The sustainability week took place on November 26th-30th and the course was co-designed and taught by Prof. Dr. Karolin Frankenberger (Academic Director, Executive MBA, Director Institute of Management and Strategy, School of Management, University of St.Gallen) and Barbara Kux (Sustainability Main Lecturer, Executive MBA). With their proven track record in pioneering, implementing and researching sustainability, they were able to shed light on the competitive advantage of a sustainable business strategy and encouraged students to have a positive impact \u2013 not only on their companies but also on the world.<\/p>\n
The course offered a think-tank-style deliberation and presentations from different industry experts. The guest speakers were comprised of Christophe Boussemart, Sustainability Program Manager at Nespresso, Urs Jaisli, Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Corporate Sustainability at Roche, Christian Leitz, Head of Corporate Responsibility Management at UBS, and Federico Merlo, Managing Director of Member Relations at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The learning experience was capped by a sustainability project pitch relating to the students\u2019 own organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cSustainability is inherently about the three P\u2019s: People, Planet and Profit,\u201d stated Barbara Kux. \u201cOrganizations must focus on all three goals, and not only on profit maximization. With this course, our main aim was to make students enthusiastic about sustainability, as well as to provide them with strategic tools, and discuss strategies from a range of industries.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot about new sectors and how sustainability actually applies in different ways in energy, in finance, in investing, or in pharmaceuticals,\u201d Owen Bethell (IEMBA Cohort 6) summarized at the end of the course, \u201cand I learned to think about sustainability in a holistic sense.\u201d<\/p>\n \n