We thought a blog hiatus during summer might be a good idea. It’s important for all of us to refresh and recharge for what will be an exciting year ahead. However, this summer has been almost as full as one could hope, spent with innovative and inspiring business education colleagues. So, I decided to share some.

In early June, the United Nations PRME Global Forum (its first in-person forum since 2017), was hosted by Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business on their lovely Manhattan campus. I attended as did a number of my colleagues from Cornell. Please take a moment to reflect on the updated preamble for PRME:

“As institutions of higher education, we prepare people to serve society and safeguard our planet with their work in and for organizations. Grounded in the principles of sustainable development, we believe that all people have the right to live with dignity and to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Responsible management education, therefore, seeks to develop people who will help their organizations create inclusive prosperity while promoting freedom, justice, and peace within regenerative and resilient natural ecosystems.

To be responsible is to be attentive to impact and time. Responsible decision makers look forward and back as they live in the moment. Looking ahead, they are responsible not just to current and future generations but to all life on the planet. Looking back, they are accountable for their actions, those taken and those avoided.

And so, with enthusiasm, we join a worldwide community of like-minded educational institutions to promote our aspirations, document our initiatives, share our lessons learned, and help each other address our challenges. By embracing these seven principles, we hope to inspire and enable a better world through responsible management practices.”

My favorite part of the preamble is the challenge to look “forward and back” as responsible leaders. The director of PRME, Dr. Mette Morsing, opened the proceedings with the reminder that, of all college graduates worldwide, 70 million study business, law, policy, and economics. That’s an annual figure! Hundreds of PRME fellows from all over the world were present, and ready to light the fires of connection as we do our best to give this legion the skills they’ll need.

Priorities and principles and discoveries were shared at a hungry creative speed. From the planetary boundaries (the scientific information that must be comprehended across all of our disciplines), circularity, renewal, focus on effects and strategies to use them as part of the production process, pedagogy, collaboration, rankings by organizations and students, regenerative capitalism, regional supply chains. Powerful intellect coupled with strong intentions about the future of our planet were on everyone’s sleeves, which were rolled up.

PRME is itself experiencing a wave of renewal. Ivey School Professor Tima Bansal takes the Global Chair position from the able hands of outgoing INSEAD Dean Ilian Mihov, bringing with her decades of leadership and network-building in the name of sustainable business value. I am truly proud to represent as a board member and, starting in August, to step in as Global Vice Chair.

No less a planet hero than Jane Goodall led off the proceedings sending us a message outlining her four causes for hope:  Human intellect, nature’s resilience, the power of youth, and the essential human spirit. This is hanging above my desk now.

Upskilling to meet the challenges of the day

The Aspen Institute Business & Society Program‘s ESG Summit offered up wonderful engagement with CSOs (Chief Sustainability Officers), ESG investment officers from leading organizations, and government leaders. Big themes were on ESG in the headlines, the need to understand better those who oppose it, and how best for the narrative and best practices to evolve to increase societal impact and inspire change. I am so grateful to Aspen Institute leadership, including Judy Samuelson and her first class team, for their warm welcome and to the many participants I met and learned from. The big takeaway from the CSOs and investment officers was the massive, system-wide need for upskilling of professionals to meet the challenge of integrating sustainability best practices into supply chain strategy and investment processes/protocols. Needless to say, as the dean in the room, I sat up straight and took note. We have work to do, at Cornell and all top schools.

The second annual Cornell ESG Investing Research Conference took place here in beautiful upstate New York last week. Over 60 papers were submitted, and six were featured and discussed. The presenters were awesome, some with provocative new findings, one example on potential manipulation of ESG ratings of mutual funds (Green Window Dressing by Gianpaolo Parise, Mirco Rubin: SSRN). Our keynote speaker, BlackRock’s Andrew Ang, thrilled the assembled with an illustration of the Net Zero Portfolio for sustainable alpha, presiding over a sumptuous farm-to-table meal by Healthy Food for All. This most bucolic of settings allowed us all to engage viscerally with the best of the world we work to protect.

I look forward to taking such key learnings back to catalyze change at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and other key stakeholder organizations, like Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM), Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), and Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), all vitally engaged in the debate.

The recipe of human connection

All of which led to the fantastic Icons & Innovators Awards Banquet at the Ziegfeld in New York City. Emcee’d by some of Nolan’s most celebrated recent industry pros, Will Guidara ’01 of Eleven Madison Park, and Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti ’97, the event was an effervescent celebration of Nolan’s lively alumni engagement!

Guidara offers some excellent reflections on “responsible” management in his book Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect. He believes “we are on the precipice of becoming a hospitality economy” and focuses on making sure that every member of an enterprise is seen, is known, is welcome. He stresses the value of caring and trying. This encourages staff to be more perceptive and creative, and to feel more valued, which in turn spreads organically to the clientele. He argues that if we can be unreasonable in the pursuit of human connection, all involved will benefit. Respecting the moment of inspiration, he intones “one size fits one.” It’s a good thought.

“People want to know they matter,” reminds Guidara, and I agree. Let me take this space to shine a light on our team who makes this annual extravaganza happen. In addition to providing some rousing connectivity, the event raises profile for the Nolan School of Hotel Administration’s and supports its annual fund. A wonderful celebration to cap our Nolan School’s centennial celebrations!

And I cannot leave without mentioning:

Community first is a core value of our college: the people around us, with whom we work every day, matter, and they know they matter. That’s what I love about Cornell and this college. Last month we celebrated our colleagues as we do annually, and the pride, respect, and shared values were infectious.

Then, last week, our dear colleague Srinagesh Gavirneni left the world too young. A warm and present friend to everyone he met, Nagesh reminded us that the global community begins right here. Nagesh, we are stronger, better, and more remarkable because of you. Rest in peace, dear friend.