As conversations on the environmental impacts of industrialization intensify, it is almost impossible to continue with “business as usual”. Committed to changing the narrative, ESSEC Asia-Pacific launched its Responsible Leadership and Sustainability module to equip tomorrow’s business leaders with the knowledge, conviction, and vision to drive a greener future.
The butterfly effect is often used to describe the impact of environmental degradation, but just how far-reaching are the consequences?
The 1970 Bhola cyclone gives us a glimpse: when it raged through East Pakistan, it wasn’t just lives and infrastructure that were devastated — its government was in further disrepair, it triggered a civil war, and a newly independent country, Bangladesh, was formed.
Global scrutiny of the aftermath fueled the political fire, arguably catalyzing the road to Bangladesh’s autonomy and the development of the country as we know it today, demonstrating how the effects of an environmental disaster cannot be contained in time or space.
Another example is the civil war in Syria, which was preceded by crop failure and mass migration because of a five-year drought. These are a few examples that ESSEC Asia-Pacific participants discussed during their Responsible Leadership and Sustainability module.
The Responsible Leadership and Sustainability is an eight-session course exclusively available to the Global Master of Business Administration (GMBA) and a five-session course for the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) participants at ESSEC’s Asia-Pacific campus in Singapore.
Read the five-part feature on the Responsible Leadership and Sustainability course.
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Part 1: Awareness Within The Ranks
Modules like this are important. Even as the global conversation about sustainability grows and business leaders become aware of the problems caused by climate change, “they still have little to no awareness of the consequences of their decisions,” Arijit Chatterjee, Associate Professor of the Management Department at ESSEC states.
“There is a need to make them more aware of how business decisions can increase global warming and deplete non-renewable resources,” he asserts.
With this in mind, Chatterjee designed the module to ensure the participants gain a thorough understanding of what sustainability is, the consequences of everyday decisions, and the difference between short-term value capture and long-term value creation.
With this in mind, Chatterjee designed the module to ensure participants gain a thorough understanding of what sustainability is, the consequences of everyday decisions, and the difference between short-term value capture and long-term value creation.
Noting that businesses often lack the managerial expertise to implement sustainability policies successfully, he selected case studies on big corporations such as Nike and Unilever and anecdotes from small firms.
For a more diverse view, Chatterjee invited guest speakers from the sustainability field to share their learnings. Here, participants further explored their own discovery with real-world experiences.
Debates were encouraged, and participants were urged to reflect on their own goals, so they leave with facts and the conviction to address complex problems with both confidence and compassion.
Part 2: Rude Awakenings
For many, like GMBA participants Catherine Aliana Villarosa and Mariana Possari Goncalves, the process was a rude awakening.
During the climate change workshop, a particularly poignant activity for Catherine was when participants had to create a cause-and-effect map on climate change.
“I saw how human activities triggered a chain of seemingly harmless scientific events that eventually led to catastrophe,” she recalls, adding: “It made me feel frustrated and shocked, but also empowered in a sense that I felt more educated about the topic.”
Mariana was also horrified to find that her carbon footprint was far higher than the recommended two tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. “I’ve started to consider more sustainable consumption choices,” she exclaims.
“I saw how human activities triggered a chain of seemingly harmless scientific events that eventually led to catastrophe. It made me feel frustrated and shocked, but also empowered in a sense that I felt more educated about the topic.”
For other participants, there were also moments of enlightenment.
“I had heard of corporate social responsibility, and I knew sustainability was a part of that. But I thought of it at a more macro level — that there would be regulations which have to come about to make changes,” GMBA participant, Benish Aslam says. “I didn’t know what individual role I could play in that until taking part in the course.”
For her classmate, Stephane Andriasolo, the takeaway was slightly different. Growing up in Madagascar meant he was all too familiar with the costs of global warming. What he was less aware of, however, was how the rest of the world saw it.
One of the highlights of the module was that “it allowed us to open the discussion on sensible and delicate subjects.” After all, he adds that by having these difficult conversations and respecting each other’s opinions, learning and change can occur.
Part 3: The Currency Of Responsibility
One of the biggest debates during the Responsible Leadership and Sustainability module, of course, revolved around the age-old question: will a focus on sustainability erode profits? Industry practitioners were invited to weigh in on this and many other topics during an open discussion with ESSEC APAC's Global MBA and Executive MBA participants.
To Constant Van Aerschot, Director Asia Pacific at World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the answer is a straight no. After all, if businesses were to put a price on externalities created, they would probably find their profits are far lower than they think.
When he spoke at ESSEC, he drew attention to product life cycle analysis and the need for financial impact accounting — to measure the actual cost to the environment when a product is developed and used.
He notes that with the shift to a low carbon economy, there are opportunities to profit by developing innovations and products that fulfill market needs without having as huge an environmental impact.
What he hoped students would take away is that “businesses can choose to position themselves as a winner, or a loser, depending on how they make decisions.”
What he hoped students would take away is that “businesses can choose to position themselves as a winner, or a loser, depending on how they make decisions.”
Srikumar Misra, Founder and CEO of Milk Mantra, an ethical dairy startup, added to the discussion with examples of how systems thinking and technology have allowed him to develop a sustainable dairy-foods business, supporting over 80,000 farmers through ethical sourcing and impacting over a million people.
“Utilizing the right framework, profit and sustainability are one and the same, and a responsible business approach can generate outlier financial returns,” he explains, reiterating the need for sustainability to be at the core of the company's DNA.
Part 4: Sowing The Seeds Of Sustainability
Srikumar Misra, Founder, and CEO of Milk Mantra, and a guest speaker at ESSEC Asia-Pacific believe that sustainability is more of an afterthought. The reason? “We tend to look at social businesses as having a certain set of objectives, and businesses with growth goals that are pursuing financial metrics, as having different ones.”
Business schools need to take initiative to change the narrative. “It’s in everybody’s interest that sustainability is understood and taught in business schools, so when students go out into the real world, they understand what they need to do,” asserts Constant Van Aerschot from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Results may not be instant, but Misra has faith that the seeds sown will eventually take root. After all, back when he was a student in the business school, there were no modules catered specifically to sustainability. It was through a class on governance that he was first introduced to the concepts.
“The readings and thoughts stayed with me, and later in life, I began to understand how important it is."
“The readings and thoughts stayed with me, and later in life, I began to understand how important it is,” he muses.
It is also important to remember that change is not only created by leaders of a business, Van Aerschot says. “Employees are the number one stakeholder of a company” and have a significant influence on how a business conducts its operations, he explains.
For example, “Shell stopped drilling in the Arctic because it would upset employees if they did. Unilever gets two million applicants a year, simply because they are seen as a more sustainable company.”
Part 5: A Course Of Action
The idea that anyone can make a difference is an inspiring thought and one that has been etched into the minds of the participants.
Besides altering her current consumption habits, Mariana Possari Goncalves, a GMBA participant, has committed to following the new sustainability developments and “adopt them as much as possible.” Her coursemate, Catherine Aliana Villarosa, “will be looking for companies that value sustainability practices and make efforts to being more responsible.”
The knowledge has also inspired Benish Aslam, a fellow GMBA participant, to take steps to reduce the environmental footprint on the job. While working in the healthcare sector pre-MBA, she saw technology as a solution to alleviate the repercussions of climate change on health. The feeling was that the resulting e-waste was an inevitable consequence of the new approach.
Now, she’s begun to see how technology like telemedicine can also target the root of the problem and is aware of initiatives to reduce the sector’s overall environmental footprint.
It’s an uphill battle… but he strongly feels that “even if we cannot solve everything, we need to start somewhere and make a change at our own scale.”
“With the impact of COVID, the inertia for change has been overcome in some way, and now we just need to propel the healthcare sector further in this direction,” she shares.
“In the world of sustainability, we are not powerless. Everything is in our hands,” Stephane Andriasolo, Benish’s coursemate, chimes in, adding that he feels it is his “duty” to raise awareness for the planet, no matter where his career takes him.
He acknowledges that it may be a huge, uphill battle and that there will be many challenges to be overcome, but he strongly feels that “even if we cannot solve everything, we need to start somewhere and make a change at our own scale.”
Chatterjee adds, “We reflected not only on the managerial but also on the structural aspects of doing business: the building blocks of the listed corporation and newer forms of organizations.”
He is hopeful that the course is just one of the many steps in the right direction. “It is too early to say how this will impact our students’ careers. We should compare notes a few years later.”