PRME: Challenges and Opportunities in Tumultuous Times

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PRME Challenges and Opportunities in Tumultuous
Times

• World Civic Forum
• PRME, the Asia Perspective
• May 2009
• Dr Manuel Escudero
• Head PRME Secretariat

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2008 was the year in which a new global agenda
was unveiled

• In the first half of the year we faced several
  global crises (energy and food), and the urgency
  concerning climate change was heightened.
• These crises point out to a new important and
  crucial fact as a result of economic growth and
  the incorporation to the international markets of
  the emerging countries (Russia, China, India and
  Brazil), we are now facing the certainty of
  scarcity in the supply of natural resources in
  the world in the areas of food, energy, water
  and climate.

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2008 was the year in which a new global agenda
was unveiled

• In the second half of the year, we witnessed the
  collapse of the credit system and a rapid spread
  of the biggest and most contagious economic
  recession in our lifetime.
• This crisis has meant the need to a) rethink
  global capitalism (in the precise sense of the
  financial system and also in terms of the role of
  corporations and the managerial model), b) be
  able to design and implement global recovery, c)
  global financial regulation, d) reform of the IMF
  to cope with economic distress in the developing
  countries, and e) ultimately the reform of the
  international monetary system.

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2008 was the year in which a new global agenda
was unveiled

• Finally, out of the crisis, we have seen that
  there are new silent, but powerful new partners
  in the global agenda, notably the emerging
  countries mentioned before, and that, therefore,
  we are not anymore in a unipolar (West
  dominated), but multipolar world.
• However, unilateralism and protectionism have not
  disappeared, and without multilaterism, in a
  multipolar world we can live a period of
  instability, fragmented alliances and unclear
  leaderships.

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If our mission as business educators is a) to do
research and b) educate the future leaders of the
corporate world and c) to exercise as much
thought leadership as we can in the service of
the business community, then we have to ask
ourselves

a) Can we continue to operate with a
business-as-usual mentality?
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We are not apart from the decrease in trust and
legitimacy of the financial sector so we
confront a big wave of change in the near future

b) Are there new skills and competencies that are
needed in business education?
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There is a clear performance gap 76 of
senior executives say that it is important they
have the knowledge and skills to respond to
trends like resource scarcity, the low carbon
economy and doing business in emerging markets
Fewer than 8 believe these knowledge and
skills are being developed very effectively by
their own organizations or business schools
(Developing the Global Leader of Tomorrow, Survey
- Matthew Grisham - PRME Global Forum)

c) Are responsible companies satisfied with the
average professional going out of the business
schools?
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4 changes are needed
Business schools cannot participate in all the
spheres of this new global agenda, but, certainly
can contribute a great deal in some important
aspects. But in order to act, the first thing
we have to change is some core aspects of our
vision of the role of the corporation in todays
society

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4 changes are needed
At the end of the current crisis, CSR will
probably be upgraded into something more
holistic, a new definition of the role of
business in society. Probably this will mean a
transition to a new theoretical model, reflecting
the practices already in place, - a move from
short term profit maximization to long term
growth (sustainability not just as an attribute
of the companys operations, but as the core of
the definition of the company itself) and profit
maximization. This opens up the need for new
basic research on the theory of the firm and new
applied research in the field of public
regulation and social regulation of the firm.

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4 changes are needed
In the aftermath of the current crisis, we will
probably see the rise and demand for a new
approach to management Managerial capitalism.
Thus, the role of management will crucially be
to balance the interests of a diverse group of
stakeholders, including workers, governments,
shareholders and communities (New York Times,
3/29/09 How Crisis Shapes the Corporate Model).
This implies the need for new approached to
strategic management, both in basic and applied
research.

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4 changes are needed

• In order to accommodate new visions of the firm
  and of management, educators will have to
  incorporate into their teaching new core values
  and concerns that go beyond business ethics and
  are at the core of the new role of the firm,
  playing either as wise risk management or as
  sources of innovation and value
• Human Rights
• Labor rights
• Natural resources preservation (climate change,
  water scarcity, food security, renewable energy)
• Transparency and anti-corruption
• Strategic philanthropy, social investment, shared
  value in the supply-chain, new business models
  and MDGs
• This implies an overall effort in the update of
  all disciplines in management education

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4 changes are needed
Finally, social and climate concerns will have to
be integrated into one single new value
proposition for responsible corporate behavior.
The environment is not any more an add-on to
the economy but two dimensions of the same
reality, the greening of the economy towards a
low-carbon economic structure is not an add-on to
economic recovery, but a crucial component of
recovery itself, and the green corporation is not
something different from the new role of the firm
in society. But this area, apart from some
courses on sustainability, has not been
integrated either into normal educational
efforts, or into more social responsible efforts
in the curriculum of business schools.
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4 changes are neededto be leaders of the sector

• Business schools that
• Embrace the new vision of business, innovate the
  management model the teach, adhere to these new
  values/concerns and update their teaching to
  them, and identify social and environmental
  drivers at the core of the DNA of the firm, and
• Do so through a collegiate effort
• Will become the innovatorsand therefore the
  future leaders of the sector.

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This new scenario adds a note of urgency to
initiatives like PRME
PRME a global call to change the curriculum,
research and learning methods of management
education, incorporating at the core of the
vision, the tools and the skills taught, the
values of the United Nations Global Compact

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PRME - www.unprme.org

• 230 signatories
• Sharing Information on Progress
• Growing number of activities

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GLOBAL FORUM FOR RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT
EDUCATION UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK 4 AND 5
DECEMBER 2008
http//www.unprme.org/
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PRME 2009/2010 priorities

• To grow to 350 participants
• To be able to channel all the potential for
  change that is being built at this moment,
  through effective ways of communication, shared
  learning and shared information on progress.
•  
• c) To deliver value in terms of curriculum
  change. This is the responsibility of everyone
  involved in PRME and this is why we made at the
  Global Forum in December 2008 a call for
  decentralized activities (leadership)

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PRME curriculum change how to proceed?

• Curriculum change is a gradual process of
  innovation /adaptation
• Is a transversal change with new subject areas,
  and with the change of traditional ones.
• It affects
• - The vision which is transmitted
• - The technical and conceptual knowledge which
  is taught,
• - The skills which are learnt,
• - The learning methods that are used and
• - The research that supports education.

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PRME curriculum change how to proceed?

• Vision
• Economic decision making, international business,
  country analysis have to change encompassing
  global transformations, new social demands,
  socially regulated responsibility of the company
  by stakeholders, power shift to corporations and
  governance gaps, global agenda and the
  participation of the corporate world
• Strategic management has the biggest challenge in
  terms of embedding sustainability into the very
  core of the companys strategy. New approaches
  are needed stakeholders theory and practice,
  trust approaches, the location of the CSR
  function within the company this is the biggest
  challenge of all.

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PRME curriculum change how to proceed?

• Technical and conceptual knowledge
• Operations policies, procedures and control
  aligned with new strategy/subsidiaries,
  logistics, supply-chain management
• Finances risk management, valuation of assets
  (why this did happen, what is the responsibility
  of business schools in teaching, but also in the
  sense of responsibility embedded in the teaching
  and transmitted to the students)
• Accounting,
• Marketing,
• Human Resources,
• OB
• All of them should gain the new dimension

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PRME curriculum change how to proceed?

• New Skills
• Grounding ethical values in daily activities in
  the company
• Knowledge of the social environment of the
  company
• Dialogue with stakeholders
• Leadership for change

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PRME curriculum change how to proceed?

• Learning Methods
• Production of new cases
• Knowledge of the social impact of corporate
  decisions
• Hands-on approach to stakeholders
• Role models
• New social-impact learning and experiential
  learning, integrated into all the topics and
  subject areas

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PRME curriculum change how to proceed?

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  Learning Methods
• On-the-job learning (52,2)
• Project-based learning (37,3)
• Experiential learning (34,8)
• Action learning (34,4)
• Coaching (34,2)
• Mentoring (30,3)
• Internal networks / communities of practice
  (29,3)
• Exposing individuals to a variety of relevant
• roles within the organization (25,5)

• Small group interactive style learning (22,3)
• Case studies (21,3)
• Appreciative inquiry (16,2)
• Simulations (14,7)
• Virtual learning/E-learning (15,1)
• 360 and psychometric tools (14,2)
• Lecture style learning (8,6)
• Secondments to external organizations (7,1)

(Developing the Global Leader of Tomorrow,
Survey - Matthew Grisham - PRME Global Forum)
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PRME curriculum change How to proceed when
there is freedom of teaching and Faculties are
plural by definition?4 suggestions
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PRME curriculum change How to proceed?

• (1) A process of innovation/adaptation
• More than about curriculum change we are talking
  about curriculum innovation or adaptation to a
  new reality of the world and the corporation.
• Innovation/adaptation implies
• innovative leadership
• - Dean implication
• - Incentives and core initiatives
• - Control and metrics
• b) Faculty empowerment and team dynamics

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PRME curriculum change How to proceed?
(2) A process of intrapreneurship, It implies
a) Redistribution of power and influence
within the school b) Increasing alliances c)
Cultural change, or the gradual spread of the new
approaches (the same dynamics as between old and
new faculty, for instance)
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PRME curriculum change How to proceed?

• (3) A process of systemic dialogue with the
  stakeholders
• With companies (recruitment, placement, new
  demand)
• With students (their perceptions and their
  insights)
• With the rest of faculty members

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PRME curriculum change How to proceed?
(4) Interdisciplinarity It implies, finally, the
active collaboration of Faculty members in an
interdisciplinary constant exercise of design and
feed back. Curriculum innovation means syllabi
innovation, and this is not possible without the
time and the commitment of faculty members.
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www.unprme.org Prmesecretariat_at_unprme.org escudero
m_at_unprme.org Thank you