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The Hoffmann Institute Turns One!

HGIBS-NewsletterY2Q1-story

The Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society

The Hoffmann Institute Turns One!

The Hoffmann Institute Turns One!

Hoffmann Institute News (Q1).

As CEOs make noise about the need to move from shareholder to stakeholder, we at the Hoffmann Institute are celebrating our first year of efforts to transform business education, so that leaders and organisations generate both profit and societal progress. Here are some of our achievements since September 2019.

 

We turned One!

We celebrated our first anniversary in October 2019 and for the occasion revamped the Hoffmann Institute website. We are striving to keep moving forward and exploring means to make INSEAD a sustainable school that acts and leads by example.

We appointed a new Deputy Academic Director, Mark Stabile

Our newly appointed Deputy Academic Mark Stabile is the Professor of Economics, and the Stone Chaired Professor of Wealth Inequality at INSEAD. He also directs the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality at INSEAD. A recipient of the Carolyn Tuohy award in Public Policy, the John Polanyi Prize in Economics, the Harry Johnson Prize from the Canadian Economics Association and an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Rotman School, Professor Stabile has advised the Governments of the United States, Canada, and Ontario, among others, on health care reform and programs to reduce child poverty.

We launched a new chair on environment sustainability held by Atalay Atasu thanks to Bianca and James Pitt

Bianca and James Pitt MBA’94D have a deep interest in sustainability. They also actively advocate and support environmental causes. Their recent leadership gift enabled the school to establish a Chair in Environmental Sustainability that will be a permanent source of raising awareness and generating knowledge on environmental issues.

Dr. Atalay Atasu has received various awards, including the Wickham Skinner Best Paper Award (winner 2007, runner up 2014), Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Award (2012), Paul Kleindorfer Award in Sustainability (2013) and the M&SOM Responsible Research Award (2019). His research focus is on socially and environmentally responsible operations management, with topics of interest including the circular economy, extended producer responsibility, and environmental regulation.

In an event co-sponsored by the Hoffmann Institute and the “Institut de la transition environnementale”, researchers from INSEAD and parts of the greater Sorbonne University Alliance met to discuss sustainability and the need to collaborate and share findings to notably find successful and innovative solutions to climate change.

We mapped INSEAD research against the UN Sustainable development goals to identify three strategic clusters of solutions

A large part of the efforts at the Hoffmann Institute leverage upon INSEAD’s leading research on management education to contribute to the UN sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our mapping of INSEAD research suggests that our main added value reside around three main clusters of SDGs:

3_main_clusters.png

Research-based solutions in these areas help decision makers understand how to foster change towards enhanced contributions to the SDGs.

We welcomed a new elective on sustainable finance thanks to Lucie Tepla

The new elective entitled, “Sustainable Finance” is now being taught in INSEAD classrooms by Affiliate Professor of Finance, Lucie Tepla. Jean Rogers, founder of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and member of the Hoffmann Institute Advisory Board, was a guest lecturer on “Measuring Financial Materiality” in the course.

Professor Tepla’s research interests include portfolio investment, derivatives, term-structure modelling and risk management. She has taught graduate level and executive education classes in Investment Science at Stanford University. In addition, she has also previously worked for BZW, Credit Suisse and Cornerstone Research, a litigation-consulting firm.

We launched the Hugo Van Berckel prize for the winners of the Master Strategist Day

The Master Strategist Day is a core strategy class of the MBA programme. The MBA Class of over 500 students are presented with a real impact organization (eg. the South African Unjani Clinics in 2018), and are asked to analyse the organisation and suggest strategic options allowing it to achieve its strategic goals. Teams then presented their findings in front of a panel of judges comprised of professors from different academic areas and the organisation’s CEO. The Institute supported the case development for this course and the accompanying business and society practicum. During their 30th year reunion, MBA’89D, in a touching tribute to Hugo van Berckel, announced the Hugo van Berckel Prize for social impact. Over the next ten years, the prize will be awarded to the winning team of the Master Strategist Day to help implement their strategies, develop new case studies on social impact and support internships. The Hoffmann Institute will work with the prize winners to take their social impact to the next level.

We partnered with Schmidt Futures to offer impact fellowships to our young graduates

Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative, founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt that supports individuals striving to make our world better. They aim to help people to achieve more for others by applying advanced science and technology thoughtfully and by working together across fields. The Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) programme for INSEAD MBA alumni and past participants of INSEAD's Social Entrepreneurship Programme is designed to provide some of the world’s most talented people with the opportunity to incubate new ideas for public good and to invest in efforts with the potential for impact at scale.

We held our first Life Long Learning webinar with WWF President Pavan Sukdev on integrated P&L

With an incredible 1,356 registrants and over 450 live viewers, this hugely successful webinar delved into the current defects of the functioning of the economy, the impact of the externalities produced by businesses, and how we can be more accountable by measuring and reporting on natural, human and social capital.

Pavan Sukhdev is the WWF International President and a member of the Hoffmann Institute Advisory Board. As the Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Environment, he is passionate about promoting TEEB implementation and Green Economy transitions around the world.

We launched our #SDGSMART campaign

The #SDGSMART campaign will highlight INSEAD’s actions on the SDGs, engage on why the SDGs are important and the future of the SDGs in business education. In addition, it will promote events like the SDG Week on campus, SDG Tent in Davos and the Business and Society Forum on Health at the ChangeNow Summit. #SDGSMART will shine a light on how INSEAD is leading the transformation towards the SDGs and empowering current and future leaders to do the same.

We produced a film with Reuters on business education in the 21st century

We produced a documentary film (thanks to Andre Hoffmann’s sponsorship) in partnership with the Business Debate division of Reuters about the creation of the Hoffmann Institute, and the need to transform business education to bring economic development in line with the interests of society.

We designed the first INSEAD community impact challenge with super engaged alumni

Led and powered by the alumni working closely with the Hoffmann Institute, the INSEAD Community Impact Challenge aims to mobilise our dynamic global community as a transformative force for societal progress, by tackling the issue of plastic pollution. By joining the challenge, participants will commit to stop using specific single-use plastic items for the duration of the challenge. In addition, participants are welcome to extend the challenge – or part of it – to their family and organisation.

We published the INSEAD Sustainability report

The Hoffmann Institute produced the INSEAD Sustainability Report to show where we are and what should be done to be more sustainable. The report is organised around the Institute’s pillars – Knowledge, Teaching, Engagement and how we Walk the Talk – using this structure to build strategies, set objectives and change the way we conduct business. A SDG Mapping mark by the Global Reporting Institute shows extensive alignment with the SDGs, and will help INSEAD further integrate the SDGs across the school.

We launched a new employee volunteering scheme to increase our impact with local communities

Working with HR over the summer, we launched a new employee volunteering scheme that will allow each employee of INSEAD to work one day a year with local organisations to increase our positive contributions to communities around our campuses.

We earned three shout-outs from the FT on best practices for sustainability in business education

In a special report by the FT, three INSEAD entries were highlighted for best practices around sustainability, ethics and social purpose. After asking business schools around the world to share examples of their social impact activities related to faculty research, teaching, student projects and operations, a panel of expert judges conducted their assessment. With three mentions, it shows INSEAD is heading in the right direction to ensure sustainable practices in the school and its activities.

Follow us on social media to stay updated!

Until then, stay SDG Smart and see you soon!

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