Business Impact covers the big challenges facing global management education as the world asks more of its future business leaders.
THE MAGAZINE OF THE BUSINESS GRADUATES ASSOCIATION (BGA) | LEADERS NEVER STOP LEARNING | MAY-JULY 2021
PLUS: • REINING IN OVERCONFIDENCE • CASE STUDIES • CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH
RESPONSIBLE RANKINGS: CAN MEASUREMENTS BE MORE
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Responsible rankings Can rankings throw off current criticisms and effect positive change in the industry? The University of Bath School of Management’s Andrew Crane offers his thoughts
Reining in overconfidence ‘Leaders' overestimation of
Changing with the times Case studies must reflect the changing world of business, says Nicolas Sauviat, winner of the BGA Future Leaders Case Competition 2020
themselves and underestimation of others result in poorer outcomes’ – the dark side of confidence
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CONTENTS May-July 2021
36 0 AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence 2021:
04 Editor's letter 07 From the CEO 08 Rankings reformation
14 The dark side of confidence Rita Trehan, co-author of Too Proud to Lead , on why business education must rein in pride and hubris 18 A climate of change? The views of Business School leaders give reason for optimism, but attest to the size of the task ahead, in exclusive research on climate change from AMBA & BGA
26 Case study method ‘The use of case studies needs to reflect the challenging problems of the world we live in’ says Nicolas Sauviat, winner of the BGA Future Leaders Case Competition 2020 30 0 Brave new worlds Analysing the progress of business education’s new era, in AMBA & BGA research on the use of edtech
highlights from a selection of key topics for BGA members and Business Impact 36 Lifelong learning 38 CSR 40 Diversity 42 0 Guest column Walking the talk on gender
‘Rankings can be helpful in nudging Business Schools towards whatever we might see as desirable behaviours.’ The University of Bath’s Andrew Crane considers the problems and potential of rankings
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EDITORIAL
Is this distrust simply sour grapes among those placing lower than they would like to? Or has the rankings game gone pear-shaped beyond repair? At their essence, rankings should serve as inspiration for improvement. Doing ‘better’ in a ranking would in this sense be a reward for the fruits of a Business School’s labour. Yet, as Andrew Crane, Director of the Centre for Business, Organisations and Society in the School of Management at the University of Bath, UK, points out in this edition’s cover feature, a ranking today is typically not, ‘designed with any real vision of what Business Schools should be teaching, or the role they should be playing in society,’ and that consequently, it ‘will not push
Content Editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@businessgraduates association.com Art Editor Laura Tallon Insight and Communications Executive Ellen Buchan e.buchan@ businessgraduates association.com Director of Marketing and Communications David Woods-Hale d.woods@businessgraduates association.com
C orporate
Are fruitful rankings – for Schools and society – attainable?
Business Development Manager Victor Hedenberg v.hedenberg@ businessgraduatesassociation.com Senior Marketing Executive -– BGA Daniel Kirkland d.kirkland@ businessgraduatesassociation.com BGA Membership Manager Rachael Frear r.frear@ businessgraduatesassociation.com Head of Commercial Relations Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@ businessgraduatesassociation.com Commercial Partnerships Manager Emily Wall e.wall@ businessgraduatesassociation.com Finance and Commercial Director Catherine Walker Director of Accreditation and Director of BGA Services Mark Stoddard Chief Executive Officer Andrew Main Wilson Executive Assistant to the CEO Amy Youngs a.youngs@ businessgraduatesassociation.com General Enquiries info@businessgraduates association.com
Schools to behave in any desired way and nor will it
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consider how Business Schools will actually change in response to the ranking.’ However, Crane also suggests that a solution could be to have more rankings, not fewer. ‘The more this kind of fragmentation occurs, the more opportunities there are for digging deeper and devising better metrics to measure what really matters,’ he says. Far from fearing the addition of a new ranking, then, further scales of measurement could conceivably be a good thing. They just need to add value – not just to the market, but also to the question of business education’s impact on society. Tim Banerjee Dhoul,
At the time of writing, a newly released ranking of Business Schools has been met with criticism for its methodology and a claim that it adds no value to the market – more fuel to stoke the fire of disillusionment towards rankings felt by many. ‘Most of these lists are severely flawed, if not statistically meaningless… It’s why so many Business School deans express frustration, if not disgust, about the whole business of it,’ said John Byrne, editor-in-chief at Poets & Quants , writing in Forbes . It’s this very stance which informed AMBA & BGA’s foray into the realm of
rankings in 2019 when its Research and Insight Centre asked Are MBA rankings fit for purpose? Focusing on what is the flagship postgraduate degree for many Business Schools, that report found that 34% of 1,328 stakeholders polled (representing AMBA- accredited institutions, MBA students, graduates, and employers) felt that MBA rankings do not reflect an MBA’s performance ‘very well’ or ‘at all well’. Only 11% said they thought rankings reflect the true performance of an MBA ‘very well’. That is some disconnect given the attention these rankings often command.
Content Editor, Business Impact
Copyright 2021 by The Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is independent, accurate, objective and relevant for our readers, BGA accepts no responsibility for reader dissatisfaction rising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed and advice given are the views of individual commentators and do not necessarily represent the views of BGA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. BGA makes every opportunity to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor.
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Topics include: Education technology Business School innovation Lifelong learning Career development Leadership skills Building partnerships Regional updates And much more.
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T his column was written while the final preparations for the AMBA & BGA Global Conference, taking place from 10-12 May, were underway. For AMBA & BGA’s flagship annual event, the team and I would traditionally fly out to that year’s host city to set the stage for keynote presentations and carry out final checks at all of the venues. This year, of course, is different. We’ve been spending the run-up to the inaugural virtual AMBA & BGA Global Conference carrying out equipment, sound and lighting checks, as well as designing our green screen set. Appropriately, the key theme of the event is global digital transformation and the future of business education. It is also most fitting that we will be embracing exciting and innovative new technology to make the conference as immersive and engaging as possible for all delegates in attendance. The conference will, for example, feature AI matchmaking for networking, virtual roundtables for collaboration and discussion, and ultra-high-definition live streaming for all the keynote presentations and plenary sessions taking place over the course of the event’s three days. I hope that the content and focus of the AMBA & BGA Global Conference this year will serve both as an opportunity for reflection and as a call to action for all delegates, in light of the seemingly insurmountable challenges we – as a Business School network and as a global society – are facing. Every topic at the event – from disruption in business education and the corporate world, to lifelong learning, stackable qualifications, and Business Schools’ impact on communities and societies – has been chosen because they embody industry challenges that demand our immediate attention and action. Fortunately, there is also much we can learn from each other as we seek to address them. The conference programme has therefore been designed to build from its first session – which asks how far we, as business educators, have come in the journey towards building responsible and strategic leaders – to its final session – which examines the ways Business Schools can measure the impact they’re making in the world. I believe the greatest opportunity for Business Schools to address the myriad of issues we’re facing, collectively, is to mould their students into a global force for good. The past 12 months have given Schools an unprecedented chance to innovate, and now is the time to put these innovations into practice, generate momentum together and make a difference for the benefit of the world. In this sense, I very much hope that the inaugural virtual AMBA & BGA Global Conference will serve as an inspiration and platform for future collaborative endeavours for all in the AMBA & BGA networks. Andrew Main Wilson, CEO, AMBA & BGA
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Embracing innovative new technology Andrew Main Wilson highlights the use of new technology at May’s AMBA & BGA Global Conference, and the opportunity for the Business School community to come together to address global challenges
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RESPONSIBLE RANKINGS
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University of Bath School of Management Professor and expert in responsible business, Andrew Crane , on how rankings can effect positive change in the industry, and how to address current criticisms. Interview by Tim Banerjee Dhoul
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R ecent releases of Business School rankings have been accompanied by media coverage of optouts and boycotts in the context of Covid-19. The omittances have only added to the feeling that rankings are in something of a limbo period amid the clamour for much-mooted and comprehensive redesigns that might allow them to better reflect the current business education landscape. That rankings would benefit from change is almost universally recognised. In highlighting many of the problems associated with existing MBA rankings, for example, a 2019 report from AMBA & BGA found – in a survey of 1,328 MBA graduates, students and Business School leaders – that only 11% think rankings reflect the true performance of an MBA ‘very well’. Step forward two years, and the Covid-19 pandemic has provided an impetus for innovation within the business education industry. Might it also present the perfect chance to refresh and revitalise rankings? If so, how can they be made more sustainable for the business world we live in now and the world we will live in in the future? Andrew Crane is a Professor of Business and Society and Director of the Centre for Business, Organisations and
Society in the School of Management at the University of Bath, UK. As an expert in responsible business and the changing role of the corporation in the global economy, Business Impact felt Crane was well-placed to offer a view on the role of rankings and how they might function more responsibly, to encourage positive change in the industry. What do you think the purpose of (Business School) rankings should be? How does this compare to the real function they currently perform in the sector, as you see it? I think Business School rankings should have two main purposes. First and foremost, they should be about giving potential students useful and reliable information that will inform their decision-making, especially about which Schools they should apply to, or enter. Without rankings, prospective students have a dearth of good information on which to base their decisions. Second, I think rankings can also be helpful in nudging Business Schools towards whatever we might see as desirable behaviours. A good ranking can be a real driver for change inside Schools. So, as long as the ranking measures things that are important, and measures them in a suitable way, they can have really positive effects on what Business Schools
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‘Schools and ranking agencies should be spending more time and attention on how to assess, compare and communicate these other outcomes of a degree programme’
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value, what they pay attention to, and ultimately what they do on a day-to-day basis. Realistically, one of the main functions that most rankings actually perform is to generate income (whether through sales or advertising revenue) for the media organisations that produce them. It is no surprise, in many ways, that most of the main Business School rankings are produced by media organisations because it is these companies that have recognised how much they have to gain from them. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but it can have some negative side-effects on the other potential purposes. Most rankings, for example, are not as far as I am aware (with the exception of the Corporate Knights Better World MBA ranking) designed with any real vision of what Business Schools should be teaching, or the role they should be playing in society. If this vision is not built into the ranking, it may still provide useful information for prospective students, but it will not push Schools to behave in any desired way and nor will it consider how Business Schools will actually change in response to the ranking. Business Schools are often accused of ‘surrendering’ to rankings. Is this a fair criticism in your opinion? I don’t know about surrendering, because I think some Business Schools actively lobby the rankings quite a bit to try and influence what they measure and how. But what I do think is a major problem is that there is real incentive for Business Schools to game the rankings. By that, I mean that they might seek to get as high as possible a score on the ranking while doing as little as possible to actually change the fundamentals of what the ranking is supposed to be assessing. One upshot of this is that Schools end up investing too much time, attention and money on their rankings management processes rather than the things that are actually supposed to be important like the quality and relevance of their teaching. Also, the things they do end up changing may be those that are most likely to get a boost in the rankings rather than those that improve the educational experience. This certainly doesn’t happen everywhere but the pressures to do so are likely felt everywhere. This wouldn’t be a problem if the rankings were all designed with a clear vision of what they were trying to achieve in terms of School behaviour, but I fear that these are largely unintended consequences of Schools managing the measures rather than the fundamentals underlying the measures. Salary measurements in rankings often attract a lot of attention, with rankings agencies defending the need to demonstrate return on investment (ROI) to paying students. In this context, should Business Schools pay more attention to the cost of business education programmes? Return on investment is, of course, important. But the idea that the return on an education should be purely, or even primarily, measured in terms of future salary is, in my opinion, deeply flawed. It is even worse than thinking firm performance should only be measured in terms of profits or
share price. Education has so many more dimensions than just the direct economic return – even an MBA degree. It is about learning how to think and make decisions in different ways, building up new skillsets and networks, developing in who we are as human beings and professionals, and lots more besides. ROI needs to take these things into consideration as well. So, for me, Schools and ranking agencies should be spending more time and attention on how to assess, compare and communicate these other outcomes of a degree programme. Then, once they have a better handle of what the real return on the investment is, they can talk seriously about what the right level of investment (i.e. degree cost) should be. Do you think that many Business School practitioners might view rankings as a ‘necessary evil’? Either way, would it be fair to label them as ‘evil’ and/or ‘necessary’? Personally, I have something of a love-hate relationship with rankings. In the area of responsible business where I focus, rankings like the now-defunct Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking or the Corporate Knights ranking have, for all their problems, been really helpful in pushing for change inside the Schools I’ve worked in. On the contrary, rankings like the Financial Times one, for me at least, are rather more undesirable because of what I see as a negative effect on how we view Business School education – far too much comes down to final salary. So, yes, I think they are ‘necessary’ because they provide an important service for prospective students. But some are certainly more ‘evil’ than others! This year, rankings releases have been accompanied with boycotts/optouts due to problems associated with Covid-19. What value, if any, can rankings offer without being able to score all eligible institutions? I’m not too concerned about this, providing they capture a meaningful slice of the population of Schools. It is not like applicants have every single School in their consideration set. Most are selecting from a much smaller subset anyway. So as long as there are enough being ranked for students to be able to compare sufficient Schools that they could feasibly apply and get accepted into, I think the rankings are still going to be valuable for students – which, after all, is their main audience. Who is to blame for the problems associated with rankings? The agencies who produce them, the Schools that provide them with data, the prospective students who consume them, or the employers who might derive their perceptions of quality from them? This is a tough question! The problem is that we are sufficiently far enough down the road of rankings now that we effectively have a whole system of actors that are complicit in keeping them going, and sustaining the problems that are associated with them. Perhaps a better way of thinking about it is to consider who is best placed to change things for the
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better. And there I think the buck stops with those producing the ratings. If there are problems, they should fix them. Of course, Schools, students, and employers can – and absolutely should – play a role in agitating for change, and providing resources and momentum to fuel the change. But it is the agencies that have to change their rankings. Or else, we need different actors to come up with better rankings. If you could devise a new system for ranking Business Schools worldwide, what would your top three ranking criteria/factors be and how would you measure them? I think there is space for a variety of rankings focused on different aspects of what might be considered important aspirations for Business School education. Core to these should be at least some assessment of the relative learning gain of students on the relevant programmes of study – that is, what advance has there been in aspects such as students’ knowledge, skills, work- readiness or personal development. There are lots of potential factors and measures that could be used here, all of which I think tell us much more about the return on investment of an MBA programme than final salary. I also think it is crucial that Schools are assessed on how well they prepare students for tackling the big social and environmental challenges that are facing us as a society, and as a business sector. Personally, I think that any MBA programme that fails to progress its students’ thinking on how to address climate change, for example, is in deriliciton of its duty as an institution of management education. What is your impression of the Positive Impact Ratings (PIR), launched in 2020? Well, first off, it is great to see a new ranking entering this space and with a different set of actors behind it compared to the usual suspects. And I love that it is focused on positive impact and the sustainable development goals. Where I have my reservations is on the methodology. Any ranking that is entirely based on students’ responses about what their School is doing is going to have some inherent problems. Most students simply lack enough breadth of experience of other Schools at any point in time to be able to judge effectively the performance of their own School. What is their point of comparison on what good performance looks like? Students are a good judge of their own educational attainment, but I’m less convinced they are a good judge of how advanced their School is in making a broader societal impact. Most of what they learn about how good their School is on these aspects will come from a single source ... the School itself. Those Schools that talk internally a lot, and convincingly, about how great they are in making an impact will be much more likely to have students that think the School is indeed doing a good job on these criteria. I worry that rankings like this will end up assessing how good the internal communications are of the School rather than the underlying fundamentals. Don’t get me wrong,
‘There are lots of potential factors and measures that could be used, all of which I think tell us much more about the return on investment of an MBA programme than final salary’
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encouraging Schools to improve how they inform students about their societal impact is a good thing in itself. And students are a good source of information on many aspects of School performance that directly affect them. But the approach of PIR gets it wrong in my opinion when it comes to how we best assess and influence Business School behaviour in the context of impact. Let’s give students a strong voice in assessing the impact of business education on themselves, but as far as impact on the wider world goes, I would rather see assessments from external stakeholders, and more objective, comparable criteria. Rankings are usually very popular, so how might the business education industry go about replacing them with something that equally engaged prospective students around the world? What else might allow students to ascertain quality in a crowded market? I don’t think you can replace them. Even if you got rid of the current ones, others would spring up in their place because they are serving a student need. They don’t even need Schools to actively participate if they base their metrics on publicly available data. So eliminating them isn’t a plausible alternative, for me. But you can certainly change them or complement them with other types of assessments or ways of demonstrating quality, relevance and impact. Much like in every other industry, there has been a growth in the last few years of sites that aggregate students’ reviews and feedback on universities and courses, which I am sure
play a growing part in informing students’ decisions. I’m kind of surprised that we have not yet seen a platform of this type successfully emerge to dominate the MBA market. But I’m sure it won’t be too long. In addition, I would expect more specialised rankings of business programmes to emerge that focus on specific topics, much like the sustainability ones. So, for example, are we going to see a Business School ranking focused specifically on entrepreneurship, or marketing, or finance? The more this kind of fragmentation occurs, the more opportunites there are for digging deeper and devising better metrics to measure what really matters. So, paradoxically, the solution to the problems of our current rankings might be to have more of them, not less.
Andrew Crane is a Professor of Business and Society and Director of the Centre for Business, Organisations and Society in the School of Management at the University of Bath, UK. He is a leading author, researcher, educator and commentator on responsible business. Follow him at @ethicscrane.
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THE DARK SIDE OF CONFIDENCE
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Reining in pride is a crucial part of business education, says Rita Trehan , co-author of Too Proud to Lead
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B usiness Schools are become emerging leaders in organisations and their hard work is rewarded with success. But too much success also presents possible pitfalls. After a string of accomplishments, young leaders may conclude that their successes prove that their decisions are always correct, and that their ideas are always the best. That attitude risks leading them to dismiss the ideas and perspectives of colleagues. The word for this is ‘hubris’, and it is equally dangerous for the person displaying the hubris as it is for those working with them. The importance of well-functioning teams whose leaders prioritise co-operation, magnets for talented, ambitious people who are used to achieving what they set out to do. Usually, these driven students go on to humility and open-mindedness are clearly demonstrated in my work as the head of a consultancy that helps CEOs and their organisations examine their culture. So, too, are the dangers of what happens when overconfidence is left to grow unchecked. Leaders' overestimation of themselves and underestimation of others result in poorer outcomes and missed opportunities for both the business and the person who succumbed to hubris. How hubris works and how to fight it Too often in both corporate leadership and business education, we equate the drive to succeed with the pressure to succeed at all costs. The pressure on executives and students to achieve results can lead them to abandon any attempts to consult and co-operate. The pressure to meet and outperform, be it for a class or an earnings report, leads to short-termism and a relentless pursuit of success at the expense of broader considerations. This results in leaders being wrongly admired for their overconfidence, drive and single-mindedness. It rewards autocratic decision-making by CEOs and boards, and the forgoing of consultation and collaboration. In the short term, the results from this approach might look good and indicate that things are working. In the longer term, it is bound to lead to problems. Poor collaboration leads to siloing throughout the organisation, which can lead
Stopping hubris requires: 1. Being able to spot the warning signs — lack of collaboration, lack of humility and a lack of understanding (or willingness to understand) regarding the effects of their decisions. 2. Understanding why people fall victim to hubris, and which kinds of environments encourage it and how to avoid them. 3. Examining high-profile examples that illustrate the business consequences of hubris, both at the level of companies — such as WeWork, General Motors, Uber and Deutsche Bank — and at the individual level – among the executives whose overconfidence in their infallibility led to predictable failures that tarnish their otherwise brilliant careers. The lessons of history must be accompanied by education in anti-hubris values and skills to check overconfidence. Cautionary tales I doubt many readers would need more than a moment to think of several examples of hubris in business. There are cautionary tales among both individuals and entire companies: They’re blockbuster movies and 600-page biographies, or, in the case of Boeing, the subject of tragic TV news for weeks. Educators can use these examples as case studies. In the 2021 book, Too Proud To Lead , my co-authors and I look at four cautionary tales. The We Company, once again rebranded as WeWork, shows us, ironically, how its name was belied by a failure to embrace true openness and collaboration, while its investors’ unquestioning faith in Co-Founder, Adam Neumann, constitutes its own form of a complementary, enabling hubris. While Neumann was overconfident in his own abilities, and instilled that in his acolytes and investors, the subject of our second case study, General Motors (GM), is overconfidence in the permanence of the status quo. GM’s failure to compete with Japanese automakers in the 1980s and 1990s cost it market share and reputation. After its recovery in the late 2000s, aided by the US taxpayer, GM seems once more to be underestimating a new wave of competition — this time from Tesla and the industry-wide move to electric vehicles.
to the creation of fiefdoms in which data is not shared but wielded for power against ‘competitors’ within the company. It is not a recipe for long-term thriving. Companies concerned with legacy, long-term survival and staying relevant are broadening their purpose. Profit and shareholder value are no longer sufficiently broad aims — businesses need to develop a purpose- and values-driven vision for the future. By doing so, they are democratising their purpose and creating ownership of it throughout the organisation. By adopting a shared vision, instead of a CEO-driven vision, companies will diffuse most of the risks of a skewed, hubristic approach taking root. The trend towards ‘purpose’ as the key driver of a business’s vision for the future is a healthy one and involves all relevant stakeholders naturally – the board, employees and suppliers, as well as the customers and communities. This broadening of responsibility creates a need for greater transparency and a wider set of obligations, which forces CEOs to adopt a more inclusive approach. In this way, ethical, equitable, environmental and societal values become a part of their decision-making. ‘Young leaders may conclude that their successes prove that their decisions are always correct’ Business Schools can take the lead Hubris, like so many other issues, is easier to prevent than it is to reverse. That makes Business Schools the perfect place to curb overconfidence in the next generations of leaders. Fortunately for educators, teaching this is not an additional curricular goal to add to the heap — it can be integrated into the existing syllabus. Not unlike other competencies in business education, teaching against hubris needs to include the development of critical- thinking skills and emphasise the values of collaboration, long-term thinking and the practice of welcoming alternative and opposing viewpoints.
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‘Leaders' overestimation of themselves and underestimation of others result in poorer outcomes and missed opportunities’
Travis Kalanick’s Uber, meanwhile, shows how building an arrogant corporate culture infects and undermines the reputation and potential for long-term success of a business founded on a great idea. Kalanick, Uber’s Co-Founder and first CEO, oversaw incredible growth at Uber but there have been multiple accusations of sexual harassment and unethical competitive practices at Uber during his reign. An air of invincibility, from the top down, continues to haunt the company. These examples offer an indication of how some leaders – to their own detriment – close themselves off, assume the future will look the same as the present, and believe in their own invincibility. All these failures have their basis in some form of unchecked power, but none to the degree of our fourth case study, Deutsche Bank (Deutsche). Deutsche’s expansion in the 1990s led it to becoming the biggest bank in the world, with assets of more than $2 trillion USD. Instead of seeing themselves as stewards of capital, Deutsche’s leaders interpreted this growing pool of wealth as proof that they could launder money and manipulate markets. Its scandals have cost it revenue and reputation; it has since been eclipsed by other lenders in the EU, not to mention US and Chinese banks. Focusing on a positive vision of leadership Hubris is not just a label for the defeated, to be appended to the loser as a badge of chastening. It is also important to discuss the hubris of iconic leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. What is there
to be regretted in the careers of the most successfully acquisitive business figures of our time? Doesn’t their influence and wealth prove that their confidence was earned and that any arrogance, however unfortunate, didn’t get in the way of their success? Why shouldn’t students emulate their risk-taking and tenacity? In some cases, the backlash against their hubris is in progress: Domination at all costs appears to have put Facebook, Amazon and other tech masters, such as Google, en route to being broken up or otherwise subdued by governments around the world. In other cases, the damage is measured in what could have been: If Amazon was less focused on bending its commercial partners, employees and yes, even its customers to its will, who knows what else the business could achieve? Better pay for workers and better terms for suppliers would cost Amazon money, margin and profit to fix, but probably not enough to wound it or slow it down appreciably. It would also thin the ranks of Amazon boycotters and the desire of its critics to rein it in. Hubris, of course, thrives beyond the c-suites of the world’s largest corporations. Being ‘too proud to lead’ can cause the downfall of leaders in organisations of all sizes, as well as the downfall of lower-level managers and business students who have bought into their own early hype. Leaders of organisations you once worked for may come to mind. We do not need to dwell on these examples. Instead, we can focus on a positive vision of what kinds of leadership business education can hold up. Leaders
who think through their purpose and align this to a wider purpose for their organisation are broadening their aims and aspirations to be more inclusive, more in touch with the wider world and more in tune with changing trends and sensibilities. These leaders regard this not as a demeaning activity, but an empowering one. With the emphasis on empathy, nurturing relationships, and collaboration, leaders are driven by group focus rather than self-focus, which leaves little opportunity for the self-centred nature of hubris to set in. Holistically successful leaders do something that I call ‘walking the hubris tightrope’ – they attempt to balance ambition and drive with purpose and service. This art form is more of a process than a destination — avoiding hubris is not a box to be checked off but a value to be imparted. Whether educators choose to teach this will profoundly shape the next generation of business leaders.
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Rita Trehan is a business transformation expert and the Founder of consultancy, Dare Worldwide. She is also the co-author of Too Proud to Lead: How Hubris Can Destroy Effective Leadership and What to Do About It (Bloomsbury Business, 2021).
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There are grounds for optimism in the sense of responsibility Business School
leaders feel with regards to addressing climate change, but much work remains
to be done. Ellen Buchan and David Woods-Hale outline the findings of new and exclusive research from AMBA & BGA
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S enior Business School leaders recognise the the required solutions, according to the AMBA & BGA International Climate Change Report , in association with Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics. Among 597 senior leaders at Business Schools across the world that impact climate change will have on business and their personal lives but share an optimism that hopeful students and the wider business community will find
while 71% agree that this change would have a negative impact on their lives. However, there was less consensus on taking personal action in this area – while 51% said they have changed their habits and behaviour in the past six months to lessen their impact on the environment, 48% said they have not. Business School leaders are also apprehensive about the future of our planet when looking ahead to the next 10 and 25 years. Business School leaders’ perspectives on the future of climate change When asked to select what they believed were the most important issues that businesses would face over the coming five years, those relating to the environment were high on the agenda. The most frequently cited options were ‘thinking about how businesses can become more sustainable’ (cited by 42% of participants), ‘the ability of companies to innovate’ (38%), and ‘embracing cleaner, more environmentally friendly technologies’ (35%). Leaders were less inclined to select issues such as ‘creating diverse teams’, ‘automated technology and robots’, ‘closing the gender pay gap’ or ‘increased selection and competition’. Business Schools' role with regards to sustainability and climate change Where does the responsibility for addressing climate change lie? There is widespread agreement among Business School leaders that ‘scientists in the field of climate change’ have a large amount of
were surveyed as part of the research, 88% believe that
their Business School has at least some responsibility to tackle climate change.
‘88% believe that their Business School has at least some responsibility to tackle climate change’
However, only 3% are currently of the belief that their Business Schools’ efforts in addressing climate
change are ‘excellent’. It is therefore clear that leaders see the need for significant improvements at their institutions. When it comes to Business
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School leaders’ personal beliefs
about climate change, 69% are in agreement that the temperature of the planet is changing due to the activity of humans,
PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS The results in this report are based on a survey, conducted between
March 2020 and May 2020, of 597 Business School leaders based in the following regions: Europe (excluding the UK) (45%); UK (14%); Latin America (11%); Africa (6%); Asia (excluding China) and the Middle East (5%); North America and the Caribbean (7%); Oceania (2%); China (including Hong Kong, China) (5%). Among those who participated in the survey, 49% are senior leaders at a Business School, i.e., a dean or director; 10% work in designing or delivering management programmes at Business Schools; 9% work as a business management academics; 8% work with management students and graduates (e.g., careers and alumni staff); 18% work in another capacity within a Business School (common examples cited were accreditation and marketing departments); and 6% said they work in other roles within business and management education.
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
What impact do you believe the environment will have on the future of business in the coming decade?
To what extent do you agree or disagree that business can find the solutions to tackle climate change?
Strongly disagree
No impact at all
Don’t know
Don’t know
1% 0%
1% 0%
Not very much impact
Tend to disagree
4%
3%
Neither agree nor disagree
A great deal of impact
7%
Strongly agree
40%
45% 51%
47%
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A fair amount of impact
Tend to agree
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
Which of the following areas do you believe would enable Business Schools to maximise their impact in helping to avert climate change? (Participants could select up to two responses.)
Which, if any, of the following activities does your Business School conduct to help alleviate climate change?
100%
100%
90
90
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
22
30
20
20
10
10
KEY FINDINGS • 69% of Business School leaders agree that the planet’s climate is changing and think human activity is the main driver of this change.
managers should play in contributing to climate change prevention, the mean score was 5.9.
• 46% believe Business Schools need significant funding to support research into the relationship between business management and climate change prevention in order to maximise their impact in this area. • 87% of Business School leaders think that business is capable of finding the solutions to tackle climate change; 40% strongly believe that this is the case. • 51% of Business School leaders have either changed their behaviour ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ in the past six months to lessen their impact on the environment. But 48% have not changed their behaviour ‘very much’ or ‘at all’.
• 71% believe that the impact of climate change on their lives will be negative.
• 65% of Business School decision makers think their own School’s current role in working to prevent further climate change is ‘excellent’, ‘very good’, or ‘fairly good’. • When Business School leaders were asked to rate their programmes out of 10 in terms of how effectively they thought their teaching was in covering the role that
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
responsibility for dealing with the current situation – 72% agreed that they are either ‘fully responsible’ or ‘very responsible’. The governments of the world’s eight biggest economies – the G8 – meanwhile, were labelled as being ‘fully responsible’ or ‘very responsible’ by 58% of participants. The equivalent figures for businesses, Business Schools and the UN are 55%, 53%, 52%, respectively. A smaller proportion (46%) of Business School leaders polled felt that students from their Business School or the general public are ‘fully responsible’ or ‘very responsible’ for dealing with the climate change situation. How well do these different groups handle their responsibility, in the eyes of Business School leaders? Among respondents, 13% rated the efforts of scientists in doing their bit to prevent climate change as ‘excellent’, while 69% rated them as either ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’. In comparison, 62% think their own Business School is ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’, but only 3% would say current efforts in working to prevent climate change are excellent. More than half (56%) rated their students as ‘excellent’, ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’ on the issue. At the other end of the scale, a much smaller proportion (21%) of participants think governments of the world’s biggest eight economies were ‘fairly good’ or better in their current efforts to tackle climate change (21%). Business School leaders are also sceptical in their views of the business community in this regard, with just 29% rating current efforts as ‘fairly good’, ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’. How business education needs to improve Nearly a quarter of participants (22%) said their Business School was ‘neither good nor poor’ in their current efforts in working to prevent climate change, while 13% scored their institution as ‘fairly poor’,
‘very poor’ or ‘terrible’ – indicating clear room for improvement in the eyes of Business School leaders. Improvement could come from further resources being earmarked for efforts in this area – 46% of those surveyed said Business Schools need significant funding to support research into the relationship between business management and climate change prevention, and a further 33% are of the opinion that academics need training in terms of how to disseminate their research findings for greater effect. Meanwhile, 30% of Business School leaders believe that there needs to be more collaboration between Schools on the topic of climate change. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t already research and collaboration taking place at Business Schools in the field of climate change. Close to half of respondents (48%) said they are sharing knowledge and research on business and climate change with the global Business School community, and nearly two fifths (39%) said they are producing research on ‘how businesses can act to mitigate their carbon footprints and reduce climate impact’. However, only 33% reported incorporating climate change as a core module within their Business Schools’ curricula. The impact of climate change and personal beliefs Business School leaders were asked if their programmes had changed over the past three
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‘33% reported incorporating climate change as a core module within their Business Schools’ curricula’
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
years to ensure they offer their students an up-to- date understanding of the significance of business management in helping to tackle climate change. In response, 66% reported that their programmes had indeed changed, while 24% said they had not changed and 10% were not sure whether they had changed or not. Almost all Business School leaders (96%) believe that the environment will have some sort of impact on business in the coming decade. Encouragingly, 87% believe that business is capable of finding the solutions to tackle climate change effectively, and 40% strongly believe that this is the case. None of the respondents think that the climate is not changing, but 2% do believe that human activity is not responsible for this at all. However, a clear majority – 69% – believe that the climate is changing and that human activity is the main driver for this. Nearly three in 10 (28%) believe human activity is only partly responsible for climate change, while again being of the belief that the climate is changing. More than nine out of 10 (92%) of leaders agree with the statement that recent environmental disasters (for example, hurricanes, bush fires, and extreme hot and cold weather) are due to climate change. Only 1% of respondents disagree with the statement and 6% ‘neither agree nor disagree’ with it. A fifth of respondents (20%) believe the impact of climate change will have a ‘very negative impact’ on their own lives, while 51% say it will have ‘a fairly negative impact’ on their lives. Among those polled 13% are unsure if the impact will be positive or negative and 15% are of the belief that the impact of climate change on their own lives will in fact be either ‘very positive’ or ‘fairly positive’. It could be that this final proportion interpreted the question as an opportunity to
consider how they, as an individual, might make a positive contribution towards addressing climate change. Then again, it is also possible that they simply do not regard the effects of climate change (if they perceive any) as being detrimental to their own way of life. Conclusion To say that climate change is a ‘hot’ topic would be an understatement. As little as five years ago, the very existence of this issue was still being debated. Yet, a global movement to secure the future of our planet has pushed climate change firmly into the public arena; and now the damage climate change is causing is undeniable. The AMBA & BGA International Climate Change Report is a call to action for, but also from, the leaders at Business Schools to do more to tackle the rising pressures of climate change. The report also contains cautious optimism for the future potential of Business Schools – and the ability of business in general – to come up with the solutions that can help save the planet.
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To access the full report, please visit: www.businessgraduatesassociation.com/ about-us/research/
HANNA-LEENA PESONEN Dean, Jyväskylä University School of Business
(for example, designing dedicated courses and programmes, as well as incorporating sustainability aspects into all courses), research to support sustainable transition in business and society, as well as drawing on faculty expertise for advancing the climate change agenda within businesses and society. The carbon footprint of the Business School itself should also be monitored and actively reduced in order to signal the significance of the issue. Improving a Business School’s own climate footprint provides the foundations for credibility in climate change education and research. The views of the world’s leading Business School decision makers give reason to be hopeful that Business Schools are indeed prepared to re-evaluate their role in society, to start critically revisiting traditional economic and business concepts, frameworks and theories, and to further integrate climate change into all activities. This will nurture a new generation of business leaders that are prepared to deal with the challenges that climate change poses for businesses and to act as a force for good to create solutions to tackle climate change and other sustainability challenges.
and Economics
The United Nations has declared the 2020s a ‘Decade of Action’ which calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all of the world’s biggest challenges – climate change included – towards delivering the promises of its 17 SDGs by 2030. The results of the AMBA & BGA International Climate Change Report provide a unique perspective on the current state and future outlook of world-leading Business Schools in regard to incorporating climate change in business education and research. The views of almost 600 senior Business School leaders give reason for optimism. Participating Business School leaders consider the need to develop business sustainability as the most important issue facing business in the next five years and recognise the strong link between climate change and business. Almost all Business School leaders agree that human activity – business included – is a driver for climate change. Similarly, almost all recognise that business is going to be impacted by the environment and climate change. Businesses have been part of the cause of the environmental problems but can, and must, play a role in providing solutions to tackle climate change. The same applies to Business Schools themselves: the responsibility of Schools for dealing with climate change is understood by the majority of survey participants. In the open answers many have voiced a need for Business Schools to rethink their purpose in the world and would like to see business and Business Schools as a ‘force for good’. According to the results of this report, Business Schools are taking steps to prevent climate change, even if a lot more could still be done. More can be done in education
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