The winning essay in the Ashridge 2006 Best European MBA Essay Award calls for business schools to play a major role in the development of socially responsible managers.
The award, run by Ashridge Business School in association with the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS), and supported this year by Microsoft, has been won for the first time by a participant on the Ashridge full-time MBA programme, Jason Darrow. The award aims to recognise the most thought provoking essays written by MBA students on the responsibilities of business in a knowledge economy.
Jason’s "How can I be expected to understand all this?" argues that there has been a major change in the complexity of doing business and therefore business education must change to help managers develop new skills. Given the new complexity of global business, business education needs to help future leaders and managers develop the skills to meet contemporary challenges such as geo-political movements and global resource sustainability.
Jason says: "While it is up to individual managers to make decisions, business schools should drive the codes and methods of conduct just as medical schools do for doctors. Business schools could institute an oath (similar to the Hippocratic oath) which provides consumers with the trust in business to do no harm. A shift from “provide return to shareholders,” to “do no harm,” would require a new focus for management development."
See full Press Release.
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