CEMS alumni seminar on Sustainable Business Models
An engaged alumni audience gathered at NHH in Oslo on 24 April to learn about recent CEMS and Sustainable Business Models research and practice at NHH.
Sustainable business models to the masses
It is expected that businesses today work to reach sustainability goals, but how can they do this in practice? The CEMS strategic partnership project "Sustainable Business Models" has produced open access teaching modules which address this challenge.
The open access teaching modules are available through an information portal developed by NHH as part of the project outputs. Around 32 videos and numerous case interviews make up the teaching video modules now available at the Sustainable Business Models portal www.sustbus.com. For example this first module:
The Erasmus Plus funded «Sustainable Business Models Project» has its origins in the popular NHH CEMS-approved course offered at the Master level.
The course provides an introduction to sustainable business models and outlines the central challenge designing and innovating business models that are both sustainable and profitable. This course has been an important arena to test sustainable business models research, as have similar courses at CBS and ESADE.
At an event at Copenhagen Business School recently, for the local business community, project leader Lars Jacob Tynes Pedersen and his colleague Sveinung Jørgensen, both from NHH, took centre-stage to set the context for the event and introduce the video modules. Presentations were then made by Chief Executive Officers at KLS Pure Print and Skagerak, illustrating how sustainability design has been implemented and has innovated their businesses.
Sustainable Business Models Project
The project was funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme for the European Union for two and a half years until recently, and has been a collaboration between NHH Norwegian School of Economics and CEMS academic partners Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and ESADE Business School (ESADE).
The event also opened up for a discussion on the usefulness of project outputs to research, education and practice. Questions were raised on how research in sustainable business models can support practice, and how to promote sustainable business models to students.
Additional Sustainable Business Model-seminars have been delivered at partner schools as part of the project. With project funding allocated to student mobility, the project has enabled 13 students to travel between schools to participate in activities. Among these activities, NHH welcomed nine CEMS students from CBS and ESADE to join the CEMS Responsible Global Leadership seminar on Sustainable Business Models in both 2018 and 2019.
Value work-life balance
Opportunities for work life balance, quick career progression and the chance for early stage impact are crucial factors for young professionals seeking a new role in 2019, a global CEMS survey finds.