my experience, we are doing a lot. We are on the right path, but we need to take sustainability as an objective into the mission of our Schools. The pandemic has shown how we are interrelated – but we must pass the message to all our students, so they can relate the work they do to the impact they have. ‘We have to take sustainability seriously – talk about it, and make it part of the culture of the School. Our students must be open-minded, and understand the impact they have on others. ‘Equally, faculty have to be aware of how their teaching and research contributes to sustainability, within a structure of motivation. We need to refocus our research and intellect to understand the big challenges the world is facing – and pass it on in the curricula.’ Picking up the conversation, Rai moved to suggest what business education could do better. ‘Five years back, we were paying lip service to terms such as sustainability,’ he said. ‘We never practised what we preached. There is a lot of effort going in, but a lot more that can be done. ‘We need to move beyond empathy and move to compassion, and this can only be done through experiential learning.’ Concluding the debate, and commenting on the pressure on Business Schools to adapt MBA programmes or to make them shorter, Franch added: ‘The right word here is transformation. You can be under pressure, but [Schools] need to have an identity. I couldn’t care less about the threat of “three-month MBAs” – that’s not my game. [My concern is that] Business Schools need to change attitudes. ‘We have courses on sustainability and there is an urgency around including sustainability modules for rankings, but sustainability must be at the core of all courses – from marketing to finance. ‘We must redesign our core and change attitudes at our Schools. My recommendation is that students are a tremendous force for change in your organisation. Use them. You need to have a vision, change attitudes, and focus on transformation.’
BODO SCHLEGELMILCH Chair, AMBA & BGA
JOSEP FRANCH Dean, ESADE Business School
CLARA RAPOSA
Dean, ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management
HIMANSHU RAI Dean, IIM Indore
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