Egypt expects
To COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and the words of Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN’s climate change champion for the big event: “Every company, bank insurer and investor will have to adjust their business models, develop credible plans for the transition and implement them.”
His startling words came in a LinkedIn post to accompany events at the annual meeting that attempts to avert the planet’s impending disaster with climate change.
That came after UN Secretary General António Guterres told the conference: “We’re on a highway to climate hell.”
Business will have to play its part and there are no jokes to be made about this.
Purpose reigns
Coming to a business school near you: purpose. A new report from the British Academy—a long time proponent of placing “purpose” at the heart of business thinking—says the concept should be at the heart of teaching in business and management schools.
The report builds on previous academy reports, which concluded that “the purpose of business is to solve the problems of people and planet profitably, and not profit from creating problems.”
That led to a question about business schools and the report—co-authored by Julian Birkinshaw, a professor and vice dean of London Business School, alongside Colin Meyer, emeritus professor at Saïd Business School, Oxford—concludes they play a central role.
“The conclusion that emerges from this is that business schools can support the purpose agenda by putting problem solving at their heart.”
And they do this is three ways: putting purpose at the heart of the curriculum; building purpose in the institutions of business education; and placing problem solving at the heart of business education.
Birkinshaw says: “Today’s business leaders are confronting far-reaching challenges on multiple fronts, including climate change, war, inflation, digital disruption and the aftershocks of a global pandemic.
“Far from shying away from these challenges, young people—the business leaders of the future—aspire to play a role in solving them.”
Amen to that.
Diversity downer Down Under
So macho, those Australian mining firms. Well, that’s what a Bloomberg analysis reveals after finding that “all male” boards appear to be making a comeback.
The analysis looked at four mining companies that recently joined the S&P/ASX 200 group of companies and found that not a single one had a woman on its board.
Bloomberg cites Louise Davidson, chief executive of ACSI, a body which engages on behalf of pension funds, saying: “Once again, there are zero-women boards among the country’s largest listed companies.”
The four new ASX 200 companies should be warned. Davidson says they have a year’s grace to sort out their diversity before ASCI recommends a “vote against” policy.
Australian miners: you’ve dug yourselves a hole. Time to climb out, fill it in and join the modern world.