Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA (part 4): Women on campus

22 April 2013 by Leave a comment

imagesBusiness schools around the world have taken a wide range of approaches when it comes to providing specific opportunities to promote and empower women in business. In the first blog we looked at range of resources on this topic and in the second post we looked at schools that provide a range of free certificate programmes through the 10,000 Women initiative. The third post looked at programmes being developed to empower women in the corporate world. Now, this post will consider the range of ways that schools are bringing up these issues to campus. 

Social Enterprise Week is an annual event where student clubs at the Graziadio School of Business and Management host a range of events to communicate the value of social and environmental responsibility, as well as sound ethical practices in business. During this week, the MBA Women Club, part of an international network dedicated to the advancement of business women as corporate leaders, held a panel discussion on Achieving the Feminine Triple Bottom Line.

A large number of signatory schools, such as Queen’s School of Business in Canada and London Business School in the UK, are also members of the Forte Foundation, a non profit consortium of major corporations and top business schools working together to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education and opportunities. The schools provide, among other things, scholarships for women with high potential.

The Simmons School of Management has done extensive research around how gender is explored at a range of different business schools around the world. In 2012 they had an intensive, interdisciplinary student experience entitled the Simmons World Challenge where teams of students are invited to work with a small team of faculty over their winter break to develop creative solutions for major world problems.  The 2012 World Challenge theme was “At the Edge of Poverty:  Empowering Women to Change their Lives and their Worlds.” The MBA concentration in Organizational Leadership continues to have as its primary focus the success of women in organizations. As part of this, Simmons added a travel course to the UAE, including attendance and active participation in the 2012 Women as Global Leaders Conference (WAGL).

Villanova School of Business in the US has a Women in Business Advocacy Committee, dedicated to proposing measures that will enable all students to explore and understand issues that confront women as business leaders. They collaborate with the university-level Women’s Executive Leadership Program to ensure that the needs of VSB undergraduate and graduate students, VSB alumnae, and VSB corporate partners are best served.

The University of New South Wales in Australia has several programmes focused on women. The Academic Women’s Employment Strategy 2012- 2014 positions gender equity as a strategic priority for UNSW. In 2012 for the eighth consecutive year, it was recognised as an Employer of Choice for its initiatives to support and advance women in the workplace by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. Initiatives developed under UNSW’s gender equity program include the Academic Women in Leadership program, the Vice-Chancellor’s Childcare Support Fund for Women Researchers and the Career Advancement Fund. The school has an Academic Women in Leadership Program, designed for women seeking to develop leadership capability and includes themes such as authentic style, executive influence, adaptive leadership, thought leadership and one-to-one coaching. Their AGSM Women Indigenous Leaders Scholarship is provided yearly to Indigenous women entering the Women in Leadership Programme.

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Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA (part 3): Empowering Women

15 April 2013 by Leave a comment

imagesBusiness schools around the world have taken a wide range of approaches when it comes to providing specific opportunities to promote and empower women in business. In the first blog we looked at a range of resources on this topic, while in the second we looked at schools that provide free certificate programmes through the 10,000 Women initiative. Here we look at a range of other approaches being taken to empower women in the corporate world.

Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands has an initiative called Women Empowerment which encourages women to empower other women in business networks and high-performance environments. These activities were designed to address the specific challenges that women face when climbing the corporate ladder – a subject of great interest to project initiator and RSM Associate Dean of MBA programmes, Dr. Dianne Bevelander, who has actively researched the subject. In 2011, also based on this research, the school offered an elective called Mount Kilimanjaro Women Empowering Women. Fifteen women from the MBA programmes joined the course which involved going to Mount Kilimanjaro and focused on developing a greater understanding of how to work with other women in high performance environments.

In a bid to encourage more women to join the science, innovation and technology sectors and raise the profile of women currently in the industry, Newcastle University Business School in the UK launched an initiative called “North East of England Role Model Platform for Innovative Women.” The scheme, which has been established to help women overcome personal and professional barriers to success in the science, innovation and technology sectors, was initiated following research carried out by Professor Pooran Wynarczyk of Newcastle University Business School’s Small Enterprise Research Unit that showed that women were massively under represented in certain sectors, namely, in science, technology and innovation.

Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business is focused on helping women reach their full potential in the workplace and helping corporations engage the full potential of talented women leaders. Among other things they organize Best Practices Forums to engage critical thought-leaders and business professionals around the world to provide solutions for helping businesses harness the full potential of talented women leaders within their organizations and incorporating a culture of inclusion.

University of St. Gallen in Switzerland has put together a Management Certificate  called Women Back to Business, which helps women returning from an absence re-enter the job market in managerial positions. The programme is in collaboration with the Executive School of Management, Technology and Law together with Swiss and international companies. It is a one-year training program which includes career coaching, skill training, reflection workshops and practical experience in a company, public organization or NGO.

 

If you would like to share your initiatives around this topic in future posts please contact me.

 

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Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA (part 1)- Introduction and Overview

1 April 2013 by Leave a comment

imagesOn March 8th, countries around the world celebrated International Women’s Day. The focus of this annual event is to build support for women’s rights and greater participation of women in the political, social and economic arenas. Although this year’s date has already passed, it is still a good opportunity to take a look at what is happening in business schools around the topics of women, gender and sustainability.

Fortunately, there are many excellent examples of initiatives, research and programmes to choose from. In this series of blog posts, I will outline a few different approaches that schools are taking around entrepreneurship, empowering women and campus activities. In this first blog I’ll start by focusing on the range of resources available to provide more information on the topic.

Reading though the range of materials produced by business, NGOs and international organizations, it quickly became clear that there are too many quality resources to list here. There are now a very wide range of resources online that look at both the state of women around the world and also, in particular, the corporate world. UN Women’s Watch provides a range of links to publications on the topic. Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals is focused on promoting gender equality and empowering women. According to the Goal’s website, women occupy 25% of senior management positions and in 2008/2009 were on average paid 23% less than men.

The Women’s Empowerment Principles offer guidance to companies on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. The Principles include leadership, equal opportunity, health and safety, education, enterprise development, community leadership and transparency. The initiative emphasizes the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and is informed by real-life business practices and inputs gathered from companies around the world.

In terms of how this translates into management education, a key resource is the work being done by the PRME Gender Working Group, which was discussed in a previous post. The mission of the group, which has over 60 members, is to bring together academic and employers to provide support and resources for integrating gender issues and awareness into management education, business school curricula, and related research. The Global Resource Repository, a collection of syllabi, case studies and other teaching resources, is being expanded to include sections on Research and Good Practices. The group is also inviting contributions to a publication on Gender Equality as a Challenge for Business and Management Education as part of the PRME Book Collection. The Call for Contributions is open and may be viewed here. Abstracts are being accepted until 1 June.

 

If you would like to share your initiatives around this topic in future posts please contact me.

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Creating a New MBA focused on sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship– Deusto Business School

11 March 2013 by Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2013-03-07 at 10.32.52

How do we create an MBA that fully incorporates sustainability and responsible leadership into its programme? How do we embed sustainability across the curriculum? Do we completely change the way that the MBA is structured?

Over the upcoming year I will be providing a range of blogs that explore how different schools have approached this question and the kinds of answers they have proposed. First is Deusto Business School in Spain. They have created a new, one-year programme, starting this April 2013, which embeds sustainability and responsible leadership into all aspects of the programme. I recently had the chance to speak to David Ruiz de Olano, Director of MBA Programmes from Deusto, about their new programme.

1. Why did you decide to create this new programme?

MBA programmes and Business School are at a crossroad right now. Companies, students and society are demanding a review of the objectives, curricula and outcomes of the MBA to really serve business and society. Therefore, we decided to start from scratch and create a programme that tackles the problems companies and executives are facing today and tomorrow.

We turned to the Principles for Responsible Management Education and created an MBA directly based on and inspired by these. We wanted to create an MBA that was both traditional and disruptive in the way that it is designed, providing a unique programme for students to gain solid management skills but also have a solid understanding of the future business agenda and be an integral part of shaping and pushing that agenda forward.

2. Deusto Business School is located in the Basque region. Why is Northern Spain an interesting place in terms of sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship?

Northern Spain has a long tradition of entrepreneurship and industrial companies, with a high level of internationalization. Basque Country has always taken a clear position facilitating the internationalization and investment of its companies: for example an R&D Investment /GDP ratio of 2% that is higher than in Spain (1.2%) and similar to Europe (2.82% in Germany).

In the Basque region, there is also a long tradition of entrepreneurship (actually, the founder of the College was an entrepreneur who went to Las Americas). Our region has created some of the most important companies in Spain (such as banking group BBVA, or energy company Iberdrola). This provides a unique opportunity for students to study in the heart of the Basque country at our campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastian but also at our third campus in Madrid, the center of economic activity in Spain.

 3. Briefly describe the new MBA at Deusto

When designing the programme we decided that there were three elements that were key for future leaders.  These three elements are truly embedded into every class that is offered in the new MBA. This includes:

  • Sustainability: Sustainability is embedded into all areas of business looking at both the collective business and how to embed sustainability into organizational strategy and the global supply chain but also the students’ individual capacity to be sustainability leaders.
  • Digital strategy: The focus here is on the digital and networked world of individuals and organizations, looking at the impact of information technologies on people and companies as well as how to use technology to solve world problems.
  • Innovation and entrepreneurship: The focus here is on developing critical thinking and creative leadership with students, to give them the skills and mindset of an entrepreneur. Students have the chance to work with an innovative start up or to work on an innovative, entrepreneurial project with a company throughout the school year.

The new programme offers both a global and local vision of business with students spending time during the programme studying at one of the University of Deusto’s campuses (Bilbao), a term in New York City in the US as well as time in a developing or emerging country working on a service learning project focused on entrepreneurial activity associated with conflict resolution (including Kenya, Congo, Tanzania, Peru, India, Venezuela or Cambodia).

Also the new programme offers students the opportunity to really get engaged with companies on these topics. There will be a range of high profile events with the Spanish and European business community for students to participate in. In addition, students will have the opportunity to work with companies on specific projects, both short projects as well as a longer, full term project to have the opportunity to put their learnings into practice.

4. What tips would you have for other schools creating new programmes around sustainability or incorporate sustainability into existing programmes?

Engage faculty from the beginning, each institution has its own internal resistance to any change and this is a change. Faculty may be already working on these issues, you just need to give them room. Also, forget the “nice” approach of being sustainable, this is another framework for business that concentrates on the generation of new market opportunities.

5. What’s next?

We are currently accepting students for our first class starting in April 2013 which already contains a good mix of students from around the world. Students also have access to a large number of grants. The response has been very good due to the uniqueness of the programme. It is perhaps the only programme in the world that combines a focus of sustainability with one of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Because Deusto is a very well established university in Spain, students will have access to an excellent range of companies across Spain, Europe and the world for placements and post MBA jobs and we are continuing to work on ensuring that plenty of interesting opportunities exist for our graduating students. Moving forward we will continue to strengthen the programme and develop our growing network of partnerships with the business sector in this area.

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Energy and Sustainability in Business Schools – Business School response (Part 3)

25 February 2013 by Leave a comment

clean_energy

Energy and Climate Change are two very important issues for the business sector. Companies of all shapes and sizes are working both independently and together to reach various carbon reduction goals set by themselves or by the international community (see Part 1).

Business schools are also increasingly active with more and more schools reporting on their energy and carbon reduction activities. In Part 2 we looked at a series of measures that business schools are taking to raise awareness about and reduce their carbon footprints. Here we look at how schools are getting more deeply engaged in these issues through partnerships, curriculum and research.

Partnerships

Several schools are partnering with businesses, NGOs or governments to help them with their carbon reduction goals. Universidad del Pacifico in Peru collaborated with the Fundacion Ecologia y Desarrollo in Spain to create their carbon strategy. The project included an awareness raising campaign, a project to calculate the emissions on campus and work with the different parts of the campus to ensure that these efforts continue into the future. At Fordham University, they measured and implemented methods to reduce their carbon footprint, working to meet the City of New York’s program for carbon reduction of 30 percent by the year 2017. An energy and greenhouse gas emission study was completed as part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s challenge to institutes of higher education to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by the year 2017. The University of Dubai in the UAE, invited the Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) to campus to conduct a workshop on conservation and present the latest developments in the fields of water and energy for students, faculty and staff. On February 16, 2012, the University was given the ‘Conservation Award – For a Better Tomorrow’ from DEWA for its reduction of water consumption by 9%, electricity by 23%. At Copenhagen Business School green technology are showcased regularly on campus to demonstrate new green IT solutions, electric vehicles or paperless systems to raise awareness among students and faculty. Companies such as IBM and Velux were the first corporate partners to showcase green technology at CBS.

Courses

A range of businesses are providing elective courses focused on the topic of energy. Babson has a course called The Norwegian Experience, an off shore course that explores the drivers of opportunities in the energy domain and examines ways new ventures are applying technologies in wind, water, solar and alternative fuel.

A growing number of schools have gone beyond providing single courses around energy related topics to creating whole MBA’s focused on Energy. Both Warwick Business School in the UK and Centrum in Peru have MBA programmes focused on Energy. The Energy MBA at Centrum was created to understand how to generate value in the energy field. The program focuses on the application of knowledge, techniques and best practices in order to ensure the management of hydrocarbon resources in different industries. In Switzerland the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur has a Master of Advanced Studies in Energy Economics. Escuela de Organizacion Industrial in Spain provides an executive programme focused on carbon training. St. Gallen in Switzerland has a Diploma Program in Renewable Energy Management which provides training for future leaders in tomorrow’s energy markets.

Centres and Research

Many schools in all regions of the world have centres focused on the topic of energy and climate change or tackle these issues within their sustainability and other related centres. At the Rotterdam School of management the Erasmus Centre for Future Energy Business develops the business foundation for tomorrow’s energy markets. Their research focuses on bringing together energy practitioners, policy makers, and researchers from Economics, Computer Science, Behavioural Sciences, and Management Sciences to guide and to shape the transformation of the energy sector. The school will be hosting their second annual Erasmus Energy Forum in May 2013 focused on exploring the future of the energy business. In the US the University of California at Davis has an Energy Efficiency Centre which works to accelerate the development and commercialization of energy efficiency technologies, and to train future leaders in energy efficiency. University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur in Switzerland has a similar centre and also hosts the Swiss Alpine Laboratory for Testing of Energy Efficiency where they conduct measurements in the area of energy efficiency in line with established Swiss and international norms and practices.

- This is part of a series of blogs in 2013 focused on business schools and energy - 

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Measuring your Carbon Footprint – American University in Cairo

5 February 2013 by Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2013-02-04 at 13.57.03Late in 2012, The American University in Cairo became the first institution in the Middle East and North Africa to conduct a comprehensive study of its impact on climate change. It released the publication Our Carbon Footprint , prepared by the Office of Sustainability and the Desert Development Center, which was  the result of campus-wide efforts incorporating the work of faculty, staff and students.

I recently had the chance to speak with the Marc Rauch, the sustainability coordinator at AUC, about this initiative.

1.    Why did you decide to create the report and do this research?

Egypt is especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change so it is important that we do what we can to curb our carbon emissions and convince others to do likewise to help sustain the long-term viability of Egyptian society. This project represents the first attempt in the region to measure a university’s impact on climate change, which not only enables us to work on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on campus, but also serve as a model and challenge for others to also address climate change in their organizations.

2.    How did you go about putting together the report and gathering the information?

We used as a reference the Clean Air – Cool Planet Carbon Calculator which was adapted to the specific needs of AUC and Egypt. This is an excel workbook capable of quantifying an annual aggregate carbon footprint. We focused only on our New Cairo campus where the bulk of the University’s operations now take place. The report provides in-depth information about how we went about calculating our footprint and provides a foundation for continued efforts to improve AUC’s performance in this area.

3.    What were some of the interesting findings from the report

We expected the emissions rate to be higher than it was given AUC’s reliance on commuting to New Cairo and our extensive use of air conditioning. Most of the emissions came from three sources: 40% came from heating, ventilation, air conditioning and domestic hot water, not surprising since the campus is located in a desert climate; 27% came from commuting by bus and car since the campus is 35km away from downtown Cairo; and 21.5% came from lighting and use of other electrical equipment. We also found it useful to compare ourselves with other universities by greenhouse gases emitted per full-time equivalent student.

4.    What plans do you have for the future for sustainability and carbon reduction on campus?

We developed seventeen measures around which to reduce our carbon footprint: Air Conditioning, Heating and ventilation, Transportation, Lighting, Paper Use and Water Supply. This is a project that allows anyone on campus to engage in by adjusting temperature settings in their office to encouraging carpooling. The website also has an area for students and staff to submit ideas on how to reduce AUC’s Carbon Footprint further.

We have formed two separate university-wide task forces, one focused on reducing our energy consumption by one third overall within 3 years, and the other focused on conserving and recycling water. We have already achieved striking gains in energy conservation and efficiency, and are starting to make progress on water.

5.    What advice do you have for other schools thinking of doing the same activity?

Do a quick review of a widely used carbon calculator like Clean Air/Cool Planet’s to see the kinds of data you will need to calculate your carbon footprint. Then before going any further, do some research to confirm that the data required is available on campus or can be generated or retrieved without too much difficulty. In our case, the data was usually available in some form, even if getting it sometimes required a bit of coaxing!

To view the full Carbon Footprint Report click here.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Middle East and Africa Tagged with , , ,

Contests for Business Students in Sustainability – Marketing Focus

7 January 2013 by Leave a comment

There are various ways to embed sustainability into the curriculum and to get students engaged in sustainability issues. One such method is to invite students to get involved in the growing number of global competitions and contests, often organised in partnership with the business sector. These competitions provide a valuable opportunity to explore solutions to existing business and sustainability challenges. These contests sometimes offer winners fame, other times cash prizes; in any case, they are an important opportunity to move these issues forward.

In this section, I will regularly share with you different contests that could be used to generate enthusiasm around the topic of sustainability. Here we look at challenges relating to Marketing, Retail and Sustainability.

Marketing students from business schools around the world including the University of Limerick  participated in the Global Google Marketing Challenge, working in teams to develop and online marketing campaign for a local charity or start-up enterprise. With a US$250 budget provided by Google, students and faculty from business schools around the world can win a range of prizes, including trips to Google Headquarters.

Marks & Spencer Sustainable Retailing Challenge 2012 is organised by retailer Marks & Spencer and the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield School of Management. The first round involves teams from leading business schools making short assessments comparing a retailer’s decision to source roses from Kenya or the Netherlands. The second phase looked at sustainability of cotton. The five most impressive teams made it to the final round where students were asked to develop their ideas for a new product or service which would represent M&S as a world-leading sustainable retailer.

The Imagine Cup World Citizen Competition recognizes software apps that have the greatest potential to improve the world we live in. It encourages teams to come up with an idea for an app that will help reduce world hunger, provide better treatment for disease, raise awareness of environmental issues or provide better access to education. The competition is in collaboration with Microsoft.

Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 09.29.16The Major of New York has launched a Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge which challenges anyone, anywhere to redesign New York’s 11,412 payphones. The current payphone vendor agreement expires in 2014 creating opportunities for innovation.  The submission period ends on February 18th and up to 15 prototypes will be selected as semi-finalists and invited to participate in the Demo Day.

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2012 Summary of Best Practices in Responsible Management Education (Part 2)

1 January 2013 by Leave a comment

2012 has been an interesting year for sustainability and management education and through Primetime I have tried to share some of the incredible work that PRME signatories are doing to mainstream responsible leadership and management education around the world. Primetime has become quite a repository of examples and in the final few blogs of the year I wanted to summarize the range of resources and experiences that have been featured.

Getting faculty engaged

Faculty are key when it comes to bringing about change in sustainability on campus. Several blogs focused on how to get faculty on board with sustainability (9 April) as well as a range of examples from signatories featured in the Inspirational Guide (23 August). Faculty including those from Maastricht University (22 October – Outside the Classroom New ways to feature sustainability in business courses) and Kozminski University (16 January), have initiated a range of innovative courses around sustainability. Several have also initiated Certificates in Sustainable Business, taking a variety of different and innovative approaches (26 April).

We also focused on a range of methods for teaching sustainability, in particular the increasing number of tools available online for faculty to use in their courses, including lectures (19 March), discussion spaces (23 January) as well as online games developed by NGOs (27 February), the business sector (5 March) and universities (15 March).

Finally we focused on bringing out some of the favourite business and sustainability examples of faculty from around the world, including examples from the Dominican Republic, Tanzania and Slovenia (3 July), the USA and Australia (29 October), Poland, UK and the Netherlands (13 February), and Canada, UK and New Zealand (30 August).

Sustainable Campus

Quite a few schools are doing some excellent work around creating more sustainable campuses including looking at providing more sustainable food options (7 May – Sustainable Food on Campus Part 1 and Part 2) and encouraging bike use on campus (6 February – Creating more sustainable campuses: Bikes). Universities have come up with innovative ways to make their campus more sustainable including Aston with their Go Green Awards (21 August – Go Green Awards), Olin’s Sustainability Case Competition (17 September – Using a case competition to make campus more sustainable), the Student Green Energy Fund at University of South Florida (December -)  and Viterbo’s Metrics of Sustainability course (3 September – Engaging your students in making your and other organisations more sustainable).  We also looked at a variety of ways in which students are becoming more engaged in these discussions whether it be through conferences (9 January – Responsible Leadership in China), Board Fellows Programmes (2 January -  Board Fellows Programmes) or through a range of contests (19 November – Contests for Business Students in Sustainability). As signatories are getting engaged in more and more activities across campus they are also exploring how to better communicate these activities and other sustainability programmes both across campus and with other stakeholders (30 July – Communicating your work with stakeholders).

Exploring specific themes

Quite a few schools are doing some excellent work around specific topics and, in particular around Rio+20, many of them were featured here. In May, we had a focus on Water, both on campus and in the curriculum (21 May – Creating a more sustainable campus: Water Part 1 and Part 2). We have also had blogs on the topic of Microfinance (20 February -  Teaching Students about Microfinance) and social entrepreneurship (5 November – Innovations in Social Entrepreneurship Courses Part 1 and Part 2).

We finished off the year with a three part series focused on the UN International Year of Cooperatives, which took part throughout 2012, with an overview of the year (26 November – Introduction), a range of examples of cooperatives around the world (10 December – Business examples) and finally some examples of schools providing teaching and programmes around the topic (24 December – Business School Response). In 2013, this focus will continue with a look at how to incorporate cooperatives into business education programmes.

2013

In 2013 we will continue to provide a range of best practices around mainstreaming sustainability and responsible leadership into management education globally. Some new features for 2013 will include a dean’s corner and a continued focus on how to incorporate the 6 Principles of PRME into your work.

Primetime is all about featuring the work that you are doing at your schools in the area of management education and sustainability/responsible leadership. If you have an interesting example that you would like to share with the community or if there is a particular theme that you would like to see explored, please do email me at gweybrecht@thesustainablemba.com.

Happy New Year!

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2012 Summary of Best Practices in Responsible Management Education (Part 1)

31 December 2012 by Leave a comment

2012 has been an interesting year for sustainability and management education and through Primetime I have tried to share some of the incredible work that PRME signatories are doing to mainstream responsible leadership and management education around the world. Primetime has become quite a repository of examples and in the final few blogs of the year I wanted to summarize the range of resources and experiences that have been featured.

Rio+20 and the 3rd Global Forum

In 2012 many of us made our way to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for Rio+20, where world leaders, governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups came together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection to get to the future that we want (29 March – Management Education and Rio+20 Part 1 and Part 2). The academic community came together for the PRME 3rd Global Forum for Responsible Management Education, the official platform for management-related Higher Education Institutions (8 June – Getting ready for Rio+20, The Nine Major Groups Part 1 and Part 2). There were also a range of other events throughout the Rio+20 meeting where the PRME community was quite active (30 May – Getting Ready for Rio: Business Education Events). Jonas Haertle, the Head of the PRME Secretariat, followed up the event with a thought piece on the contribution of the private sector and academic institutions in support of sustainable development and the Rio+20 process (5 July – Why Rio+20 was still a success)

There were several outcomes of the Global Forum (19 June – Outcomes of the 3rd Global Forum, 14-15 June, Brazil). One of the major outputs was the Inspirational Guide, a collection of case stories that provide the answers to the most frequently asked questions concerning the implementation of PRME and seeks to inspire further integration of PRME by highlighting real world examples from signatory schools and universities (31 May – Introducing the Inspirational Guide).

PRME Working Groups

The different working groups were also very active this year and we focused on some of the projects done by the Poverty Working Group (10 September – Poverty Working Group Part 1 and Part 2), the Working Group on Anti-Corruption in Curriculum Change’s Toolkit for embedding Anti-Corruption guidelines into MBA curriculum (12 November – A toolkit) and the Global Gender Equality Repository for Management Education put together by the Working Group on Gender Equality (26 June – Creating a Global Gender Equality Repository for Management Education).

Collaborations across schools

Several member schools got together during the year to share experiences around sustainability issues both at PRME regional forums (MENA, Asia, Australia/New Zealand) and outside of these meetings. Aarhus University in collaboration with PRME organized the first PRME Leaders +20 competition which aimed to encourage faculty and student teams to submit innovative ideas on how to address sustainable development as part of management education courses and curricula at business schools (31 January – PRME Leaders+20 competition). Two of the winners of the contest were featured; The University of Auckland’s new course “Managing change for a better world” (9 July – Creating new courses around sustainability), and MacEwan Business School’s work to include more of an emphasis on sustainable business in the core introduction to Canadian business course (15 October – Competition Challenges Business Students to Rethink Course in Sustainable Terms).

Faculty from Mzumbe University and KCA University visited ISAE in Brazil to learn about their approach to embedding sustainability into their curriculum (3 December – East Africa University Researchers learn from Brazilian Experience). Several schools from across the US, led by Maharishi University, collaborated on a Summer MBA Sustainability Consortium opening up summer sustainability courses to students from the different schools (16 July – The Summer MBA Sustainability Consortium). In Australia several signatory schools have collaborated on a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact (1 October – Graduate Certificate in Social Impact). There were also a range of research related collaborations featured from Canada, the US, France, UK, Denmark and Belgium (24 April – Research Collaborations and Sustainability Part 1 and Part 2).

Collaborations with business

Collaborations are not just happening across universities but also increasingly with the business sector. Several schools have been busy pairing up with both other business schools and local businesses to create more case studies focused on sustainability, in particular at a regional level (16 April – Creating Teaching Cases around Sustainability). In Canada, Concordia University has paired up with banks from across the city of Montreal to provide a new Sustainable Professional Investment Certificate for bankers (16 August – Sustainable Professional Investment Certification).

We have also seen an increase in collaborations within schools and transdisciplinary learning (23 July – Using a common theme to engage the student body in sustainability). Some examples this year have included Bentley, with their course around Energy Needs (24 September – Creating a cross-disciplinary course in sustainability) and Aston’s approach to teaching ethics (8 October – Taking a transdiciplinary approach to teaching ethics).

-       Part 2 will be posted January 1st –

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2012 International Year of Cooperatives and Management Education – Business school response (Part 3)

24 December 2012 by Leave a comment

Each year the United Nations identifies an issue of global importance and uses that time to raise awareness about it in the international community. The 2012 International Year of Cooperatives recognizes the diversity of the cooperative movement around the world and its contribution to socio-economic developments, such as poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.

In Part 1 of this series introduced the International Year, while Part 2 looked at a range of examples of cooperative operations around the world. In Part 3, we will see how business schools are exploring this topic in their programmes.

Some business schools provide specialized programmes focused on cooperatives. A leading programme is Saint Mary’s University in Canada’s Master of Management  Co-operatives and Credit Unions which is designed to improve students’ understanding of management within the context of the co-operative economic model.

SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy created a Master in Management of Social Enterprises, Not for Profit Organizations and Cooperativesbased on intensive dialogue and discussion with the cooperatives themselves. Again in Canada, L’Université du Québec à Montréal offers a specialization in cooperatives and social organizations. They also bring in the topic of cooperatives across their programmes and initiatives, emphasizing cooperatives management during orientation activities and maintaining an endowed faculty chair on the subject.

Cornell University’s Cooperative Enterprise Program aims to enhance the performance of existing cooperative businesses and facilitate the development of emerging cooperative enterprise through teaching, research, and outreach. The CEP has grown out of a long-standing outreach effort at Cornell to agricultural cooperative businesses.

A few Business schools have Centers for Cooperatives. The University of Wisconsin’s Center for Cooperatives has a dedicated site for the International Year of Cooperatives with a wealth of information including how to start a coop. They also have links to research they have done around the economic impacts of cooperatives in the US.

Gustavson School of Business in Canada incorporates cooperatives into several of their courses. The international finance course includes frequent discussions based on current news from international financial markets, and students present in class on the topic of financial co-operative institutions and their role in developing countries. They also have an active interdisciplinary Centre for Co-operative and Community-Based Economy.

 Some schools also provide space for cooperatives to develop. ISAE/FGV for example has Technological Incubators for Popular Cooperatives (ITCP), in partnership with the Stickel Foundation. These incubators have been working with two solidarity and inclusive enterprises created by women from the Brasilândia, a low‐income neighbourhood in São Paulo: Doces Talentos, an organic catering service; and Brasilianas, a sustainable fashion project.

Is your school providing programmes on Cooperatives? Share your examples in the comments area below.

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Brazil, Canada, Global, Italy, Latin America, North America, United States, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

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