Leaders have to be global citizens with high ethical standards, helping to create the conditions for welfare of all. This obliges management schools to revive their programs, so that they respond on the needs of leaders and society in the future. »Concept principles of PRME are of great importance. However, without implementation, they are like an axe on a bold mountain top, useless. Therefore we shall give a lot of attention to implementation and impact, “ said Prof. Danica Purg, President of IEDC-Bled School of Management, and CEEMAN, and also PRME Steering Committee Chair for 2013.
Georg Kell, the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, the world's largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative with 7,000 corporate participants in 135 countries, who addressed participants via video speech, stressed that: “UN Global Compact works toward the vision of a sustainable and inclusive global economy which delivers lasting benefits to people, communities, and markets.”
Themed Plenary on Inspiration was given by Prof. Nancy J. Adler, the S. Bronfman Chair in Management at McGill University in Montreal and Diana Baker, pianist, Australia. The plenary focused on taking responsibility for returning the world to beauty.
Second themed plenary was on innovation, it was led by Jonathan Gosling, Exeter, the panelists were: Iztok Seljak, Hidria; Prof. Thierry Grange, AACSB, President Grenoble Ecole de Management, FranceAACSB, ZDA, and two representatives of Challenge:Future; Māris Šlēziņš, Head of the Latvian Society of Street Workout and World Street Workout Federation and student from Morocco Hasini Chourouk. Māris and Chourouk pointed out that young generation of today lacks hope, has no dreams, only lots of negative energy, they also said that educational methods are not up-to-date. First day of the PRME Summit concluded by Challenge:Future Gala and Awards Ceremony. On that occasion participants were addressed by Dr Jernej Pikalo, Minister for Education, Science and Sport, Slovenia, and Prof. Ichak Adizes, Adizes Institute, USA. Adizes pointed out: »I hear more laughter in developing countries in one day, than I do in developed countries in a whole year. « (on the photo 1)
Second day of PRME Summit was focused on implementation and impact, session were moderated by Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva, Coca-Cola Chaired Professor of Sustainable Development, IEDC- Bled School of Management, Slovenia, and Prof. Jonathan Gosling, Director, Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter, UK. Panelists – Prof. Antonio Freitas, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil; Liesbeth van der Kruit, Director, CSR Achmea, Netherlands, Dr. Irina Sennikova, Rector, Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration, Nikos Koumettis, President, Central & Southern Europe Business Unit for The Coca-Cola Company, Greece; Prof. Anthony F. Buono, Bentley University, USA, and Jonas Haertle, Head, PRME Secretariat, USA, pointed out the importance of fruitful cooperation of all social spheres. Prof. Nick Binedell, Dean, Gordon Institute of Business Science Johannesburg, South Africa, and Janez Stanovnik, former President of Slovenia and former Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, Slovenia, as keynote listeners, concluded the PRME SUMMIT. Mr. Stanovnik said: »Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere.” (on the photo 2, with Prof. Purg)
The mission of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative is to inspire and champion responsible management education, research and thought leadership globally. So, in her final speech, Prof. Danica Purg stressed how important it is that business schools and universities worldwide gradually adapt PRME curricula, research, teaching methodologies and institutional strategies to the new business challenges and opportunities.
Six principles for Responsible Management Education
- Principle 1 | Purpose: We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.
- Principle 2 | Values: We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.
- Principle 3 | Method: We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.
- Principle 4 | Research: We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.
- Principle 5 | Partnership: We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges.
- Principle 6 | Dialogue: We will facilitate and support dialog and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organisations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability.
Summit participants unanimously also endorsed a Declaration that further supports commitments to sustainable development through management education, made at Rio+20, individually through continuous improvement, experimentation and innovation, and collectively through existing and newly created work streams and related projects. Participants also committed to take further action, including support for the Architects of a Better World: Building the Post-2015 Business Engagement Architecture, introduced by the United Nations Global Compact, with additional support from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
More information available here: http://www.unprme.org/news/index.php?newsid=273