On an everyday basis, we see the dangerous changes that happen in the world, especially those related to global warming. We have seen fires destroying forests in California, Australia, and even in places known to be cold such as Canada. If we look even closer around us in France, we can feel this suffocation of our planet when watching the glaciers in the Alps which are moving back at an alarming pace. In one sentence: Our planet is burning. Aside from that bad piece of news, there are fortunately good ones, the best of which is that it is never too late to act upon those issues. This is exactly what the "Toward Responsible Innovation" mission is about, meaning going to the ground, in places close to us and striving to spread the positive energy that we believe will provide levers to tackle the complexity of the issues.
The “Toward Responsible Innovation” mission by Khaled Younsi, current GMBA participant
14.1.2024
In order to crack this complexity, what better idea than bringing around the table people from such diverse backgrounds and cultures who can individually see the problem from different perspectives and collectively cover each of its aspects! But this process is nothing but simple. When getting the complexity of the problem we are only halfway as it remains to make choices to address opposing issues whether economic, social, or environmental. There will never be a solution that can perfectly fix one side without compromising the other so that the whole art of responsible innovators is to find the “good” balance between aspects. Given this subtlety, this process must not be seen as a “one shot” action but more as a path with continuous rethinking of the way we do things while relying on our collective judgment.
And at the end, we made it! We collectively deployed all our energy towards studying the problem while facing opposing constraints and opinions. We delivered concrete and detailed suggestions that address every tiny issue of the problem. Of course, all suggestions are not easy to deploy, but there is a long path to take towards sustainability, and broadly speaking, no matter what humans decide, we will take the path. The real question is whether we want to decide its outcome or let the planet remind us that nothing happens without consequence.
Thank you to Xavier Pavie for organizing this amazing experience that is a model of "doing good" and thank you to all Global MBA, ESSEC Business School staff and students who supported this wonderful initiative. I am very proud and honored that I was part of it !
Want to know more about the Global MBA?
