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Social Impact at INSEAD

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Social Impact at INSEAD

We take a brief look at INSEAD’s journey with sustainability, social impact and its milestones over the years to walk-the-talk.

In 1970, Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman asserted that the only social responsibility companies had was to increase profits. Gradually, Friedman’s dictum was challenged, as people began to look to businesses to be more responsible – especially in the last decade. According to the Governance and Accountability Institute, 20% of S&P 500 companies published Corporate Social Responsibility reports in 2011. Five years later, this number jumped to 80%. Companies increasingly explored the intent to contribute to the common good, with some adding action to the intent, like INSEAD. While our sustainability report is a new way for us to measure our progress, our relationship with driving responsible business is not a new one.

For 60 years, the school has played an important role in developing responsible business leaders. From aligning with the 1987 Brundtland Report published by the United Nations, to establishing the Centre for the Management of Environmental and Social Responsibility (CMER) in 1989, the journey has continually developed to adapt and ensure we graduate leaders that focus on creating economic and social and environmental value.

Eventually, the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre was launched in September 2007 under the academic directorship of Professor Luk Van Wassenhove. “There are lots of problems that people will ask companies to have a much higher responsibility in trying to help solve,” he predicted, while highlighting that more importantly companies will likely “see the need - the problem is can they act upon it?”

Since then, INSEAD has gone onto establishing the INSEAD Gender Initiative in 2008, along with other centers and initiatives tackling research and solutions for issues like wealth inequalityhealthcare management, and social impact. More recently, the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society was founded in August 2018 for a more cohesive approach to the school’s sustainability efforts, with a landmark gift from André Hoffmann MBA’90D and his wife, Rosalie Hoffmann. Believing in its mission to instill sustainability throughout the school, André mentioned, “Transformation to true sustainability will not happen without a new generation of leaders willing and able to change the status quo.”

Under its Founding Executive Director Katell le Goulven, the Hoffmann Institute brings together world-class INSEAD faculty and staff, researchers, business leaders, alumni and a diverse student body, to drive sustainability and align the school with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The school has (and continues to) amplified and supported other enterprises and individuals in their valuable efforts of social impact over the years. As early as 2006 it pioneered a top-level INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Executive Education Program (ISEP) in collaboration with the Schwab Foundation, Ashoka and others who sought to bring advanced management skills to the leaders of their social impact organizations. ISEP has continued to innovate and expand to include cutting-edge theory and practice for impact businesses and become one of the most prestigious programs of its kind. Those now sending their awardees to ISEP has grown to include other renowned awards such as the Cartier Women’s Initiative, the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge and the European Investment Bank Institute Tournament. Beyond the program itself, INSEAD supports the selection, mentoring and business advice to the participants who join ISEP.  The powerful global network of graduates that has emerged now numbers over 800 and extends to more than 80 countries around the world, many of which are regularly invited to participate at the World Economic Forum and similar global events.  In the decade and a half of conducting the program in Fontainebleau and Singapore participants have led their ventures into new areas of impact, spawned innovation and become leaders in the transformation of their business sectors.

While advancing sustainability has been at the core of INSEAD from the beginning, we are continuing to evolve and put our best foot forward to walk the talk in creating social impact ecosystems and inspiring our community to further the cause of corporate social responsibility and positive social and environment impact.

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