Why Sustainable MBA? That was a question that many of us had at the beginning of the course when we started, that is what attracted the 16 of us to this particular programme that Aarhus School of Business had started September 2010.
Though we asked how many of us really understood the difference between the traditional methodology versus what Aarhus School of Business was offering? It become apparent to me, that we each had to seek out our own meaning and definition of what it should mean to us individually! Not the webster definition or wikipaedia definition! What does it mean to us at an individual level so that we can meanifully participate in this new perspective on Sustainability. To be honest, I did not think I had a good answer until today when my Aunt with a Phd Small Business and Women Development from the esteemed Rutgers University, Newark where she is also a part-time lecturer and advocate for Small Business enterprise and Women Development interrogated me and inquired what exactly is Sustainable MBA? She proceeded to state: "some establishment are just slapping the label as a marketing tool for their products/services!!! It like the old hype of "organic" before then "natural"...." My answer was well it's a combination of both! You can not market what you do not believe in! Therefore it is not surprising that I send her the following response to on her status:
What makes it sustainable is looking at sustainability not in the context of financial returns and social welfare but drawing the focus away from traditional methodology of development without succession planning and sustainability intentionally built in the model and focus more on developing new methodology with succession planning and sustainability built into every aspect of PESTEL from an individual, corporate, national and global perspective. The strengths of this course of action is that there will be more to go around and we learn to conserve our natural resources and better quality of life. The limitations of this course of action is that the initial investment costs are high and people need to be prepared to sacrifice the comforts of what they are used to for the sake of surviving the next century as a race! That is why it is called the Sustainable MBA because we challenge the traditional methodologies specifically in the European Industrial Organizations from an Economic, Strategy and Business perspective and how their ways have led us to this point but also identify what works and keep what works in the traditional model but building into it sustainability and success planning.
What was her response? I don't know, am still waiting for it. Does it matter if I convince her? Yes! My aunt represents my current and future clients, my future colleagues post the Sustainable MBA programme. It is important that they see past the marketing gimic and see the value add of the programme. After all, for sustainability to work she needs to also be part of parcel of the success-in-progress not just the privileged few with the insights and the access and influence to make a difference! Like direct network externalities (Martin,S 2001 First Ed)., sustainability model works when every client, individual or stakeholder is deriving value from one-single-product; when the value of this model to a consumer is greater. Therefore, the more number of people understand the concepts that sustainabilty offers and the more consumers become the drivers of the process aka sustainability model.
What the way forward? Be part of the solution and not the problem. If you see problems in the model, stake a scenario-based thinking approach to it and evaluate each alternative, be emergent in your outlook and approach in tackling these issues! After all Rome was not built in one day!
Though we asked how many of us really understood the difference between the traditional methodology versus what Aarhus School of Business was offering? It become apparent to me, that we each had to seek out our own meaning and definition of what it should mean to us individually! Not the webster definition or wikipaedia definition! What does it mean to us at an individual level so that we can meanifully participate in this new perspective on Sustainability. To be honest, I did not think I had a good answer until today when my Aunt with a Phd Small Business and Women Development from the esteemed Rutgers University, Newark where she is also a part-time lecturer and advocate for Small Business enterprise and Women Development interrogated me and inquired what exactly is Sustainable MBA? She proceeded to state: "some establishment are just slapping the label as a marketing tool for their products/services!!! It like the old hype of "organic" before then "natural"...." My answer was well it's a combination of both! You can not market what you do not believe in! Therefore it is not surprising that I send her the following response to on her status:
What makes it sustainable is looking at sustainability not in the context of financial returns and social welfare but drawing the focus away from traditional methodology of development without succession planning and sustainability intentionally built in the model and focus more on developing new methodology with succession planning and sustainability built into every aspect of PESTEL from an individual, corporate, national and global perspective. The strengths of this course of action is that there will be more to go around and we learn to conserve our natural resources and better quality of life. The limitations of this course of action is that the initial investment costs are high and people need to be prepared to sacrifice the comforts of what they are used to for the sake of surviving the next century as a race! That is why it is called the Sustainable MBA because we challenge the traditional methodologies specifically in the European Industrial Organizations from an Economic, Strategy and Business perspective and how their ways have led us to this point but also identify what works and keep what works in the traditional model but building into it sustainability and success planning.
What was her response? I don't know, am still waiting for it. Does it matter if I convince her? Yes! My aunt represents my current and future clients, my future colleagues post the Sustainable MBA programme. It is important that they see past the marketing gimic and see the value add of the programme. After all, for sustainability to work she needs to also be part of parcel of the success-in-progress not just the privileged few with the insights and the access and influence to make a difference! Like direct network externalities (Martin,S 2001 First Ed)., sustainability model works when every client, individual or stakeholder is deriving value from one-single-product; when the value of this model to a consumer is greater. Therefore, the more number of people understand the concepts that sustainabilty offers and the more consumers become the drivers of the process aka sustainability model.
What the way forward? Be part of the solution and not the problem. If you see problems in the model, stake a scenario-based thinking approach to it and evaluate each alternative, be emergent in your outlook and approach in tackling these issues! After all Rome was not built in one day!
Copyright @ Wednesday October, 27 2010 on FB, (Reposted on BlogSpot January 8, 2011) by Tambudzai Ndoro– Non-Executive Director of Global Business Assignments Inc,
