This week, EADA’s Master participants join each other in electives dedicated to sustainability and responsible management during the Sustainability Week. The electives are taught by visiting experts and professionals from all over the world, providing the opportunity for students to engage with leaders in the field in a multicultural environment.
According to visiting professor Dr Stefan Groschl, EADA participants can be catalysts of change in any company or organisation. “Students should know that organisational change can start at all levels,” he says. “They have an important role in creating and shaping organisational transformation and change toward greater sustainable business practices and processes.”
In previous years, electives have focused on sustainability as it relates to topics including strategy, entrepreneurship, customer involvement, social businesses, neuroleadership and mindfulness. This year’s electives continue to cover the latest trends in sustainability and corporate social responsibility:
- Managing Humanitarian Emergencies taught by Dr Nines Lima Parra (Spain). Students gain the tools and knowledge needed to manage highly independent, results-driven teams while ensuring that the goals are aligned with company or organisational strategy.
- Social Enterprise Business Model Design taught by Dr Yuwei Shi (U.S.). Participants learn a business model design framework based on human-centered design thinking, business exchange networks and strategic management.
- Sustainability & Well-being: Developing sustainable behaviours taught by Dr Florencia M. Sortheix (Argentina/Finland). Students develop an in-depth knowledge of the ways in which social, cultural and economic factors influence employees and companies’ initiatives in the areas of sustainability.
- Making a Social Impact at the Bottom of the Pyramid through Marketing taught by Dr Harvinder Singh (India). Participants analyse the strategies of companies for growing their business through untapped emerging markets while making a positive social impact.
- Responsible Leadership & Sustainable Business Practices taught by Dr Stefan Groschl (Germany). Students explore individual and organisational responsibilities and identify the changes needed to address today’s complex and pressing socio-economic and environmental challenges.
- The Effect of Innovative Entrepreneurship on the Sustainability and Perdurability of the Business taught by Dr Felipe Jánica (Colombia). Participants learn about the role of innovation and corporate entrepreneurship in preventing business failure and driving long-term sustainable growth, both economically speaking and in terms of the ecosystem.
- Sharing Economy: Cases & challenges taught by Dr Hee-Dong Yang (South Korea). Students develop an understanding of the business model of the sharing economy in terms of critical success factors, platform technologies and regulation issues.
- Sustainability & Competitive Advantage taught by Dr Paolo Taticchi (Italy). Participants analyse sustainability from a strategic perspective, with a particular emphasis on decision making and trade offs.
The Sustainability Week is one of the cornerstones of the International Masters programmes, enabling participants to study subjects outside of their specific programme’s curriculum and share the classroom with students from all ten of EADA’s full time Masters.
Students have an important role in creating and shaping organisational transformation and change toward greater sustainable business practices and processes.
Dr Singh is particularly impressed with the diversity in class. “The classroom environment in EADA is really unique,” he says. “In my course, there were 23 students representing 15 nationalities, and all the nationalities had a balanced representation.”
Dr Josep María Coll, director of the International Master in Sustainable Business & Innovation, confirms that the experience is a positive one. “The Sustainability Week offers a unique opportunity for International Master students to test their knowledge and dig deeper into key issues related to sustainability and responsible management,” he says. “The added bonus it that they are able to do this in a unique learning environment, engaging with well-known experts from all over the world.”