News

Posted 10/31/2006

WH: Why did the United Nations co-convene the BAWB forum?

GK: We feel a strong need to win over business management educators to help us scale up responsible business practices around the world. There is an enormous gap between business innovations that are already being implemented by market leaders, on the one hand, and what management schools offer in terms of tools, curriculum and research, on the other.

If we are to achieve the goal of making business and society relations more beneficial, business schools must ensure that future leaders will no longer have to be convinced to embrace this agenda; rather, they should already have it in their educational “DNA.”

WH: What stands out for you most in your forum experience?

GK: I am so impressed with Weatherhead School of Management’s open mindedness, and its willingness to be a leader and innovator on broad environmental, social and governance issues.

WH: What is your greatest hope going forward from here?

GK: I hope that out of this conference will grow a movement to develop global principles for responsible management education. My aspiration is to introduce these principles to the world at large at the Global Compact summit meeting in July 2007. I envision a new approach to management education that inspires thousands of management schools throughout the world to become contributors and leaders in this field.

We’ve laid the foundation for a quite significant and possibly historic redefinition of what management education means.