#GNW2015: WBCSD to Host Global Network Week on Business and Sustainability

March 3, 2015

Koç University Graduate School of Business (Turkey)

City:

Istanbul, Turkey

Topic & Description:

From Local to Global: Concepts, Frameworks, and Analytical Tools Necessary to Develop an Effective Global Strategy

Globalization has changed the dynamics of business irrevocably. Today’s companies must operate on a much larger scale and in an environment of global competitiveness where product development, market needs, customers’ targets must take into account multiple cultures, collaborations and regional developments. Even for companies that do not intend to “go abroad,” the entry of foreign companies into their home markets makes a better understanding of global strategy a necessity if not a requisite for survival. The goal of this course is to introduce you to concepts, frameworks, and analytical tools necessary to develop an effective global strategy. There will be case studies and a presentation by student group teams on companies visited.

Program Schedule

Accommodation & Travel:

Accommodation & Travel Information

Contact:

Başak Yalman (byalman@ku.edu.tr)

Yasemin Soydaş (ysoydas@ku.edu.tr)

 

For the first time, Global Network Week has expanded beyond the walls of an academic institution. This month, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) will host its own network week, the first organization outside the Global Network to present a course.

For the first time, Global Network Week has expanded beyond the walls of an academic institution. This month, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) will host its own network week, the first organization outside the Global Network to present a course.

The weeklong course, titled “Action2020: Scaling Up Business Solutions,” focuses on how businesses can positively shape environmental and social trends; it will be held March 16-20 at the Council’s headquarters in Geneva. “We want the course to be a bridge for students between the classroom and innovation/business action,” says Rodney Irwin, managing director of the WBCSD’s Education and Redefining Value programs. “By the end of the week, the students should be up to speed on what the business community is doing to address sustainability from both a natural and social capital perspective.”

The WBCSD has a partnership with the Yale School of Management, the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Yale’s Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY), and in July 2014 sponsored the first Global Network Week for faculty, which brought faculty from across the network to Yale to discuss sustainability. In January, Yale SOM hosted the first week of the WBCSD’s Future Leaders Program.

The WBCSD’s course in Geneva will include classroom discussions, case studies, and meetings with the WBCSD directors leading the organization’s projects on managing climate change, agribusiness, safe and sustainable materials, and social impact. Students will also visit two leading Swiss businesses, Nestlé and Firmenich, to hear firsthand about how they have made sustainable innovation and practices part of their mission, Irwin says.

“Sustainability, if executed as part of a core strategy of a business, is a value-creating activity and not a cost,” Irwin says. “We want to bring sustainability out of the classroom and into a more practical setting. We’re very keen on having sustainability integrated into management education and the way the Global Network schools think about that is extremely exciting and very much welcomed by the World Business Council.”