curriculum, as Esteves outlines: “We have a core course on sustainability, but my perspective is that it’s not something you learn in an isolated course alone. All processes and services that a business leader presides over need to have a sustainability dimension. So, when you work on a marketing strategy or financial analysis, you should always have that mindset. For this reason, we have made it mandatory that in all courses, whatever the subject, you must have at least one learning objective about sustainability and ensure that the topic is covered in class discussions.” Managing accreditation processes As an existing AMBA-accredited business school, PBS found the switch to undergoing a joint AMBA & BGA accreditation to be a relatively seamless experience. “At the end of the day, I think combining both accreditations helped us because you need to address impact as part of the AMBA accreditation, so the BGA process was useful,” concludes Esteves. The dean also reveals that much of the information needed during the BGA accreditation process was already on the school board’s radar. “The school is an association and I have 41 partner companies on my board. They all need to do their own sustainability and impact reports because this is now mandatory among leading companies,” he says by way of explanation. An additional accreditation also slotted in nicely with the school’s existing approach to the business of managing multiple accreditations, according to Esteves: “I manage directly as a dean but the good thing is we try to involve as many people as possible within the school and split the tasks.” Co-ordinating this work and Esteves’ own involvement are two quality assurance team members who work on both accreditations and rankings. If Esteves harbours any concerns around accreditation, these centre on prescriptiveness – an area BGA’s model is designed to combat. The problem, he advises, is if accreditations lead to everyone “having more or less the same curriculum”, adding the possibility that “everyone does the same things because it’s a way to simplify the process.” Nuances in concept definitions Here, the conversation moves onto areas where BGA might be able to make use of its own continuous improvement model (CIM) to enhance its role of
“Business schools are global, but there’s also value in the ‘glocal’ perspective of thinking globally and acting locally”
championing innovation and impact in business education. While it was not an issue for his own school, Esteves suggests that the organisation could offer help to those who wish to better understand key concepts and definitions. “Sometimes it’s a question of what is meant by ‘responsible management’, to give one example,” he proffers. “A business school may have some
16 Business Impact • ISSUE 3 • 2024
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