efficiently deploy business school resources. Furthermore, it has required motivation, a sense of urgency and dedication to be a committed partner in the business community.
Business successes in the post-pandemic era
The success of any community or region in today’s post-pandemic world will depend on whether postgraduate and higher education institutions, the business community, and civic partners can join forces to address corporate/workforce and societal needs. .
There are many international business schools that, after such a negative impact on the economies of the countries, in all their sectors of activity, took initiatives such as the organization of numerous webinars, online forums, exchanges in the cloud and conferences of live broadcast, immediately after face-to-face teaching was suspended. Surveys and reports were conducted to explore the impact of the pandemic. In the specific case of business operations with China, efforts were made to explore potential solutions to restart disrupted supply chains and to identify trends in digital transformation, new retail sales and leadership, workforce management, and more.
A new emphasis on technology has had the positive consequence of business schools reaching more people
For example, a series of online lectures with CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) professors in the fields of macroeconomics, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and digital marketing, was broadcast live by various major media outlets in China and received up to 2 million pageviews per session.
CEIBS faculty also led the way for the business community by connecting the dots on best practices related to reopening businesses and fostering economic recovery. As the first country hit by the pandemic, China was on the front lines in terms of the actual outbreak and again the post-COVID-19 economic recovery and related social changes brought about by the crisis.
A collaborative experience
CEIBS faculty collaborated closely with industry leaders in retail, e-commerce, logistics, remote healthcare, and telemedicine, among others, to conduct extensive research to examine responses to the crisis and show how the pandemic accelerated several pre-existing trends. (in particular, digitization and the growing caution and health awareness of Chinese consumers).
Patents and knowledge
The proprietary insights generated will not only explain how China fared compared to other markets, but also generate insights that can be transferred to companies in other parts of the world, sharing insights and strategies learned to thrive in such a challenging environment.
Digitization combined with value to satisfy the search for truth
Strategy professor Chen Weiru from CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) has researched how digitization combined with a value to satisfy people’s pursuit of truth, goodness, beauty and love can help companies achieve sustainable development, as reported in his talk at the CEIBS Insights 2020 Europe Forum on November 26. 2020.
Sharing these lessons and practices from China with other parts of the world
CEIBS is working hard to share these lessons and practices from China with other parts of the world through its global platform. Students, alumni and others have been able to learn about these developments through the school’s Service Excellence Forum (organized by CEIBS in collaboration with École hôtelière de Lausanne [EHL]) or the CEIBS Insights Europe Forum series, which made “stops” virtual. in Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom and France in 2020 and drew input from academics and business leaders.
The more complex the emerging trend, the more it can drive innovation
A new initiative to establish multi/transversal research areas in CEIBS has been explored. This initiative will enable faculty members from different disciplines to create more synergy with other fields and introduce turnkey solutions by combining developments in business administration with input from other disciplines and stakeholders. It is quite clear that agility and flexibility in multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research will play an important role in promoting a different international education curriculum for future business leaders.
The crisis of conventional beliefs
The pandemic has challenged conventional beliefs about the traditional world order and undermined trust in multilateral organizations, as well as the way we conduct international trade and investment and forge partnerships. Although the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international organizations have tried to show the power of cooperation , the world still faces the four “enormous challenges” described by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, who lists them as follows:
– Climate change.
– Distrust in leaders.
– The increase in geopolitical tension.
– The dark side of the technological revolution.
Furthermore, the WTO has been stuck in a deadlock. First, inclusive multilateralism is an urgent need. Second, a vision and practices are needed for responsible and adaptable corporate governance in a more volatile and multi-conceptual context.
When universal management frameworks are not adequate
What do we understand by appropriate management frameworks? They are those who, at an academic level, especially in research in any field of knowledge, establish some sort of border lines within which there is a space in which certain factors operate. But it does not mean that they are fixed. This leads us to warn that universal management frameworks may not be adequate or effective enough to guarantee business continuity, in the face of growing national and regional interests that may be in conflict with the interests of certain companies, whether multinational or international. regional. Hence, the corporate world needs to adapt to non-universal, culturally different, geographically segmented and demographically diverse national and regional markets.
Strong understanding and awareness from business schools
In this context, it behooves business schools to base their teaching on a strong and inclusive understanding and awareness of current geopolitical tensions. Inclusive in this context refers to respect for diversity and the exercise of fairness, where diversity is accepted along with strong accountability, and fair competition is ensured along with transparency.
In order to manage across countries in a global context, managers and executives must become experts in one or two specific business environments, or at least understand the specifics of one or two markets. Only when specificities are understood and recognized can value be created through inclusive collaboration and cooperation.
Business schools must be clear about their focus and how they want to position themselves.
To focus well is to know how to position yourself, in order to become an enabler of global economic recovery, so business schools must create and deliver content with regional depth and a global perspective to equip business leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to understand changing dynamics, navigate through crises, and emerge stronger.
In the case of CEIBS, its unique strategic positioning of China depth and global breadth has made it the leading China expert with a global perspective. In recent years, CEIBS has established itself as a knowledge center and has attracted many Chinese and non-Chinese teachers to delve into China.
As academic professionals, they received extensive and rigorous research training from top universities before joining CEIBS. What they are contributing to the broader field of business management includes not only their detailed explanation of China’s economic transition and Chinese business models and practices, but also their insights into how the corporate world can better engage with China and how experiences and Innovations from emerging markets like China can also be harnessed for growth and sustainability elsewhere.
As an example, it is interesting to review this paragraph: “the demand for multinationals to come to China has increased dramatically as China has gone from being perceived as a mere manufacturing base to a profit engine” (Yuan Ding, cited in Murray, Reference Murray 2019, paragraph 6).
As such, CEIBS is the window to the world on China: it demystifies perceptions, offers an interpretation of the country’s unique cultural fabric in its different regions, and reveals the patterns and drivers behind its economic success.