Business in Society (2235.YR.000841.1)

General information

Type:	OBL	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	4 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	Guillermo Casasnovas Cavestany	Esade	ENG

Welcome to Business in Society (BiS)! In this course, we explore the role of business beyond generating profits for its shareholders, for which we have two broad goals:

First, we want to get a better grasp of the challenges that we face. For that, we take a look at the current state of the planet, and we consider what might result from the overuse of natural resources, from damage to ecosystems, and from highly inequitable wealth distribution within and across countries. Importantly, what do these challenges mean for business? Today, firms and organizations of all kinds are faced with the challenge of environmental and social sustainability, often urged on by consumers, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders. How to rethink the relation of business with society and the environment forms part of this challenge.

Second, we seek to gain an understanding of the role that business can and must play in moving to a future based on environmental sustainability and social justice. Firms are key to this shift since they have the power and the resources to enact the needed changes. Yet this shift poses both opportunities and risks for firms. For some, the challenge of sustainability offers possibilities for new products and services, for reinventing old ones, for solving problems in new ways, and for reaping economic and reputation benefits from pursuing sustainabilty-oriented strategies and innovation. Others, however, face real struggles with far from obvious solutions.

As these challenges of the so-called impact economy are increasingly central to business strategy, marketing professionals have a key role to play. Today, marketing's role goes beyond traditional marketing tasks and can help with transforming firms, markets, and the political and social environment. The BiS course analyzes where marketing fits in this task of translating real-world challenges into future business opportunities and of creating the change needed, at the pace needed, for a sustainable world.

The principal goal of the BiS course is to equip you with the concepts, frameworks and tools needed to effectively manage the challenge of sustainability and the impact economy in your future career and in your personal decisions. That said, sustainability and impact are complex and continuously evolving topics that do not lend themselves to learning and knowing the "right" answer. In addition, progress toward a more sustainable and fair society depends on our ability to persuade and enroll others. Therefore, in this class, we support you in further developing your critical and systemic thinking, analytical and persuasive writing, as well as effective communication skills.

The three specific learning objectives in the BiS course are:
1) To develop your systems thinking, i.e., your ability to understand complex interactions. We examine the environmental, economic, social, political, and organizational drivers of social and environmental impact, and see how they interact.
2) To critically evaluate existing business initiatives and to create thoughtful recommendations for social and environmental impact strategies. We assess the business case for sustainability, both in the opportunities it presents and in its uncertainties and limitations, and we develop ideas for possible ways forward.
3) To equip you with tools and frameworks to meaningfully inquire into and to reflect on and also to persuasively communicate and to convince others on your choices and actions around the move towards an impact economy.

Cases, readings, and other materials will be provided in the course syllabus.

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 1	Guillermo Casasnovas Cavestany	Esade