GOTO: the future of energy

The programme is co-convened this year by Departmental Research Lecturer in Innovation and Enterprise Aoife Brophy Haney and Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Peter Drobac.

Drobac, a global health physician and social entrepreneur, is ensuring the students are equipped with the complex problem-solving skills necessary to navigate the task.

‘What we really want to see from students is a focus on the diagnosis rather than the prescription, if you’ll excuse the medical metaphor,’ he said. ‘We are asking our students to focus their energies on understanding the system, understanding the problem and mapping it out to see where the leverage points for change are.’

As an expert in sustainable energy and technology, Haney has taken the lead in developing the module materials related to the energy theme and has brought in expert tutors and industry practitioners.

‘I’ve been drawing on research and teaching from my Oxford colleagues at the Smith School, the Transport Studies Unit, the Environmental Change Institute and the Engineering and Physics departments, to name just a few,’ explained Haney, who holds a joint position at Saïd Business School with the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

But why should MBA students – the majority of whom will pursue careers outside the energy sector – think about the future of energy?

Back at the GOTO launch, Peter Tufano, Peter Moores Dean and Professor of Finance, addressed a packed hall to explain the importance of the programme and its unique position among business schools.

‘Nobody else does what we're doing,’ he said. ‘MBAs and business leaders in general are the most elite folks in the world. They control resources, they control organisations and those organisations employ people. If business is not solving some of these problems, especially in the world that we live in today, then they will not be solved... and if you read the climate reports, I don't think that this is a problem that we can wait another 15 or 20 years to address.’

A keynote speech by Electron CEO Paul Massara followed. The MBAs were then presented with the four ‘tracks’ that they could choose to base their project on: Energy Supply, Energy Demand Energy Access and the Water-Energy-Food-Nexus. After making their choice, the candidates were split into groups of six.

The teams will work towards the GOTO summit in May, when select groups will present their findings to a panel of leaders from both industry and academia.