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 SecretaryGeneral 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 standalone 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.