SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Business schools can breathe new life into society by training managers and entrepreneurs to humanise companies through focusing on the people who lie at the heart of the commercial environment. Ernesto Barrera Duque and Cindy Paola Pinzón Rios from Inalde Business School elaborate A major challenge for business schools is the need to inspire their students to become agents of change, acting as a force for social transformation through their management and business practices. Just as trees oxygenate our planet, business schools oxygenate their spheres of influence: training people, sensitively, to enact responsible management. This comes not just from ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills, but from the willingness to make a difference through utilising humility and good judgement in business decisions and an awareness of the consequences of those decisions. What kind of oxygenation of society might business schools wish to enact? The answer lies in reflecting on and rethinking the purpose of training managers and entrepreneurs. This involves not just the transmission and application of technical and practical knowledge, but helping managers and entrepreneurs to become ‘the lungs’ for the humanisation of society and business through the cultivation of human values and virtues. This oxygenation rests, therefore, on the construction of a mentality that places the human being at the heart of organisations.
Making a positive impact Several concepts can be referenced when it comes to defining the consequences of managerial actions and decision-making that place individual and business responsibility within a local and global context. The concept and practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR) seek to generate a positive impact in society without negatively impacting the environment. This means creating awareness of the potential impact of a current or proposed action, with the goal of generating positive consequences for those involved. Concepts such as the triple bottom line (TBL) have been proposed. The TBL focuses not just on the economic value a company adds, but also its environmental and social value, generating a triple final result that is sensitive to what has been added, as well as what has been destroyed, taking into account the needs of all stakeholders. The TBL acts as a framework for the vision behind the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) because it specifies impact and promotes sustainable development. It is also part of a call to instil SDGs in business schools’ DNA, in order to generate value and promote sustainable development via the education of commercial leaders. Taking into account such positive impacts and a business humanisation mentality, we propose that managers focus on the following trio of elements: i) the individual; ii) the company; and iii) society as a whole. Companies are the engines for society’s development and managers are the decision-makers within those engines. The incorporation of a transformative and humanised business vision is therefore essential. Human beings are at the heart of every company: economic, social, environment and even cultural indicators are insufficient without the development of those human beings who make up companies. The managerial mentality of caring for and promoting human dignity automatically encompasses consideration for others. This mindset
Ambition | MARCH 2023 | 15
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