Business Schools: Educating our Future Business Leaders

This is the age of the environment; this is the age of biodiversity and the need to protect all living things, this is the age when businesses are seriously looking at their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in a sensible profitable light and making the changes that will enhance every one of their stakeholders. This is the age of the triple bottom line.

Companies are now not only judged on their economic performance, but also on their impact on the environment and to be fair to society as a whole. The consumers of our planet basically said “enough” and started to demonstrate their power as a buyer via more ethical purchases.

Businesses around the world are now becoming concerned about the affect they, as an organisation are having on the planet, and so business education has begun to acknowledge the impact sustainability will have on skills and knowledge.

The Association of Business Schools represents 118 business schools across the United Kingdom. It has publicly stated that the important development for the future of management education, is to ensure that sustainability is fully integrated through the whole education offering.

Wisconsin, USA has this month made headway on the $54 million first phase of the Wisconsin Energy Institute on the main campus of the University of Wisconsin. The Energy Institute will house research facilities for renewable energies and Bio-fuels.

The University of Exeter Business School in the United Kingdom has launched its one planet MBA, which includes an understanding of how business planning must take into account the earth’s rapidly diminishing resources. This Masters of Business Administration is delivered in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) the well known global conservation organisation.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), is a global teaching and training organisation, that has an excellent reputation throughout all sectors and markets. They know that customers are interested in sustainability and that marketers, as the employees closest to the customer must make a difference. The Triple bottom line is taught via the CIM as a robust framework for companies to become sustainable without adversely affecting the financial bottom line. Indeed effective marketing strategies that communicate a company’s efforts and achievements within this field often makes economical sense as the consumer will be able to see an ethical difference in that particular product or service.

It would appear that business schools know that they can no longer ignore the issues of sustainability and the triple bottom line when they are designing their curricula. In one report a climate change expert Dr. Chris Hope at Judge Business School (Cambridge, England) said “you cannot have a successful economy if you have a devastated environment”.

It would now appear that the business schools around the world are moving in the right direction. It is a comforting thought that our future business leaders are being taught the importance of their business decisions. If we are to alter our course of action in terms of our environmental and social impact, then we must do this through education, education, education