Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA (part 2): Entrepreneurship and 10,000 Women

8 April 2013 by Leave a comment

 UnknownThe last blog focused on Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA by looking at the range of initiatives and resources available on this topic. Now, the second part considers the growth in training programmes specifically focused on women entrepreneurs.

Specifically, we look at PRME signatories involved in the 10,000 Women project started by Goldman Sachs. The project is a five-year global initiative designed to help grow local economies and bring about greater shared prosperity by providing 10,000 underserved women entrepreneurs with business and management education, access to mentors and networks and links to capital. The project is currently operating in 43 different locations around the world and partners with local schools to develop and provide entrepreneurial training. Participating schools offer free certificate programmes for women around entrepreneurship which often also includes mentorship and networking opportunities.

The Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Center of The American University in Cairo has created The 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership Certificate Programs (WEL) for Egypt. The Center works to narrow the gender gap by supporting a pool of talented women entrepreneurs and leaders to become active contributors to the economic vitality of their communities. Over 303 entrepreneurs have been trained since 2008.

In Brazil, Fundação Dom Cabral offers, in partnership with INSEAD, a  Entrepreneurial Women Programme certificate, which covers strategy, finance, marketing, people, logistics and business plan development. Since 2009, there have been twelve classes for women to develop competencies and skills that entrepreneurs need to make their businesses grow. This year, over 200 women have signed up for the next programme. Also in Brazil, Fundação Getulio Vargas offers a similar certificate, while their website provides an overview of the different businesses run by women who have gone through the certificate programme.

In the US, Babson College was been working to unlock the growth and job-creation potential of small businesses across the United States by providing greater access to business education, mentors and networks, and financial capital. Delivered through community college partners at select sites across the US, participating business owners must have a minimum of four employees, been in business for at least two years and post annual revenues of between $150,000 and $4,000,000.

In Peru, the Universidad del Pacifico is also involved in training women entrepreneurs. Because Peru has a well-developed microfinance network, the programme uses these networks for recruiting purposes and offers alumni access to a range of finance options to help them grow their business.

In South Africa, University of Cape Town launched the Raymond Ackerman Academy 10,000 Women program which targets two social issues, increasing unemployment as well as the large and quickly growing youth population. The programme gives students the skills to help them pursue careers, further their studies or start their own business and is open to both women and men. University of Pretoria has a certificate programme for women which takes place for 16 days spread over 4 months and includes 6 months of mentorship, 6 months of community-based women entrepreneur dialogues and ongoing networking events.

In China, Tsinghua University has partnered with Yale to create the Yale-Tsinghua Certificate in Healthcare Management. The program aims to help female Chinese healthcare managers and officials attain knowledge, skills and networks necessary for continued growth in healthcare careers. The programme is looking to train around 500 female Chinese healthcare managers and officials.

In India, the Indian School of Business’ Women’s Entrepreneurs Certificate Programme has had over 550 women entrepreneurs who have successful completed the programme across Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. They also provide a system of mentorship both online and offline.

There are also a large number of signatory schools that have entrepreneurship programmes focused on women which are not part of the 10,000 Women initiative. International Business School in Lithuania in 2010 implemented a project “Promoting Entrepreneurship among Women in Georgia in the Context of Integration into the European Union.” The project was designed to contribute to Georgia’s economic and social development and programs. Promoting women’s entrepreneurship is seen as a preventive measure to reduce women’s unemployment and poverty levels as well as to contribute to one of the strategic goals of the Millennium Development project.

Filed under 3-Method, 5 Questions, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Peru, South Africa, United States Tagged with , , , , ,

MBA students impacting lives in developing countries – MBA+ Challenge Video Contest

11 February 2013 by Leave a comment

gbsn_MBA_Plus_challenge_logoAs we have seen in some of the recent blog posts on Primetime, contests present a growing number of opportunities for students to highlight their work and ideas in the area of sustainability on a global scale. The Global Business School Network (GBSN) has a yearly contest called the MBA+ Challenge Video Contest that especially focuses on how business students can impact lives in the developing world.

I recently had the chance to speak with the team at GBSN about this contest and what they are hoping to accomplish and highlight through it.

1.     Tell us a little bit about GBSN

GBSN addresses the severe shortage of skilled managers in the developing world. Here at the Global Business School Network, we believe that business education is essential to improving economic and social development in the developing world. We build local management education capacity through our international network of over 50 top business schools spanning 5 continents.

Our annual conference in Tunisia this coming June will also mark our 10th anniversary. At the conference, “Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship,” we will focus our attention on the role of business education in addressing the widespread challenges in employability and entrepreneurship for young people in the developing world.  More information is available at www.gbsnonline.org/2013.

 2.     What is the MBA+ Challenge Video Contest?

In order to capture and celebrate business students’ contributions in the developing world, GBSN holds our annual MBA+ Challenge Video Contest.  The challenge is to create a powerful video demonstrating how business students are utilizing their skills and education to impact lives in the developing world. For the first time we’ve opened the contest up to ALL business, management and entrepreneurship students and recent graduates (in the past 5 years) from around the globe – hence the “+”.

3.     What are the details of the contest?

The video should be no longer than 3 minutes, and can be produced and submitted by teams or individuals. First prize wins an all expense paid trip, for one team member, to GBSN’s Annual Conference in Tunis, Tunisia, June 10-12, 2013, where he or she will present the winning video. The winning teams will also be highlighted in the GBSN’s newsletter, website and Annual Conference program.

The producers of the top five videos, as determined by online voting, will each get the chance to have a mentoring session by Skype with an international leader in business or development. The contest will be open for submissions March 1st through the 31st. The online voting polls will be from April 1-14th. After the 5 finalists are chosen by votes, a panel of judges will then select the first, 2nd and 3rd place winners. This will be announced April 30th.

4.     What kind of videos are you hoping for? What were some of the highlights from past contests?

We want to see creativity, but more importantly, we want to see an impactful story.  Last year’s winner was a group from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Their video was inspired by the group’s participation in the “$300 House project.” A team of professors and students traveled to Fond des Blancs, Haiti to help the poverty stricken town improve living conditions. The team visited with families to better understand the problem, and came up with an architectural plan to build 100 houses over the span of five years.

Check out the rest of winning team member Jacqueline Stein’s blog post on nextbillion.net, where she shares her story of the project that inspired the winning video.

Link of winning video: http://youtu.be/rVKF8lOCRYo

Link to past winning videos: http://www.gbsnonline.org/?page=videos_mbachallenge

5.     What impact are you hoping that this will have?

We are hoping this contest will spotlight business students’ impact in developing countries. We also want to show other students, faculty and parts of the business education realm the positive impact that business education can make in addressing social and economic challenges. Our mission is to improve business education in the developing world in order to foster excellent leaders and managers. This contest is one way of demonstrating the mark that business students are making on the world.

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Energy and Sustainability in Business Schools – Business School response (part 2)

30 January 2013 by Leave a comment

clean_energyEnergy 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 the next couple of parts of this series we will look at some of these schools and what they are doing.

Reducing Energy Use on Campus

In 2012, Cotsakos College of Business  was named a finalist in the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards competition, which recognizes the most innovative climate leaders in the US. The university has embarked on several energy saving initiatives. In October 2010, the university opened what was then the largest solar energy facility on any university campus in the US. The initiative is projected to save an estimated $4.3 million in energy costs over the next 15 years, while also reducing the university’s carbon footprint.In the Netherlands, Rotterdam School of Management’s ‘Campus under Construction’ project, which is being implemented until 2028, focuses on modernizing the campus to make it more energy efficient. The university administration has been collaborating closely with both the city of Rotterdam and sustainability faculty concerning city planning and environmentally sustainable considerations. In 2013 a 15‐story building for international student housing, the Erasmus Plaza; a vibrant green esplanade; pedestrian‐avenue with underground parking; and the energy-neutral Erasmus Pavilion will be completed. Ashridge Business School in the UK switched in 2011 to a 100% renewable electricity supply contract.

Measuring the Carbon Footprint

One of the main efforts on campuses around energy is measuring and reducing their carbon footprint. Winchester Business School has a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per square meter by 30% below the 2006 levels by 2015. In 2011, the university set a target for carbon reduction of 43% by 2012. A growing number of schools are looking not just to reduce but to become carbon neutral. Pacific Lutheran University has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2020. In 2010 the university dropped its total energy costs by 10% by changing out light fixtures, adding motion sensors for lighting, and installing better insulation and window seals. Bentley University has made a commitment to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. The office of sustainability provides a website with information on Bentley’s current carbon footprint and an overview of their plans to reach this goal through energy system upgrades, green building and electronics recycling among other things. They have also constructed a 3,000 square foot solar thermal wall as part of the Athletic Center which traps heat from the sun. When the heating, ventilation and air conditioning is turned on, the air is pulled through the solar walls and is heated in the process requiring less energy to warm the air in a room.

Educating the campus about efforts

A large part of reducing energy use on campus is raising awareness of the issues with students and staff. In India, the Institute of Productivity and Management Green Initiative works to make its campus greener. They created ‘Save Energy’ guidelines which include conservation of water and electricity, which are widely distributed amongst staff and students. In Slovenia, the Faculty of Economics Eco Team encourages employees and students to get engaged by organizing and implementing a wide range of energy reduction activities. In Korea, Kyung Hee University ‘s Green Team also conducts a range of awareness raising activities and projects around Energy management and lighting efficiency across campus.

Taking part in International and National Initiatives

Another way that schools are raising awareness about these issues on campus is by participating in international energy related events. The University of Dubai takes part in Earth Hour every year on March 22nd. Students, faculty, and staff at UD signed up to participate in the world earth hour and participated by switching off the lights for one hour. Schulich School of Business also celebrate Earth Hour with their event ‘Earth Hour Every Hour’ in collaboration with IRIS, and the Ecologically Conscious Organization aims to provide environmental knowledge, and to inspire the creation of a future where waste and energy reduction are daily considerations. In France, Clean Tuesdays began as an association in 2008 to promote the development of Cleantech throughout France. On the first Tuesday of every month, an event or mini-conference is organized in a different location in France bringing together participants to share their expertise, their activities and their best practices in the field. Grenoble Ecole de Management is affiliated with this project and has hosted several Clean Tuesday events on campus.

Getting students engaged

Several schools, such as EADA in Spain, have student clubs focused on energy issues. At EADA, the Green Society is a voluntary student club for individuals who have an interest in Climate Change. Throughout the year the club organizes interactive seminars on the topics of Carbon Politics, New Sources of Energy, Creating a Low-Carbon Economy, and more. Grenoble Ecole de Management has a student engineer specialized in Quality, Security & Environmental analysis who is currently carrying out a comprehensive study of the School carbon footprint. The University of Victoria in Canada has instituted voluntary carbon-offset programs for students travelling as part of their exchange program.

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

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Canada, France, India, Korea, Netherlands, North America, Slovenia, Spain, UK, United Arab Emirates, United States

2012 International Year of Cooperatives and Management Education – Business Examples from Around the World (Part 2)

10 December 2012 by Leave a comment

Each year the United Nations identifies an issue of global importance and raises 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.

The World Co-operative Monitor launched in October 2012 ranks the 300 largest co-operative and mutual enterprises by turnover and provides a list of these organized by industry. The official website for the Year also provides a list of national cooperative associations organized by region. A few PRME professors shared their thoughts on top cooperative practices with us:

Leo Wang, Assistant Professor, School of Business, McEwan University, Canada: Mountain Equipment Co-op in Canada is a great example of an alternative business model that is built around leaving the world a better place than when we arrived. As both a cooperative and a business engaging in sustainable practices, it tries to champion sustainability in many different aspects (supply chain, internal processes, communications with consumers, etc.). For just $5 you can get a lifetime membership which gives you the right to vote. They now have over 3.3 million members.

Elizabeth Franklin-Johnson, Euromed Management, France & CEREFIGE, France: Sol à Sol is playing an important part in constructing the social economy as well as preserving nature. Selling organic fair-trade “Maté”, a traditional Argentinean drink, this cooperative offers rural workers in Argentina a chance to develop sustainably, have access to training and have a fair price for their products. From Sol à Sol’s base in Marseille, France, goods are packaged by employees in an environment which helps the social and professional integration of adults with disabilities. Sol à Sol has managed to combine the social, economic and environmental pillars into their business model, as well as having the additional ethical angle, all of which confirm their implication is sustainability, and in my mind ticks all the boxes!

Other examples recommended by faculty and students include;

  • Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain is a cooperative movement of workers that began in 1956 which has more than 83,000 employees and 9,000 students. 85% of its industrial workers are members.
  • Rabobank in the Netherlands was founded as a cooperative over 100 years ago by enterprising rural people who had virtually no access to capital markets. It has since grown in into an international financial service provider with a wide range of products. Its focus on sustainability revolves around four themes: safe and sustainable food supply, renewable energy and cleaner production, economic participation and access to finance for all and community involvement.
  • Unimed do Brasil is the largest private healthcare operator in the world. It also has the largest number of coops – 370 – which include 109,000 doctors and 3,029 accredited hospitals that provide care for more than 18 million customers.
  • Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative Union in Japan is an organization that started in 1965.  Initially, a single Tokyo housewife organized 200 women to buy 300 bottles of milk in order to reduce the price. It has since grown and now places an emphasis on direct producer/consumer links and is dedicated to the environment, empowerment of women and improvement of workers condition. Today, there are 600 consumer co-operatives with over 22 million members (almost a fifth of the country’s total population of 127 million) who buy a wide range of food products, clothing, publications and daily goods.

What other examples of cooperatives can you think of? Share them in the comments box below.

- This is part of a three part series on the International Year of Cooperatives. Part 3 will feature the response from business schools.

 

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, Latin America, Netherlands, North America, Spain, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , ,

A Toolkit for embedding Anti-Corruption guidelines into MBA curriculum

12 November 2012 by Leave a comment

Anti-Corruption Working Group Meeting in Rio 2012

The PRME Working Group on Anti-Corruption in Curriculum Change has developed an innovative new resource for integrating anti-corruption values into the core curricula of leading business schools. Launched at the 3rd Global Forum, the Anti-corruption guidelines for curriculum change, or Anti-Corruption “Toolkit,” is part of a four-year project dedicated to providing a teaching framework that prepares students for the ethical, moral, and practical challenges that they will face in the marketplace.

According to the project coordinators, Matthias Kleinhempel and Gabriel Cecchini of IAE Business School’s Center for Governance and Transparency in Argentina, “The toolkit provides guidance and step by step approaches on successful guidelines, methods, techniques, mechanisms and processes for effective changes in responsible management curricula. By drawing lessons and experiences from several sources around the world, the Toolkit describes various methodologies and strategies. The toolkit is easy to use, it is constantly being updated and can be adapted to local use.”

What will you find in the toolkit?

The toolkit utilizes a mix of core concept readings, detailed case discussions, primary sources and documents, and scenarios devised for class discussion. Each of the ten study modules includes a long list of resources that allow faculty of different countries to design a course that is appropriately suited to the necessities of his/her students. The modules include;

 (1)   Core Concepts: The recognition and framing of ethical dilemmas and social responsibility and their importance in strategic decision making.

(2)   Economics, Market Failure and Professional Dilemmas:Economics and market failure in its various forms and how it is manifested in corruption.

(3)   Legislation, Control by Law, Agency and Fiduciary Duty: Many questions of agency leading to corruption arise from improper gifts, side deals and conflicts of interest.

(4)   Why Corruption, Behavioral Science: This module addresses the question: What does Behavioral Science teach us about how to design a performance incentive system that encourages integrity as well as productivity?

(5)   Gifts, Side Deals and Conflicts of Interest: Legislation and cases to understand gifts, side deals, and conflicts of interest and thelying and obfuscation that is often used to conceal them.

(6)   International Standards and Supply Chain Issues: Frameworks and analytic methods for discussing the problems that companies face in the need to respect moral standards across borders, local customs (e.g., giving and receiving gifts) and bribery.

(7)   Managing Anti-Corruption Issues: Designing, implementing, and overseeing corporate ethics and compliance systems in response to local and global compliance regimes.

(8)   Functional Department and Collective Action Roles in Combating Corruption: The functional departments examined include human resources, marketing, accounting and finance.

(9)   Truth and Disclosure, Whistle blowing and Loyalty: These topics raise issues of timing and context as towhat point and under what circumstances an agent or employee is permitted to blow the whistle on corruption.

(10)   The Developing Global Anti corruption Compliance Regime: Topics include (a)global public policy principles and how are they promoted/enforced and (b) links between corruption and forms of state failure such as deprivation of human rights and environmental degradation.

How can others use this resource?

The basic idea of the Toolkit is to present a buffet of ideas and resources on how to take education on anti-corruption to the next level. It presents up-to-date content in a comprehensive way and supports its delivery in the classroom. Faculty can choose those elements deemed most useful in revising their curriculum or creating a new stand-alone course. The corresponding chapters outline their importance, define learning goals and questions, provide a listing of relevant literature, cases and dilemmas address.

Who is currently implementing this project?

More than ten schools are currently involved in the pilot phase of the Toolkit. Taking place in the second half of 2012 and first half of 2013, this process will enable adaptation of lesson for local use and improve core elements. The participating pilot schools include HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration (Germany), University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur (Switzerland), Bangalore University (India), IAE Business School (Argentina), Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), AESE Business School (Portugal), Lagos Business School (Nigeria), Silesian University of Technology (Poland), Faculty of Business Management – Open University (Tanzania), and Audencia Nantes School of Management (France).

How can others get involved?

Once the pilot phase concludes in the first half of 2013 and the feedback from pilot schools has been received and processed, the Toolkit will be openly available to all interested institutions around the world through an online platform. In early 2013 we will post some further blogs with some of the lessons learnt from this process.

The toolkit will also be presented by Ron Berenbeim of NYU Stern and a member of the PRME working group at the upcoming International Anti-Corruption Conference.

You can access the toolkit online.

Filed under 3-Method, 6-Dialogue, Argentina, Asia, Denmark, Eastern Europe and CIS, France, Germany, Global, India, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Tanzania, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Integrating Poverty into Management Education: 10 questions with Milenko Gudic about the PRME Working Group on Poverty (Part 2 of 2)

14 September 2012 by 2 Comments

Al Rosenbloom and Milenko Gudić, Working Group coordinators, meeting to design the 2010 CEEMAN/PRME Survey on Poverty. The idea of developing socially responsible management students who might address the issue of poverty originated from a discussion with Al in 2006

The PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education (Anti-Poverty Working Group), launched in 2008, advocates for the integration of poverty-related discussion into all levels of management education worldwide. It is grounded in the belief that poverty is a legitimate topic for discussion and research in business schools and that business can and should be a catalyst for innovative, profitable and responsible approaches to poverty reduction.

According to the PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group, “Business schools, as the main providers of educational services, need to exchange views and ideas, collaborate and develop new ways and means to sustainable development and the development of responsible leadership for a better world. In this context, fighting poverty is not only one of the major Millennium Development Goals, but also a big challenge for management education.”

I recently had the chance to speak with Milenko Gudic, IMTA Managing Director at CEEMAN and the co-facilitator of the Working Group, about their current and future activities. (To read Part 1 of this interview click here.)

6.     You have developed a collection of best practices. What are your plans for this?

The Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions that we presented as one of the Working Group’s deliverables for the 3rd PRME Global Forum and Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum is only an embryo of the future online platform for sharing experience on how to integrate poverty-related issues into management teaching. The collection encompasses 13 different inputs related to educational content and processes, including new cases, articles, books, up-to-date course designs, programme development materials, and partnership arrangements with other learning partners. Through the open access platform, faculty and business schools from around the world will have the opportunity to learn from and also contribute to this output. We are happy that there is an increasing interest for both learning and contributing. The latter is particularly encouraging.

7.     What are some examples from the collection of solutions?

In conceptualizing and designing our survey, we followed to some extent the approach from the UNDP Growing Inclusive Market Initiative (GIM). This project developed more than 100 cases on specific solutions that business developed to address the main constraints they face in low-income markets. Each of them offers interesting learning lessons, while all of them remind us once again that business schools are lagging behind businesses in responding to market needs and opportunities.

Our Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions provides equally interesting and inspirational solutions on how to integrate poverty-related issues into management education. One of these solutions, GLOBE (Global Loan Opportunities for Budding Entrepreneurs), by Linda Sama from St. John’s University, received the 2012 Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award from the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division and McGraw Hill in recognition of the development and implementation of a social entrepreneurship course. GLOBE is a student-managed microloan programme that provides loans, sourced through donations, to entrepreneurs in the world’s most impoverished communities with the goal of helping those living in poverty elevate themselves to a higher standard of living.

8.     Is there a growing interest in this area?

In presenting the survey/report results to undergraduate students, participants at different MBA, MSc and doctoral programmes, and faculty members at Bocconi University and SDA in Milan, Italy, and ISM-University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania, I witnessed tremendous interest in this area, from both the the schools, student, and faculty champions. I have found it very encouraging.

Recently, the 2012 Academy of Management, held this August in Boston, enlisted the session on the Informal Economy, Poverty and Responsible Management Education as one of the All Academy Theme events. The discussion there was filled with passion about what business schools could and should do in fighting poverty.

Turning this passion into action is what the Working Group, with support from PRME and CEEMAN, has been trying to facilitate and will continue to do so in the future. That is our mission and passion, too. It is really a great privilege and pleasure to collaborate with and learn from so many outstanding professionals and wonderful personalities.

9.     What changes do you think business schools can make to play their part in fighting poverty?

Business schools in general need to redefine the “business of business education”. By establishing a regular and meaningful external dialogue, they will better understand the challenges and the resulting educational expectations and needs of their major stakeholders, particularly businesses and students.

Related to this is also the need to establish and maintain a continuous internal dialogue among faculty and institutional leadership, particularly around the issues that go beyond individual disciplines. This is important for the creation of new intellectual, research, educational and institutional agenda that schools worldwide need.

The most effective way to deal with all this is through faculty development. This is an absolute priority and precondition for any other change. The experience of the CEEMAN’s International Management Teachers Academy (IMTA), a faculty development programme aimed at creating a new generation of management educators for the new generation of business leaders, confirms that it works. By educating 450 management faculty, IMTA has made an impact on 135 institutions in 37 countries around the world. The new disciplinary track on how to teach the issues related to business in society will include also the issue of poverty.

10.  What’s next for the Working Group and how can others get involved?

Following our vision statement and the general frame of work that we agreed upon when the group was established, and building on the work done so far, our current priorities include:

  • Further building the case for businesses and management development institutions to include poverty-related issues into their respective strategies and programmes. Promoting the Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solution and contributing to its further growth and development into an online platform for experience sharing among management educators around the globe.
  • Producing new deliverables for the 2013 PRME Summit, which CEEMAN will host in September 2013 in Bled, Slovenia.

To facilitate achieving these priorities, the Working Group will organize an international conference/workshop on Fighting Poverty thorough Management Education in conjunction with the PRME 2013 Summit, which will provide for sharing and reviewing the work in progress. The event will be open for all those who are interested in the topic of integrating poverty-related issues into management education, including from PRME movement and beyond.

Equally open will be the upcoming call for contribution to the two books that the Working Group is now beginning, which will be published in cooperation with PRME, CEEMAN and Greenleaf Publishing. One of them will be on the question of WHY poverty-related issues in management education, and the other on the question HOW.

For more information about the working group and to participate please contact Milenko Gudic at milenko.gudic@iedc.si or prmesecretariat@unprme.org. 

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe and CIS, Global, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , ,

Integrating Poverty into Management Education: 10 questions with Milenko Gudic about the PRME Working Group on Poverty (Part 1 of 2)

10 September 2012 by 4 Comments

Designing the CEEMAN/PRME Global Survey for Rio, July 2011, Bled, Slovenia

The PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education (Anti Poverty Working Group), launched in 2008, advocates for the integration of poverty-related discussion into all levels of management education worldwide. It is grounded in the belief that poverty is a legitimate topic for discussion and research in business schools and that business can and should be a catalyst for innovation, profitable and responsible approaches to poverty reduction.

According to the PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group, “Business schools, as the main providers of educational services, need to exchange views and ideas, collaborate and develop new ways and means to sustainable development and the development of responsible leadership for a better world. In this context, fighting poverty is not only one of the major Millennium Development Goals, but also a big challenge for management education”.

I recently had the chance to speak with Milenko Gudic, IMTA Managing Director at CEEMAN and co-facilitator of the Working Group, about their current and future activities.

1. Why was the working group created and who is involved?

The suggestion to  establish the Anti-Poverty Working Group came from the PRME Secretariat after the 1st Global Forum for Responsible Management Education in 2008, where the results of the CEEMAN-sponsored global Survey on Management Education: Corporate Social Responsibility and Poverty were presented. The survey, which received 164 responses from faculty and administrators from business schools in 33 countries, demonstrated that it was possible to mobilise management educators around the world to address the question of what business schools, the institutions that create business leaders, could do to help achieve one of the main Millennium Development Goals, poverty alleviation.

Because this project and CEEMAN‘s value platform resonated with the mission of PRME, the Working Group was launched and, in 2010, CEEMAN became a PRME Steering Committee member. CEEMAN now represents a network of more than 200 management development institutions from 51 countries around the globe and continues to support the Working Group, which as grown to include nearly 100 members from 75 institutions in 37 countries representing all the continents.

2. Why did you decide to start the survey?

The 2012 survey is the third in a series. While the 2008 survey showed that 72% of respondents believed that global poverty was a legitimate topic to be included in the management education curriculum, the 2010 CEEMAN/PRME Survey on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education, which gathered 377 responses from 51 countries, sought to capture innovation and creativity in integrating poverty-related issues into management education. Asked about how they teach about poverty, the respondents said that they preferred action learning rather than theory, and the use of consulting projects and student study trips in order to engage their students. Respondents also indicated that the integration of poverty-related issues into management education requires a broader agreement among school’s faculty and administration, which was not identified as common place.

These results informed the focus of the third survey on challenges, opportunities and solutions. Expected interest in the results by both the management education and business communities resulted in additional support from the International Association of Quality Assessment and EQUAL (the European Quality Link), a network sponsored by PRME Steering Committee member EFMD.

Further encouragement for the solution-focus of this survey/report was the invitation extended by the PRME Secretariat and UN Global Compact Office to present the results on the occasion of the 3rd Global Forum and the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum.

3. What role does management education play in fighting poverty?

Not as strong as it could and should be. Fighting poverty is just one part of a bigger story. In general, business schools need to take a more proactive role in educating responsible leaders for sustainable development and a better world. This is their social responsibility, though it is not yet so widely recognised and/or accepted.

CEEMAN’s Survey on Business Schools’ Response to Global Crisis, carried out in 2009, indicated that business schools perceived the current global crisis not only as financial, but rather as an economic, social, and ethical and moral crisis. When asked about their own responsibility for the crisis, the schools were very reluctant to admit any. The reason being, as the schools stated, that their students and participants came to them with already formed values and attitudes, which business schools cannot change. Even a glance at business schools’ missions and marketing messages would lead to finding the statement a bit hypocritical.

4. What are some of the most interesting results from the Fighting Poverty through Management Education Reports?

The key message from the whole series of surveys is that, in spite of a number of challenges, there are also huge opportunities and already numerous solutions. In this respect, it is important to notice that the presence of one or two faculty champions, strong leadership from the dean and congruence with the business school’s mission are among the key factors that make a difference. It is the same as with any other attempt to make change happen.

Equally, if not even more importantly (at least for me personally), were the findings related to faculty and administrators’ perceptions of market expectations and preferences regarding the inclusion of the poverty-related issues in management education. Instead of accepting the assumption that businesses, and therefore students, are not interested in the topic, the results may instead be interpreted as a sign of insufficient identification of the customer needs and/or lack of dialogue with the major stakeholders.

Of course, the most encouraging are the results that demonstrate high commitment, passion, and capabilities of faculty and administration to find creative and innovative solutions to the challenges they face.

5. What are some of the challenges that were identified in this area?

Amon the main challenges is still the question of the topic’s legitimacy. In turn, this is related to other important issues, including the very understanding of the term “poverty.” What does “poverty” actually mean? We must also overcome prevailing mindsets and attitudes about this issue, address the existence of a “silo mentality”, and recognise the primacy of the quantitative disciplines. There is the additional challenge of integrating new things into an already “over-packed” curriculum and finding qualified experts whose teaching would be based on relevant research. Finally, we must find a method to address external incentives from the major international accreditation and ranking systems and schemes.

- Part 2 will be posted September 14th-

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5 Questions, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe and CIS, Global, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , ,

Communicating your work with stakeholders

30 July 2012 by Leave a comment

Having a strong sustainability plan is one thing, but it is equally important to be able to communicate your sustainability related activities to a variety of audiences in an effective way. Here are four examples of different approaches taken by business schools from Canada, Brazil, the UK and the Philippines in communicating their work in the field of sustainability to internal and external partners.

Rachel Goldsworthy, Coordinator at the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation at the University of Victoria Peter B. Gustavson School of Business in Canada started a CSSI Communique. This short email, which goes out to faculty and staff across the university every two weeks, outlines a range of interesting research, publications, news items and websites that could be of interest to faculty looking to incorporate sustainability into their curricula and daily classroom activities. “Regularly sharing educational resources with faculty members is one of the key initiatives of the Centre. It goes hand in hand with another key initiative, which is to ensure that sustainability and/or social responsibility are included in every educational offering at Gustavson. By keeping it brief (a page), and providing links (instead of entire articles or reports), we hope that professors can easily follow up on the items that interest them.”

Fondação Dom Cabral regularly produces a Sustainability Committee Information Report that highlights the activities carried out by each working group linked to the Sustainability Committee. There is also an online intranet portal dedicated to updating the university community on sustainability topics on campus.

 

 

Cranfield School of Management’s Knowledge Interchange ‘KI Online’ is an online platform that is constantly updated with faculty interviews, podcasts, opinion pieces, books, topical issue reviews and commentary by faculty, as well as relevant research. It is used for their international Executive Education provision of blended learning for customised programmes, which are run in more than 30 countries around the world.

 

Faculty at the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business in the Philippines write a column focusing on socially responsible business in The Manila Times entitled “Managing for Society,” which has been running weekly since 2005. Faculty members write for the column by rotation, focusing on various social responsibility themes. The school also has regular weekly columns in Business World and Manila Standard Today.

How do you communicate your work in the field of sustainability to stakeholders both inside and outside the university? Share your examples in the comments area below.

Filed under 6-Dialogue, Asia, Brazil, Canada, Latin America, North America, Philippines, UK, Western Europe Tagged with , , , , , ,

Creating a Global Gender Equality Repository for Management Education

27 June 2012 by 2 Comments

 

I had the chance to speak with Patricia Flynn from Bentley University and Maureen Kilgour from the University of St-Boniface, co-facilitators of the PRME Working Group on Gender Equality. The Working Group, launched in 2011, aims to provide support and resources for integrating gender issues and awareness into management education and recently launched their Global Gender Equality Resource Repository at the 3rd Global Forum in Rio. Here are five questions with Maureen and Patricia about the project.

1.     How did the working group on Gender Equality come about?

In March 2010, the UN Global Compact and UNIFEM (now part of UN Women) launched the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to “help the private sector focus on key elements integral to promoting gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community”. In January 2011, in response to this new initiative, PRME hosted a Human Rights Webinar focused on considering the relevance of the WEPs for the academic community and highlighting the importance of embedding gender issues into business school curricula around the world. The PRME Working Group on Gender Equality launched with a mission to bring together academics and employers to provide support and resources for integrating gender issues and awareness into management education, business school curricula, and related research to facilitate respect and support for the WEPs and PRME. We currently have more than 30 members, both men and women, from 15 countries, actively participating in this group.

2. Why have a working group on Gender Equality?

Gender (in)equity has a long history in business schools and in the workplace, and traditions are hard to change. Across disciplines, the scope and quantity of materials relevant to integrating gender issues into the curriculum varies widely. Case materials on women leaders and managers are still rare, and faculty are often unaware of how to access the related materials that do exist.

In recent years, issues around gender have been focused on issues of the (under)representation of female faculty and administrators and the (under)representation of female students in particular disciplines. The response has been adoption of policies that improve hiring processes, recruiting more female students and introducing specific courses on issues that address gender. While these initiatives are critical and important, they have done little to change how gender and gender (in)equality are addressed (taught, managed, discussed and tackled) in management education. For this reason, in initiatives such as the PRME Working Group, it is important to go beyond the paradigms of “equal opportunity” and diversity management to a more thorough integration of gender equality into management education.

3. What is the Global Gender Equality Resource Repository project?

In order to help promote and expedite the integration of gender issues in management education, the working group, in collaboration with PRME Steering Committee member AACSB, is creating a Global Gender Equality Resource Repository. The Repository will identify materials and resources that will assist faculty in integrating gender issues and awareness into a variety of disciplines and fields. These will include, for example, specific case studies, syllabi, texts, and best practices that assess or otherwise address the role of gender in various educational and workplace environments.

Currently, the Repository has 13 disciplinary subgroups, including Accounting and Finance, Corporate Governance, Corporate (Social) Responsibility, Economics, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, History and Anthropology, Law, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Negotiation and Operations Management. Materials for each subgroup are developed by small groups of volunteers from around the world.

There are many faculty who already have excellent examples of how to integrate various aspects of gender into their courses. What we want to do is bring all of this information into one location, so that others can use it to integrate these issues across their curricula. The working group will also be working with professional academic associations to expand the breadth and depth of materials they create and/or promote.

The platform launched at Rio+20 during the PRME Global Forum on June 15, 2012.

4. What is next for the working group and the repository?

The response to the platform has been amazing since before it was even launched! We have had quite a bit of interest, not just from faculty, but from different academic networks as well as the business sector, NGOs and local government. The project will start with a focus on teaching materials, and then later in the year, we will be looking at posting materials dedicated to research. In the near future, we would also like to explore the context and culture of management education generally and the hidden issues of gender within business and management education.

We will also have a session at the upcoming Academy of Management Annual Meeting in August 2012 focused on the PRME General Equality Working Group and Repository.

What is also exciting about the repository is that it could be used as a model for other disciplines and working groups to provide resources in their fields.

5. How can others get involved?

There are several ways that others can get involved in this project:

  • Join the PRME Working Group on Gender Equality
  • Provide resources that you use or that you have developed to be added to the repository
  • Identify a new disciplinary subgroup and volunteer to coordinate it
  • Join an existing subgroup

To join the Working Group, send an email to PRMESecretariat@unprme.org. For more information on the Global Resource Repository or to share resources, please contact Maureen (mkilgour@ustboniface.mb.ca) and Patricia (pflynn@bentley.edu). To access the repository visit http://prmegenderequalityworkinggroup.unprme.wikispaces.net/Welcome+to+the+Wikispace

Filed under 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe and CIS, Global, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Teaching, Western Europe Tagged with ,

Outcomes of the 3rd Global Forum, 14-15 June, Brazil

19 June 2012 by Leave a comment

The 3rd PRME Global Forum on 14-15 June 2012 was the official platform for management-related Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) at Rio+20 – the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – and the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum, hosted by the UN Global Compact.  A series of measures to inject sustainability principles into management and business school curricula were announced at the Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this past week. They include:

The Rio Declaration on the Contribution of Higher Education Institutions and Management Schools to The Future We Want: A Roadmap for Management Education to 2020: 300 leading business school and university representatives worldwide agreed on a number of concrete commitments to action, including to:

  • Form a leadership group to incentivize the most engaged PRME signatory schools to go further in their implementation of sustainability principles.
  • Delist those signatories that fail to regularly share information on progress made in implementing PRME.
  • Launch PRME Regional Chapters to better engage management education communities on a local level.

A Practical Guide to the United Nations Global Compact for Higher Education: Offers guidelines for higher education institutions in implenting the ten principles of the Un Global Compact withint the orgniazation and then leading their global adoption (UN Global Compact Workshing Group)

Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Provides answers to the most frequently  asked questions concerning the implementation of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and seeks to inspire further integration of PRME by highlighting examples of the Principles in pactice in signatory schools and universities (PRME).

Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions: Identifies main challenges and opportunities faced by business faculty and administrators in integrating poverty issues into their courses, programmes, modules and curricula based on the results of a global survey, which collected 435 responses from 70 countries. The report also introduces a collection of best practices of inspirational solutions that will be dveloped into an interactive platform. (PRME)

Anti-Corruption Guidelines (“Toolkit”) for MBA Curriculum Change: Provids a toolkit to incporate anti-corruption into curriculum bof business schools and management-related academic institutions. The toolkit provides a list of topics and conetent, which instructors can use to organize satnd-alone courses or individual course modules. (PRME)

Gender Equality Global Resource Repository: Assists faculty in integrating gender issues into management education by providing an invientory of case studies, syllabi, text books, best practices, related research, search engines and organizations that address gender-related topics contributed by faculty from around the world. The Reporistory is a searchable web-based resource that encompasses a wide range of disci;pliens incluidng busines,s arts & sciences and professional fields. (PRME)

Corporate Responsibility and Responsible Management Education in the Eyes of MBA Students: Presents the results of a survey on perspectives and attitudes towards corporate resonsibility and management education copleted by 1,200 MBA and business students from around the world. The results – which demonstrate a growing commitment to responsible management – and their implications on management education are also analysed. (Macquarie Graduate School of Management/PRME)

The 50+20 Agenda: Management Education for the World: Presents the vision of the 50+20 project, which seeks to demonstrate how management education con contribute to a more sustainable  future. The report outlines steps for business and management schools to: educate and develop globally responsible leaders; enable businesses to serve the common good; and engage in the transformation of business and the economy. (WBCSB/GRLI/PRME)

Filed under 1-Purpose, 2-Values, 3-Method, 4-Research, 5-Partnership, 6-Dialogue, Anti-Corruption, Asia, Australasia, Business, Campus Greening, Eastern Europe and CIS, Global, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America, Rio+20, Service-Based Learning, Student, Teaching, Western Europe

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