Professor Ken McPhail, Head of Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), says that businesses must completely rethink the way they approach ‘doing good’ if they are going to play a key role in tackling major societal issues.
Last month I had the honour of taking up the role of Head of AMBS, at what I see as a hugely important time for the development of business education.
We are living in pivotal times, partly due to the nature of the challenges we collectively face, from regional economic disparities here in the UK and global geopolitical upheaval, to climate change and the transformational impact of artificial intelligence.
With the landscape changing so quickly, the role of businesses within our society is changing rapidly too. There is a growing need for firms to not only navigate these challenges to protect their own interests, but to play a leading role in wider efforts to tackle them.
The idea that businesses don’t need to concern themselves with doing good because pursuing economic interests unintentionally produces social benefit is outmoded. If businesses don’t respond more proactively to these responsibilities, they will undermine their social license to operate and make it increasingly difficult to access certain markets, revenue streams or labour pools.
Measuring ‘good’
Perhaps the greatest challenge lies in defining ‘good’ business behaviour, and how we measure performance against this.
We need to reimagine how a broader social purpose can be incorporated into commercial activity and corporate governance structures, in a more fundamental way than our discussions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental and social governance (ESG) have been able to offer.
Businesses that are ahead of the curve in this sense are putting themselves in the best position to create a more sustainable, fairer future for all, and increase their relevance and importance within that future. Ultimately, it will put them in the best position to maximise profitability.
The fundamental question is whether the problem is one of market failure that can be fixed by better incorporating social and environmental risks into asset prices, or whether it’s a zeitgeist problem that will require the re-imagination of a new paradigm altogether.
It’s a bold question but one that business leaders, policy makers and academics need to be asking with a sense of urgency.
The role of educational institutions
Businesses and policy makers are still getting to grips with this new model, so business schools need to make sure that our research questions address these pressing concerns, and that our findings can inform policy development in these areas.
We also need to equip business leaders not only with the core business and economic knowledge to thrive, but to encourage them to think differently and give them the skills to question normal ways of working and navigate complex issues.
Ultimately, if we’re going to make a tangible difference, we need to bring original ideas to the table that challenge the status quo which, importantly, can be effectively implemented in the real world.
I want to build on the great work that has been done by AMBS to establish the best teaching, technical and educational facilities in Europe and use the expertise we have to make a real impact.
I firmly believe that business education is key to preparing the business community to tackle the greatest challenges society faces, ensuring the economy can create prosperity and opportunity for all, and that will be my main focus in the coming months and years.
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