The View From Taft
By Brian C. Gozun
Developing the next generation of sustainability leaders
“What do we need to change in order to develop a new generation of business leaders who connect profits with purpose, who see in social entrepreneurship and innovation the key opportunity for addressing our planetary challenges?”
These were the questions posed by Dr. Isabel Rimanoczy in her book entitled Stop Teaching: Principles and Practices for Responsible Management Education. These should be the issues raised among business and management educators and trainers in a world that is described as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) in a Harvard Business Review article by Nathan Bennett and G. James Lemoine. The challenges faced by executives, managers, and employees are no longer linear but are increasingly chaotic in such a world. Thus, we need leaders who can face VUCA in our work, communities, and homes.
As a leader in management education, the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business (RVRCOB) is actively involved in the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) under the United Nations (UN) Global Compact. According to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “The Principles of Responsible Management Education have the capacity to take the case for universal values and business into classrooms on every continent.” These have been the guiding principles that RVRCOB has been espousing in its curricula and learning outcomes in order to produce leaders who “connect profits with purpose” and create businesses and innovation that will address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
If the mission of the law school according to Holmes is “to teach law in the grand manner, and to make great lawyers,” what then is the mission of a business school in the 21st century and in an environment that is VUCA? The vision of RVRCOB is to be an exemplary and innovative business school that bridges faith and business practice in the service of society, especially the poor. For RVRCOB to be exemplary, it should be a model for other schools to follow. We are proud to have departments offering the most innovative courses in the country. For example, we are the only school offering undergraduate programs in applied corporate management, interdisciplinary business studies, and management of financial institutions. We also have stand-alone programs in marketing management and advertising management, which are usually offered as majors in business administration for business schools in the country. We continuously innovate not only through teaching but also through leading-edge research that impacts both theory and practice.
For instance, our research on family business, humanistic management, social entrepreneurship, and advanced accounting techniques are published in abstracted journals. Most importantly, we engage with the community through our commitment with PRME in order to meet the SDGs in 2030. This is manifested in the presence of service learning activities, in which students resolve social problems by working with neighboring communities in the development and advancement of social enterprises.
All these activities are done to make sure that we produce and develop the next generation of business leaders who are socially responsible, sustainability-oriented, and humanistic. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not just a buzzword but is integrated in all aspects of the curricula, and future business leaders are then tasked to include CSR as a core function of business whether the enterprise is micro, small, medium, or large. Sustainability goes beyond finance and takes into account both nature and society in order to create wealth not just for one’s self but also for others. Humanistic management “advocates a paradigm shift away from economistic views on market activities towards a humanistic approach” in business practice.
Despite the advancement of tools and technologies, Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum calls for leaders and citizens to “together shape a future that works for all by putting people first, empowering them and constantly reminding ourselves that all of these new technologies are first and foremost tools made by people for people.” Thus, people would always be the core of a business, and we as leaders must make sure that we develop and train people to serve people above all else.
Dr. Brian C. Gozun is Dean of the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University. He would like to engage with various stakeholders in his college’s quest to develop the next generation of business leaders.
