Business School Leadership for a Sustainable, Flourishing, and Regenerating World (original) (raw)
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The business of business is mutual cooperation for sustainable development
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society
urrently, shrinking economies are encountering economies with unprecedented growth rates. Neither accounts for the costs involved in the support of nature and the environment, or the societal and ethical costs of hunger and obesity. Such a stance is irrational. Ignoring ecological consequences and side effects speaks against logic, even an economic one. Corporate financial disclosure might cover important areas of a given enterprise's value; they are blind, however, to the ecological and social costs. Most critical are the risks that the people in charge know nothing about, as opposed to those they deliberately ignore. This means that the concept of the "triple bottom line" 1 is dead. Historically, the concept claimed the turf of the shareholder value in the sustainability debate and politics. Advanced corporate politics, however, is beginning to abandon this line of thinking. Corporations are experimenting with improved approaches that calculate the full costs and losses of their business model and the full societal benefits, including the supply chain, and even the lifecycle of goods and services. "Big data" technology will allow and probably demand full data access. As yet the vision of joint and several data disclosure and accountability may seem far-fetched. It is not. Economic thinking in the Anthropocene needs to catch up with the challenges of climate change and sustainability politics. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) tell a story about the possibility of a better future and about the universality of the idea of a better future. This story runs counter to the atmosphere of fear and conflict in today's world, and it runs counter to the narrow and self-centered way the mainstream economy is being interpreted today. This story is in the middle of the road, though the road is bumpy and steep. The implementation of SDGs and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development lies with the national states, but it is open to all entities. The SDGs suggest the importance of two simple circumstances: one, we have neighbors all over the world, regardless of how far away the actual borders are. Two, any company's license to operate is linked to much broader social interaction than traditional corporatism still wants us to believe. Steering the next economy and entrepreneurial leadership towards sustainability will require more research and engagement. Well-resourced and meaningful participation is a key factor. Selling dystopia or preaching gloom and doom scenarios belong to yesterday. As it is also shown in this special issue, a transformation to a sustainable economy is about new business and consumer practices, with no one left behind. It requires the testing of institutional and cultural framework conditions that make it possible for research and practice to devise and develop solutions that address the deep-seated causes of non-sustainability. We need a new interface between the principle of innovation and the principle of environmental precaution to respond to the urgency and the potential of the SDGs. This interface must be science-based, people-centered and carried out through visionary politics.
Now What for the World’s Business Schools?
Journal of Management for Global Sustainability, 2017
Our species faces the greatest challenge it has ever faced: how to transform the currently dominant global producing-distributingconsuming system from one that is destroying the planet's capacity to support our species into one that will enable our species and all others to continue to exist and "flourish forever" (in the words of John Ehrenfeld), "heal a broken world" (in the words of the Jesuit Task Force Report on Ecology), and achieve "integral ecology," "care for the vulnerable," and "care for our common home" (in the words and subtitle of Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si'). The system in which we live is clearly broken. It is continuously and increasingly damaging all aspects of the global ecosystem, creating almost unheard of levels of income and wealth inequality across the globe, bringing about climate change, global warming, and weather weirding that impact every area of the world, and marshaling in the sixth great extinction.
Shifting the Collective Awareness, Towards a Holistic Economic Paradigm
We are at a crossroads where the current modern age is coming to an end and a transition towards something else is being painfully born, paraphrasing the former Czech president Vaclav Havel. Our current economic system has failed to deliver, ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers’, on the contrary, it has brought depression; burnout and suicide as widespread phenomenon in today’s industrialised societies. To keep the world economies growing means that global consumers are devouring the Earth’s resources at a pace that is faster than the capacity of the planet to regenerate them, using the equivalent to 1.5 planets in a year3. According to recent studies, If we continue with the current trend, there will be catastrophic and foreseeable consequences, such as the collapse of civilisation. Some of the reasons behind this collapse the study (H.A.N.D.Y.) gives are, unsustainable resource exploitation and the increasingly unequal wealth distribution.
Message from the President of EABIS—The Academy of Business in Society
Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 2012
I would like to express my gratitude to the Business and Professional Ethics Journal for enabling the publication of this Special Issue on the occasion of the ten-year anniversary of the Academy. Particular recognition goes to Mollie Painter-Morland, EABIS Academic Director, and the Special Issue editors, David Bevan and Geert Demuinjk, for their leadership in facilitating this process. We also greatly appreciate the excellent teamwork between our central team in the Brussels office and the Philosophy Documentation Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. This volume acknowledges the progress that has been made in the last ten years in our journey towards sustainable globalisation, while raising important questions about the scale and scope of the business contribution. This agenda has continuously expanded, despite some early worries that it would prove to be a passing fad. Yet it has also become clear that the agenda has become more and more challenging, since it requires systemic change, across multiple sectors, involving multiple partners. In the next decade we need to work even harder to accomplish the sea-change that is required. A lot has changed in management education, both in teaching and in research, but despite these encouraging developments, we are still falling behind. As a result, the gap between where we need to be and the reality of management practice is growing bigger. This is no time to slow down, in fact, we need to speed up the process. We hope that this Special Issue will mark the occasion of more of us working with an increased sense of urgency.
For sustainable development in a rapidly changing world
2019
Dr Gaia Grant is an honorary associate lecturer and researcher at the University of Sydney Business School in the Discipline of Strategy, Innovation, the Managing Director of Tirian International Consulting and the author of a number of books including ‘The Innovation Race’. Professor Martin Dowson is a Doctor of Psychology and Director of Academic Development at Excelsia College also completing a doctoral dissertation on Philosophy at Macquarie University, Professor Eric Knight is Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research and Engagement at the University of Sydney, and Professor Suresh Cuganesan is Associate Dean of Research at the University of Sydney Business School.
E S S A Y .125 Global Sustainability: How can Business Schools Contribute
At the recent (April 2008) UNICON (Universities Consortium) conference held at Melbourne Business School's Mt Eliza executive education campus I was given the role of facilitating a morn-ing's session on global sustainability. We were fortunate in that we had two excellent speakers to set the scene, William Kininmonth, science advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute and former head of Australia's National Climate Centre, and Kate Vinot, General Manager, Corporate Strategy for South East Water, one of Melbourne's major water organisations. William Kininmonth argued that Humankind faces real problems but human-caused global warming is not one. However he claims that climate will change faster than we are prepared for and that water, renewable energy and food production are each regulated by changing climate. He also warned us that human survival is at threat and this is more to do with misunderstood science and misguided policies and that survival requires different policies to those for sustainability. Examples he gave was the current thinking that Geosequestration (burying) CO2 to burn fossil fuels (non-renewable) faster was not a good answer, nor is the redirection of agricultural practices so that Bio-fuels replace food crops to the detriment of the world's poor. Environment policies focus on reducing CO2 emission rather than clean air, clean water, ecosystem preservation, etc Kate Vinot argued that how business schools can contribute to global sustainability issues is by first building the capacity of organisations and individuals to grow shareholder value; secondly, and more particularly, by being the thought leaders on sustainability issues; and finally, to develop tools for sustaining organisational value for the longer term. To her sustainability means business school's addressing what are the: Direct impacts on many businesses Indirect impacts on many businesses Presents material opportunities and risks for sustained shareholder value Needs to be embraced as part of core business strategy and change management
Recent Structural, Behavioral, Trade and Technological Changes are Shaping and Structuring the 21st century. These changes include : - The emergence of the Cognitive Era. - The Personalization Age. - The Diversity Age featured by the simultaneous emergence of Life Style Diversity driven by Female's 21st century, Income Diversity, Business Diversity, Age Diversity, Ethnicity Diversity, Spatial Diversity and Market Diversity as 95 % of the global market is now outside of the US. - The New Geograpghy of Wealth, Cities, Innovation and Economic Activities. - The Green and Clean Revolutions of the 90s and 2000s. - The Century of Urbanization driven by the rapid urbanization of the developing world on the one hand and the shift away from the Carbon-intensive and Routinized Industrial City Model to the Creative, Clean, Safe, Smart, Connected, Personalized, Decentralized and Advanced Manufacturing City Model in the North. - The shift away from the Internet Revolution of the 50s and 80s so called Emerging and Growth stages of IT to the current Maturity stage of IT so called Industrial Internet of Things Revolution featured by the integration of sensors and data collection in all industrial equipment on the one hand and emergence of Artificial Intelligence on the second hand. - The shift away from the State-centric Capitalism, Democracy and Diplomacy to the Citizen-centric, Network-centric, Corporate-centric and City-centric Capitalism, Democracy and Diplomacy. - The shift away from Carbon-intensive and Routinized Industrial Capitalism to the Service-oriented, Knowledge-intensive, Clean, Smart, Connected, Green and Advanced Manufacturing Capitalism.As a result, these above changes have stimulated the emergence of Price-sensitive, Fast-changing, Fast-growing, Fast-moving, Hypercomplexity, Hyper Vulnerability, Hyper connectivity, Hyper mobility, Hyper volatility and Hyper Competitive World Economy. Therefore, regarded to the correlation within Structural, Behavioral, Trade and Technological Changes and Management Life Cycle, these above changes and their implications are accelerating the shift away from Scientific Management driven by the Newtonian Sciences to the New Management Era driven by Complexity and Cognitive Sciences. Accordingly, and regarded to the correlation within Radical Innovation and Marketing Life Cycle, the above changes and their implications are accelerating the shift away from the Mass Marketing that did support the Industrial Revolution of the 20th century to simultaneous adoption of Stakeholder-centric , Customer-centric, Employee-centric, City-centric, Ethically-oriented, Location-based, Real-time and Risk-centric Marketing Mix. By so doing, compared to the Old Business Model that helped Corporates only maximize the profit of their stakeholders at the expense of their Customers, Employees and Environmental, Spatial (cities), Ethical and Societal issues, the adoption of This New Business Model could make it easier for the Corporate to simultaneously create values for their Stakeholders, Customers, Employees, Environment, Cities, Society and the World. Furthermore, This New Business could accelerate the shift away from the current Growth Stage of Capitalism where Corporate is sometimes wrongly perceived as Problem to the Maturity stage of Capitalism where Corporate will become the driver of the build of Inclusive, Personalized, Flexible, Clean, Green, Safe, Smart, Connected, Prosperous and Sustainable Workforce, Corporates, Cities, Nations and the World. However, as the Nature, despite its Hypercomplexity, Hyper Vulnerability, Hyper Competitive, Hyper connectivity, Hyper mobility, Hyper volatility, Fast-moving, Fast-growing, Fast-changing Environment has been able to build an Inclusive, Personalized, Flexible, Clean,Green, Safe, Smart, Connected, Prosperous and Sustainable Ecosystem, this New Management Era could become a Bio-inspired Management Era because it'll inspire itself from the Tools, Strategy and Methodologies of the Nature.