The inaugural Oxford Sustainable Business Programme was a fantastic experience from start to finish.
The objective of the programme was to provide participants with a thorough grounding in the business implications of urgent sustainability issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and respect for human rights, supported by a full schedule of daily lectures, experiential learning sessions and networking opportunities with faculty and other participants. In all these areas, the programme lived up to its billings, and more!
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford is youthful and energetic in its culture, having been founded relatively recently in 1997, and is able to draw on the expertise of colleagues from across the university in delivering its programmes. We were privileged to have been taught by faculty from Saïd Business School, the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, and the Blavatnik School of Government, who all gave generously of their time, sharing relevant research studies and responding to the plethora of pertinent questions raised by participants. The cross-disciplinary design of the programme mirrors the cross-disciplinary nature of how businesses manage, measure and report sustainability-related risks and opportunities to investors and other key stakeholders.
The daily lectures covered a wide variety of sustainability issues of relevance to the strategic direction of twenty-first century businesses and national economies. I admit to being a little apprehensive before I arrived in Oxford on the eve of the programme that it would not be sufficiently business focussed but my fears were allayed by the warm welcoming words from the academic programme directors, Sam Fankhauser and Mary Johnstone-Louis. The panel of programme facilitators, drawn from amongst the academic faculty of the university and the external business environment, were absolutely brilliant in supporting all of us through the five very intense days of the programme and, importantly, helping us shape the presentations we made on the final day outlining our strategy for how we would support our own businesses, government departments, and not-for-profits with accelerating the transition to sustainable business models.
The intensity of the programme generated an internal momentum and energy amongst participants which carried us through to the wrap up on Friday afternoon. Evenings were spare time only in so far as we pivoted towards enriching social and networking opportunities, including a formal meal at one of the oldest Oxford colleges (endowed by a wealthy widow in the thirteenth century and therefore an elegant metaphor for the enduring power of female foresight and entrepreneurial spirit!), a guided walking tour of some of Oxford’s iconic and beautiful buildings, evening meals with guest speakers in Saïd Business School itself and a unique experience learning first-hand about one’s leadership style in a beautiful Oxford college chapel. I will not spoil the surprise by saying any more about this but suffice it to say I find myself reflecting on the insights this exercise revealed several months later!
Programmes of this nature are made, first and foremost, by those who convene and deliver the content and those who contribute as participants. Our peer group was drawn from all over the world and it was the different perspectives wrought by this which contributed greatly to the depth of the learning experience. Hearing first hand about the challenges of a sustainable nuclear fission (yes, I really do mean this, not fusion!) business model, of transitioning an oil-based economy to a diversified one within a generation, of the sustainable production of beverages fundamentally dependent on biodiversity net gain, and many more, challenged the settled view one may have had before the programme began of what one means by sustainable business or a sustainable economy. Friendships were formed as we experienced this collective baptism by fire and were subsequently bathed by the cooling waters of a deeper and more informed understanding of the solutions to the issues we were discussing.
The University of Oxford is the world’s best university and this programme at one of the world’s top business schools certainly lived up to the reputation which precedes them both. I would thoroughly recommend that any seasoned business executive who thirsts for a deeper understanding of how sustainability issues are irrevocably shaping the business environment drinks deep at such a blessed fountain of knowledge in Oxford.
Find out more about the Oxford Sustainable Business Programme
