The Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society

About the Hoffmann Institute

Founded in August 2018, the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society is at the forefront of aligning INSEAD with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. In order to achieve this, we support research on business and society, inspire and equip future leaders, engage with our global alumni community and external partners to expand our impact, and aspire to make INSEAD a sustainable school that acts and leads by example. The Hoffmann Institute is named in recognition of André and Rosalie Hoffmann for their foundational gift.

Our Strategy Our Team

Our Strategy

We strive to integrate sustainability across all INSEADs activities and mobilise our stakeholders for maximum impact.

Through research, we produce knowledge for a well-managed transition to sustainable economic development.
Through our programmes, we offer transformational learning experiences that open mindsets to ideate and explore creative solutions.
Through our global community, we function as an international agent of change engaged and prepared for direct world impact.
Through our school, we lead by example and walk the talk by integrating sustainability across our global operations.

Knowledge

INSEAD is a management education research leader in producing knowledge. At the Hoffmann Institute, a large part of our efforts consist of leveraging upon this research to inform business world efforts and address three main clusters of SDGs:

Sustainable Models

Research to understand and promote sustainable production and consumption, closed-loop supply chains, hybrid organisations, ethics in business, the science of humanitarian operations, sustainable finance and integrated reporting

Humanitarian Research Group

Inclusion

Research to understand and promote gender balance in business; social entrepreneurship and impact enterprises; and businesses contributions to equity, financial inclusion and social mobility.

INSEAD Gender Initiative | Stone Center for the Study of Wealth Inequality | INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Programme

Wellbeing

Research to understand and promote businesses role in alleviating poverty; increasing access to essential needs and services such as nutritional food, medicines, birth control, and quality education; and improving health systems.

Healthcare Management Initiative | Humanitarian Research Group

This research helps us foster change at different levels in order to contribute towards the SDGs:

Change People - Changing behaviors and mindsets, developing leadership skills, reducing prejudice, adopting ethical approaches.
Change Organisations - Changing procedures and best practices within organizations.
Change Systems - Changing value chains and relationships between various stakeholders and firms.
Change Norms - Changing cultural norms, symbols, stories, and the law.

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Learning

INSEAD maintains one of the most diverse student bodies in the world and graduates one of the largest pool of MBAs yearly. The transformational learning experience provided by our programmes coupled with our efforts to integrate sustainability across our curricula, forges leaders who are equipped with an understanding of sustainability and are prepared to act responsibly to help transform business and society to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

All degree programs include sustainability components. We are furthering the integration of sustainability in our MBA curriculum by:

Setting the stage - Promoting the business and society vision of the school and engaging all our participants in local community impact projects directly related to specific SDGs during orientation week.
Putting at the core - Including a cluster of courses on business and society in the heart of the curriculum while kickstarting the integration of sustainability in other core courses. Today one in two core courses and one third of their content focuses on sustainability.
Broadening options - Expanding our offering of electives that connect to the SDGs. Today 19 of our 75 courses address the topic.

INSEAD offers executive education for organisations around the world. While the majority of participants are from the corporate world, some are impact leaders from civil society organizations, governments, and international organizations who benefit from business-related skills to enhance their contribution to the SDGs.

A growing number of programmes target specific leaders that play a key role in fostering organisational change to achieve the SDGs such as Board members, senior executives and entrepreneurs.

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Engagement

The transformative potential of the INSEAD community is unique with 60,000 alumni located in more than 170 countries, occupying positions of reach and influence. We are increasingly engaging this community and external partners globally on issues related to the SDGs to generate real world impact outside the confines of the school.

Engagement for impact starts in the classroom. Student clubs, community projects, career counselling and scholarships provide further avenues for the INSEAD student body to engage around issues of sustainability.

Alumni engagement is key to proliferating sustainability, especially since many steer global growth as leaders in business and government:

Raising awareness and contributing to lifelong learning of our community through webinars and short programmes
Integrating SDG sessions in alumni reunions and forums.
Working with alumni associations and clubs to encourage leaders to use business as a force for good.
Mobilising our alumni community around tangible SDG-related actions.

INSEAD also strives to expand the reach and impact of sustainability-related engagement through partnerships and affiliations. These partnerships pursue a robust portfolio of activities from awards for women social entrepreneurs to academic partnerships with large impact conferences, to partnerships with like-minded businesses to promote responsible business in the global fora.

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Walk the Talk

Leading the way in transforming business education to contribute to the SDGs requires full integration in every INSEAD campus, department, activity and role. This means:

Knowing how we contribute and committing to improve in particular by lowering our carbon footprint.
Promoting a culture aligned with the SDGs
Making positive contributions to local communities

In order to drive long-term, sustainable efforts that contribute to the SDGs, the continuity and expansion of our strategy is instrumental. By deep-diving into these priorities, INSEAD can bring the importance of the SDGs to the forefront, engage our stakeholders and empower them as agents of change, and benefit not just businesses, but also societies and the world.

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