Hitotsubashi ICS launched Knowledge Week 2019 with a virtual speaker series on Business actions towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The aim was to introduce students to many cases from many places: speakers from across the Network, from four continents, shared cases of intentional initiatives from businesses to advance the SDGs in their countries and regions. Hitotsubashi ICS students actively participated and exchanged views with the speakers.
Knowledge Week (#KNW2019), a signature feature of the Hitotsubashi ICS MBA since the school's founding, advances students' integration of their leadership development with their awareness and understanding of social and economic issues looming large both currently, and in the future of Japan, Asia, and the world. The objective is to build competence as global leaders, managers, and big-picture thinkers who are prepared to understand a wide range of interests when making business decisions.
The three-day 2019 program devoted to “Business and the SDGs” featured group discussions, virtual sessions with experts from Global Network partner schools from all around the world, a simulation game, an in-person panel, and a film screening.
Speakers included:
- Todd Cort, Yale SOM: The SDGS and the Global Business Student (New Haven)
- Sebastian Gatica, PUC Chile: Hybrid Organizations and the Emergence of B Corps in Latin America (Santiago)
- Murali Chandrashekaran, UBC Sauder: The UN Global Compact, Coca Cola and SDG5: Gender equality (Vancouver)
- Rofikoh Rokhim, UI: Indonesia's SDG advancement program (Depok)
- Felipe Calderon, AIM Phillippines: Sustainable Banking in the Philippines (Manila)
- Kutlwano Ramaboa, UCT: UCT's Local Initiative: Solution Space Philippi Hub (Cape Town)
- Damodaran, IIMB: Biodiversity Initiatives in India: A Public Sector Perspective (Bangalore)
- Ijeoma Nwagwu, Lagos Business School (Lagos): The Role of Business in Transforming Food and Agriculture