BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
SUSTAINABILITY
“Business schools can play a major role in adapting the mindsets of those graduates who go out and change their communities”
strong wave of thinking has developed of businesses as a major contributor to either human rights violations or human rights successes.” Awni also pointed to India’s new National Education Policy as an example of what needs to change in business education. The policy talks, in his words, of the need to “reorient the education system from one focused on sorting top talent and identifying top talent students to one that is focused on human development that can improve learning for all”. “Think about it,” he went on to explain. “Education is about sorting the top talent; it's looking for the gold medallists. We're not trying to spread sports to every facet of society and there is never any mention of human development that can improve learning for all. “Innovations do not serve the base of the pyramid, with few exceptions. We don't celebrate frugal innovation and grassroots innovation because they tend to be more pragmatic and open source. This makes development and sustainability
horizontal and not vertical, which requires a realistic and multi‑disciplinary approach. “In my view, schools of business can play a major role in changing and creating the mindset of graduates who can go out and change their communities. Once you have enough of a critical mass, then it becomes a culture and a movement.” Disrupting conventional thinking How can business schools foster the conditions from which movements spring? For Henley Business School Africa’s dean and director Jon Foster-Pedley, it starts with challenging schools to go further in their actions on sustainability and disrupting conventional thinking. “I want to think about the difference between legality and legitimacy,” Foster-Pedley said. “Extinction Rebellion says the science is clear. We're heading towards catastrophic climate change, or feeling it already, and the government and wider society is mainly ignoring this, so we must do something about it.
17 17
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online