OPINION
Delivering a NEW BREED OF LEADER
CEO’S COLUMN
Andrew Main Wilson looks back on some of the highlights from last month’s AMBA & BGA Global Conference, and the pressing need for Business Schools to mould their students into a force for good for the sake of the planet
L ast month, AMBA & BGA hosted its virtual Global Conference, welcoming 278 delegates and 74 speakers. We’re planning a write-up of the event in July’s edition of Ambition , but I wanted to share some of my own personal highlights with you now. Launching the conference, Andrew Burke, Dean of Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, addressed the pressing challenge of how Business Schools can deliver a new breed of leader for the good of the planet. He proposed that this type of leader is one who cares about climate change and the biodiversity emergency and looks beyond shareholders to consider all of an organisation’s stakeholders. Burke pointed out that these same strategic leaders need to have visionary capabilities to guide organisations to embrace the best in remote working, living with Covid-19, celebrating diversity, and fostering inclusivity. Moving to grapple with the myriad of threats facing our business and societal
ecosystems, Burke outlined some of the challenges impacting responsible – and strategic – leaders. He also issued delegates with a stark piece of advice: ‘If Business Schools are to realistically attempt to deliver on this promise [of delivering leaders that are strategic and responsible], they need to produce activist and entrepreneurial graduates who enable organisations to shape – rather than just respond to – market forces.’ Burke offered the following advice to Business School leaders: ‘Teaching ethics is not enough. Market forces overpower good intentions.’ He went on to suggest that Business Schools have a role in reshaping market forces to put ethics at the frontier of competition and innovation and, as such, they should teach, research and practice ethical leadership. He proffered that Business Schools could take the same position as medical schools in terms of their outreach into communities (most recently evidenced during the Covid-19 pandemic). Burke closed his keynote presentation by suggesting that the MBA could be used as the
starting point for reshaping market forces– and his message was echoed throughout each of the three days of the AMBA & BGA Global Conference. AMBA & BGA research conducted in 2020 reveals a strong and shared opinion among Business School leaders that more has to be done, and that time is running out, to devise and implement practical solutions to the crisis the planet is facing. Sustainability has to take its place at the core and forefront of business education strategy to address an issue shared by us all. In another session, a panel of CSR and sustainability experts from across the AMBA network, outlined their responses to the climate gauntlet and discussed how, as a global community of business educators, we need to act quickly. I’ve written many times that the greatest opportunity for Schools to address the issues we’re facing, collectively, is to mould their students into a global force for good – and it was encouraging to continue this conversation during the conference. Andrew Main Wilson, CEO, AMBA & BGA
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