After the recent financial crises that are still affecting much of the world, many commentators looked to the ‘breeding grounds’ for those ‘responsible’ for the global disaster, namely the world’s leading business schools. Whilst most fair-minded analysts agree that laying the blame at the door of the educators is unfair, the accusations have led to a re-evaluation of business education and the types of leaders that are being produced as a result of achieving the ‘holy grail’ of the MBA. Indeed, even the United Nations (UN) has declared an interest in the subject by forming the United Nations initiative for Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME).
The University of Exeter Business School has launched a completely new MBA programme for 2011 called the One Planet MBA. This new programme means Exeter is one of the first Business Schools internationally to have sustainability embedded in the DNA of the MBA.
The One Planet MBA is being developed in collaboration with the WWF, the world’s leading conservation organisation. This isn’t just a borrowing of the world famous panda to give the course some green credentials; the WWF has been at the forefront of sustainable management education for several years through its One Planet Leaders Programme (OPL).
Whilst this is a unique collaboration in the sector between an MBA and a non-governmental organisation (NGO), it is one of a succession of selective partnerships that WWF has formed with business in the last decade. The timing was also fortuitous, coming as it did when business education was being put under the microscope.
The need to educate business people in a manner – and with a curriculum – very different to the past is clear. The One Planet MBA is perfectly placed to reflect contemporary business management challenges in an increasingly complex world, where the duty of managing social and environmental impact in a sustainable manner needs to take priority.The partnership is committed to promoting sustainable business and showing that conserving natural resources is entirely compatible with winning and maintaining customer value and confidence. As such, sustainable business will become the ‘spine’ of the new One Planet MBA. The heart of it will be based on the three ‘pillars of sustainability’; environmental protection, social responsibility, and economic development. It is this that is being promoted as the distinctive feature for Exeter MBA applicants.
An ‘innovation’ cohort has been recruited onto the course this year, the intention being that these students and academics will co-create the final content together. Such was the level of interest that it has attracted men and women in equal measure from 22 different countries, representing five continents.
The programme will inspire its graduates to become masters of business action, thereby realising the Business School’s aspiration to create the first generation of planet-minded business leaders – leaders equipped with the knowledge, skills and attributes to meet the challenges of the next few decades with confidence. As awareness grows about the global challenges we face, pretending that business curricula is not affected by sustainability concepts and paradigms is unjust, unsustainable, and will produce only unfulfilling management learning experiences. The University of Exeter, along with other leading Business Schools recognises the critical need to reorient and reconfigure business education – as the world warms, the One Planet MBA is not an initiative that can be put on ice.