Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

Transcription

1 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions Report to the 3rd PRME Global Forum Rio de Janeiro, 2012 Prepared by PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education Supported by European Quality Link (EQUAL)

2 Final Report TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... 2 METHODOLOGY RESPONDENT DEMOGRAPHICS RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS PERCEIVED BARRIERS QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS QUALITATIVE RESPONSES CHALLENGES SOLUTIONS OPPORTUNITIES PRME-RELATED IMPLICATIONS/ REFLECTIONS APPENDICES Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

3 Final Report ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education (Anti-Poverty Working Group) wishes to acknowledge the generous support of EQUAL (European QUAlity Link) for the research described in this report. The Working Group consists of 87 members from 68 institutions from 35 countries. In July 2011, the steering team of the Working Group met at a workshop in Bled, Slovenia, to help design this global research effort. Participants in that workshop were: Maritana Sedysheva, Estonia Irina Sennikova, Latvia Shuan SadreGhazi, the Netherlands Milenko Gudić, Slovenia/Serbia Sophia Opatska, Ukraine Carole Parkes, United Kingdom Al Rosenbloom, USA The workshop also received contributions from: Danica Purg, Slovenia Nadya Zhexembayeva, Slovenia/Kazakhstan Olga Veligurska, Slovenia/Latvia 1 The authors wish to acknowledge the special contribution of Alejandra Pollesello and Miguel Angel Gardetti, Center for Study of Corporate Sustainability, Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as Maria Potapkina, Baikal International Business School, Irkutsk, Russia for survey translation assistance. Report authors: Milenko Gudić Carole Parkes Al Rosenbloom Slovenia/Serbia United Kingdom USA Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

4 Final Report EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Report on Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions is the third in a series of global surveys conducted between on the role that management education could play in helping to achieve the first of the eight Millennium Development Goals: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. A total of 435 individuals from 70 countries participated in the survey. The survey included quantitative as well as qualitative questions. The survey was conducted autumn/winter Respondent demographics Respondents represented all major management education disciplines. Respondents were almost evenly split between private and public business schools/programs. About 50% of respondents identified themselves as faculty members who also had some administrative duties. Over two thirds of respondents said their school s student body was predominantly national, with some international students. Opportunities for students to study responsible management 2 Undergraduate level: Undergraduate students had the greatest opportunity to study the following five topics: ethics, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international development, corporate governance and sustainable development. Opportunities to study the topic of poverty and inequality ranked next to last out of 14 responsible management topics for undergraduates. Undergraduate students studying in schools that were PRME signatories had statistically significant greater opportunities to study international development, sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, public policy, political stability, third sector/ngo/civil society, human rights and climate change than students in schools that were not PRME signatories. Graduate/Post Graduate level: Graduate/postgraduate students had the greatest opportunity to study corporate governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international development, ethics, sustainable development, and social entrepreneurship. Opportunities to study poverty and inequality ranked next to last out of 14 responsible management topics for graduate/postgraduate students. Graduate/postgraduate students studying in schools that were PRME signatories had statistically significant greater opportunities to study ethics, international development, sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability, public policy/governmental studies, third sector/civil society/ngo relationships, political stability, human rights, climate change and poverty & inequality than students in schools that were not PRME signatories. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

5 Final Report Barriers and obstacles to the study of poverty The lack of outside funding support was identified as the greatest perceived barrier/ obstacle to the inclusion of poverty discussions in current educational programs. Other barriers/obstacles included: The lack of time to develop appropriate teaching materials, the lack of faculty development funds, and the lack of room in current courses to cover the topic. Challenges Issues about the very term itself. What does poverty actually mean? It would be necessary to have a better understanding about the term 'poverty' in a global context and to change the mindset. There were questions about topic legitimacy: Why should poverty even be considered a business topic at all? Business oriented topics are seen as inconsistent with a focus on poverty issues. Prevailing/existing mindsets/attitudes of faculty members hindered poverty discussions. [Our biggest challenge is] conventional mindsets around what management/business as a discipline does/should consist of. The primacy of the quantitative disciplines (accounting, finance and economics) and the faculty members teaching in those disciplines viewed as gatekeepers of the curriculum and impediments to topic development. The dominance in business schools of very conservative finance, economics, and quantitative disciplines, and the faculty socialized by PhD and disciplinary professional training into those disciplines. A silo mentality between disciplines thwarted poverty discussions. Faculty are entrenched in functional silos and believe students need greater depth in functional knowledge such as accounting, finance, marketing, etc. Perceptions that there was no room within the current curriculum and that the curriculum as a zero-sum game. Fitting poverty into an already overcrowded curriculum - the reality is to determine what would have to be taken out to create this space. There is a lack of content experts to teach the topic, especially faculty members who have done research in this field. [We] lack specialists and teachers with PhDs to teach this topic. There is lack of student interest in issues related to poverty. Students did not see any relation between poverty topics/issues and possibilities of employment upon graduation. The most important barrier perhaps is that students may not immediately find a benefit by way of improved placement opportunities. Perceptions that accreditation bodies are not supportive. Should accreditation bodies include poverty as part of their expectations it would make the development of such modules much easier. 3 Solutions Successful individuals and program include poverty-focused items/discussions in domains of interest that were literally close to home. Typically this included course(s) that the respondent already taught, existing faculty with whom the respondent typically interacted, and programs with local community organizations. I try to spend at least 20 minutes on the topic (which may not seem like much, but it is still much work wedging this into the course). I plan on running sensitization and motivation workshop for this purpose. [We are involved] with the neighboring slum community and developing a closer relationship with its representatives. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

6 Final Report 4 Students become actively engaged with poverty issues through co-curricular activities. We support student-run initiatives (clubs, outreach events) that help create and nurture community around social change and doing good. As students are attracted and validated by their peers, they gain courage in pursuing this path. Action/service learning projects meaningfully engaging students with poverty-based issues. Our students do a fairly extensive servant-leadership project that often provides them with exposure to non-profits addressing issues in poverty. Poverty discussions are integrated into newly created courses, minors and certificates on sustainability, sustainable development and social entrepreneurship. We have added concentrations in social entrepreneurship in both our undergraduate and graduate programs. These concentrations have allowed our students to consider deeply the intersection of business with issues of poverty often with students from other disciplines. Students are directly engaged with poverty issue through a course or a service/action learning project that is required for graduation. Every student has to carry a project addressing corporate social responsibility (like raising funds for the fight against AIDS, for the fight against poverty or hunger, etc.). Strategies for legitimizing the topic included conferences, student projects, identified these topics, and specialized centers. Students are encouraged to think about Bottom of the Pyramid (or relevant concepts) when they search for a master thesis. We host a bi-annual "Business and Global Poverty" conference that focuses on the role of business in alleviating poverty. Participation in PRME, itself, created opportunities to discuss poverty-related issues. We use the PRME-initiative to comprehensively integrate Sustainability and BoP issues in our curricula and research. Opportunities Foremost among perceived opportunities is the need to create a strong, compelling business case for poverty as a legitimate business topic. Without a compelling case, it is unlikely that my faculty would be engaged with a change. Equally important is to find and leverage champions. A faculty member or student grassroots group would have to "champion" the idea and its importance. Other opportunities are created when stakeholder attitudes change. We have to do two things for our Dean and teachers: 1. Convince them that a certain part of their courses can and should be given to poverty discussion. 2. Educate them on how to do it There is a strong desire to share best practices. Information exchange on teaching - materials, best practices and so on - will be of great help. There is a need to find the right vocabulary so that shared and common meaning can develop within and outside the academy. It is a challenge to find the right vocabulary/language to talk about poverty in the business schools and discuss the value and opportunities associated with considering it in the curriculum. There is a strong desire to develop closer working relationship with corporations. We need more projects with companies. [We must] look for champion companies that wish to share their experiences and spread their cases. New teaching materials are needed. [We need] the books and the study material to back the issues. Instructional materials and good case studies. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

7 Final Report Survey findings and PRME six principles Principle 1: Purpose. This survey reflects a growing awareness among business schools that the need for sustainable development and responsible leadership has never been greater. Business schools, their associations, and other stakeholders need to develop new ways and means to contribute to a better world. In this context, fighting poverty is not only one of the major Millennium Development Goals, but also a big challenge for all management education stakeholders. Principle 2: Values. Challenges still remain for providing students with more opportunities to study poverty-related issues. Some schools are finding ways to do this through the development of new courses, either under the umbrella of CSR and responsible management, or as various interdisciplinary courses on Base of the Pyramid issues, business and poverty, social entrepreneurship, social impact, etc. Leveraging the co-curriculum in a number of ways serves as another response to the over full curriculum. Among the strongest opportunities identified is the need for a strong, compelling business case. Principle 3: Methods. Solutions in these areas are encouraging. Poverty-related cases are included in various courses. Students are asked to make presentations or take part in debates, role plays and other interactive learning methods. Invited speakers, along with the organization of thematic conferences and events, are also good examples as are service learning opportunities, project work, student-led campaigns, events and other initiatives and volunteering activities, including those co-organized with the local communities and bodies. Opportunities in this area include: creating new teaching materials, sharing best practices, creating electronic platforms/forums for sharing ideas among faculty and students, faculty development, as well as developing corporate and community partnerships. Overall, survey responses under Principle 3 support the need for the Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education, a document that has been developed as a complement to this report. 5 Principle 4: Research. The field of research is both a main challenge and a main opportunity. Questions related to topic legitimacy and the related lack of understanding and appropriate vocabulary have impeded research. The lack of funding, the lack of time, the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, the lack of faculty competence and confidence, as well as various self-imposed internal and external limitations, including international accreditation, also contribute to the limited body of relevant management research. Principles 5: Partnerships. Partnerships with businesses, social entrepreneurs, business incubators, cooperatives, local and international NGOs, governmental agencies and local community provide answers for many challenges identified in the survey. Partnerships create opportunities for bringing real-life experience and business practice into the classroom, for inviting speakers from the corporate world to serve on panels and participate in conferences on the role of business in alleviating poverty, as well as for sponsoring centers for social innovation at business schools. Partnerships are also a legitimizing strategy for changing the mindsets and attitudes of internal and external stakeholders. Quite often business schools have a wrong perception of Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

8 Final Report what the educational market needs and wants are. Bringing faculty champions together with corporate champions could have a high synergy-making potential. Principle 6: Dialogue. Challenges, solutions and opportunities in this area indicate the need for a wider and more intensive dialogue among all stakeholders, interest groups and social partners on the role that businesses as well as management education could and should play in both fighting poverty and achieving the first Millennium Development Goal. * * * The Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education will continue to facilitate dialogue and implementation of the report s main findings and recommendations. This dialogue will enable: (a) Individual schools to start and/or lead poverty-related initiatives on their own; (b) Groups of schools and their stakeholders to collaborate on projects that will integrate poverty-related issues into management education; and (c) PRME to further enhance its value as a learning and action network for fighting poverty through management education. 6 In this context, the Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education, another Working Group deliverable for the PRME 3rd Global Forum, will be developed into an online platform through which management educators will be able to learn but also contribute their own experiences and insights. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

9 Final Report INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group Report on Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions is the third in a series of global surveys conducted between , each of whose aim was to better understand the role that management education and management educators can and have played in alleviating global poverty thereby helping to achieve the first of the eight Millennium Development Goals: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. In 2008 CEEMAN, an international management association of more than 200 members from 51 countries from all over the world, sponsored the first global survey on poverty and its relationship to management education: The CEEMAN Survey on Management Education: Corporate Social Responsibility and Poverty. A total of 154 respondents from 33 countries, from four continents (Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia), shared their opinions about the importance of CSR and global poverty in management education. According to the survey results, the three highest mean ratings regarding personal attitudes towards the poor were as follows: (d) society has a responsibility to help poor people; (e) poor people are discriminated against; and (f) the private sector is best able to reduce global poverty. Two thirds of the survey respondents said global poverty was a very serious problem, while almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents said global poverty was a legitimate topic that should be included in a management education curriculum. 7 When asked why global poverty is a legitimate topic in management education, respondents noted the following: Combating poverty is a part of CSR Poverty prevents people from developing in every sense of the word. Not only do societies not benefit from this situation but they spend a large part of their resources "patching up the consequences. I believe to allow the status quo is one more crime against humanity. The solution of such a complex problem as poverty needs the participation of all actors in society: governments, civil society, and the private sector. Business students need to be aware of the complexity and importance of dealing with this topic. Business players have the possibility of reducing global poverty - so they need to be sensitized to the topic. Businesses are among the main change agents and their leaders and managers bring important values and attitudes from the management education inputs they received. Future managers should not only do well but also do good. A solid understanding of what is needed to make this world a better place should be considered crucial. For better decision making on company, government and individual level. It gives an opportunity to educate people to be more responsible. Understanding of social responsibility is not a fashion but a necessity for business. Because... it is important for sustainable development Management education is an important part of sustainable development. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

10 Final Report Following this and the 1 st PRME Global Forum in New York in December 2008, the PRME Secretariat established the Anti-Poverty PRME Working Group, which developed its vision statement and a general frame of work, aimed at helping business schools and management educators integrate poverty-related discussion into all levels of management education worldwide. The Working Group now consists of 87 members from 68 institutions in 35 countries from all the continents. The Working Group designed and administered the 2010 CEEMAN/PRME Survey on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education, whose aim was to capture innovation and creativity in terms of teaching about poverty and the responsibilities of leadership in management education. The survey included 377 respondents, from all levels of management education, from 51 countries from all over the world. The survey results, which were presented in the 2 nd PRME Global Forum in New York in June 2010 and at the 19 th CEEMAN Annual Conference in Caserta/Naples, Italy in September 2010, reported on numerous innovations taking place across all major segments of management education programs: undergraduate, MBA, EMBA and PhD, as well as across all aspects of management education, including educational content, programs and courses, educational processes, materials and tools, and institutional arrangements and partnerships. The Working Group found that many of the initiatives briefly described in the survey had a potential to be further elaborated and broadly exposed as best practices and inspirational solutions. 8 Recognizing the role that corporate social responsibility and business ethics courses could have in integrating poverty-related issues into educational content and programs, the survey respondents strongly advocated the need to integrate poverty into the foundation and core courses as well. This requires an agreement among schools faculty that poverty is an important topic. However, respondents said there was a wide range of opinion about the relevance of poverty in management education within their own faculty. So, where do we stand? Do we teach about poverty? Some said, Yes we do. Others answered, We do not. These varied views indicated that there were still challenges, but also opportunities, and in some cases already successfully implemented solutions. Therefore the Working Group decided that its future work should focus on the challenges, opportunities and solutions for fighting poverty through management education. The decision was supported by the results of a three-round Delphi survey carried out among Working Group members in order to assess the Working Group s priorities regarding future work areas and methods. In parallel, the PRME Steering Committee invited the Working Group to present the results of its work as deliverables for the 3 rd PRME Global Forum, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012 in conjunction with the Rio50+20 Meeting. Additional support came from EQUAL, the association of European associations involved in the improvement of the quality of management education, which decided to support the project due to its relevance for the both management education and business communities. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

11 Final Report In May 2011, the PRME Secretariat facilitated a Webinar for Working Group members. During that Webinar, Working Group members were introduced to the UNDP initiative Growing Inclusive Markets (GIM). Because the perspective of the GIM approach is to demonstrate how business can significantly contribute to human development by including the poor in the value chain as consumers, producers, business owners or employees ( inclusive business models, GIM website), the GIM model was thought to be relevant to the Working Group. In July 2011, the Steering Committee of the Working Group met at a workshop in Bled, Slovenia, to follow up on ideas presented in the May Webinar. A significant part of the meeting s agenda was devoted to discussing and evaluating projects relevant to the Working Group s mission. Using a model similar to GIM, the Steering Committee agreed to develop and launch a third global survey on poverty and management education, this time with an emphasis on identifying specific challenges, opportunities and solutions business schools/management education programs face as they integrate the issue of poverty in their school s curricula. This survey is the basis for the Working Group s main deliverable for the 3rd PRME Global Forum: PRME WG Report on Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions. Closely linked with the survey, the Steering Committee agreed, would be a Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for integrating poverty issues into management education curricula and practice, which also will be presented at the PRME 3rd Global Forum as another deliverable of the Working Group. 9 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

12 Final Report The first step is personal - whether I believe this subject is worth being taught. The second is intellectual - how does it fit to a broader philosophy of business education. The third is properly 10 institutional - what measure should we take on the level of programs, courses' syllabi and cases. --- Survey Respondent, Russia Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

13 Final Report METHODOLOGY As noted in the Introduction and Background Section, a Delphi decision-making process began the survey development. During three rounds of consensus decision making (January June 2011), Working Group members brainstormed and then ultimately reached consensus on nine topics and projects supportive of the Working Group s mission. At a July 2011 Steering Committee meeting in Bled, Slovenia, the Steering Committee agreed to launch the challenges, opportunities and solutions global survey. Steering Committee members spent an afternoon suggesting content areas to be included in the survey. In August 2011, survey questions were drafted. To assure uniformity and completeness of meaning, survey items were reviewed by experts from the United Kingdom, central Europe and the United States. Some items were rewritten to clarify meaning. A draft of the complete survey was then circulated to all members of the Working Group for review. Additional changes were made based on member feedback. At that point, the revised survey was translated into Russian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. All four survey versions (English, Russian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian) were posted on a web-based survey hosting service for ease of access. The survey had five sections: 1. The degree of opportunity undergraduate and graduate students have to study various topics on responsible management in the formal curriculum (quantitative assessment) 2. Obstacles or barriers to the inclusion of poverty in the school s current curricula, courses or modules (quantitative assessment) 3. Explanation of obstacles, barriers and challenges and whether there was an action plan to overcome the obstacle (open-ended, qualitative) 4. Success stories for integrating poverty topics into courses, modules, curricula (open-ended, qualitative) 5. Demographics (quantitative) 11 Initial invitations to participate in the survey were sent to all Working Group members, all PRME Steering Committee associations, alumni of the CEEMAN s International Management Teachers Academy (IMTA), CEEMAN members and contacts, and members of selected special interest groups of the Academy of Management in early September In conjunction with The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October 2011, survey reminders were sent. The survey closed on 9 December Survey responses written in Russian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian were translated into English. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

14 Final Report RESPONDENT DEMOGRAPHICS A total of 435 individuals from 70 countries responded to the survey. Table 1 lists the countries represented in the survey. 12 Table 1. List of Countries Albania Argentina Australia Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Brazil Herzegovina Bulgaria Canada China Colombia Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland India Ireland Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Korea Kuwait Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Mauritius Mexico Montenegro The Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Pakistan Papua New Guinea Peru Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovenia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Tanzania Turkey UAE Uganda UK Ukraine Uruguay USA Uzbekistan Venezuela Vietnam Respondents represented all major business disciplines (see Table 2). Seventy-five percent of the entire sample was clustered in the following five disciplines: management, marketing, strategy, HR and economics. Respondents were almost evenly split between private and public institutions, with 51% of those who answered this question identifying themselves as working in a public institution and 49% in a private institution. Table 3 indicates that the largest group of respondents identified themselves as faculty members who also had some administrative duties (45%). Least represented in the sample were individuals who were fulltime administrators with no faculty duties (9%). Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

15 Final Report Table 2. Disciplines of Respondents Frequency Valid Percent Management Marketing Strategy Human Resources Management Economics Finance Ethics Administration Accounting Statistics/Quantitative Methods Operations Information systems Total Table 3. Job Duties of Respondents Frequency Valid Percent Faculty with some administrative duties Faculty with no administrative duties Manager/Administrator with some teaching duties Manager/Administrator with no teaching duties Total Respondents also classified their student body as to its relative mix of international students to national students (see Table 4). Over two-thirds of respondent schools identified the mix of students as being predominantly national, with some international students. Only 6% of the respondents said their school had a totally international student body. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

16 Final Report Table 4. Relative Mix of International to National Students in the Student Body Frequency Valid Percent Predominantly national Completely national Predominantly international Completely international Total Table 5 identifies the known accreditation of respondent schools. The large number of missing responses to this question might not accurately reflect the true accreditation status of the institutions represented in the survey. 14 Table 5. School Accreditation Frequency Percent AMBA AACSB EQUIS CEEMAN IQA Sub-total Missing Total Additional data tables on accreditation are in the Appendix. Finally, Table 6 presents the number of respondents who knew whether their school was a PRME signatory. Similar to Table 5, a large number of respondents didn t know the PRME status of their school. Table 6. Respondent s Knowledge of Whether their School is a PRME signatory Frequency Percent Yes No Don't know Total Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

17 Final Report Economists often assume that markets are inert, that they do not affect the goods being exchanged. But this is untrue. Markets leave their mark. Sometimes, market values crowd out nonmarket values worth caring about. --- Michael Sandel. (2012). What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets 15 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

18 Final Report RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS Respondents were asked to evaluate the opportunity students had to study 14 topics/issues that fell under the broad umbrella of responsible management, and they were asked to do that separately for undergraduate and graduate programs. Table 7 presents a rank ordering of the fourteen topics from most extensive opportunity for undergraduate students to study to least extensive opportunity to study. The ranking order in Table 7 is based on mean scores. 16 Table 7. Undergraduate Opportunities to Study Topics of Responsible Management (Rank Ordered by Mean Scores) Mean Std. Deviation Statistic Std. Error Statistic Ethics (n=380) Corporate Social Responsibility (n=380) International Development (n=375) Corporate Governance (n=378) Sustainable Development (n=371) Social Entrepreneurship (n=376) Environmental Sustainability (n=371) Public Policy/Governmental Studies (n=363) Political Stability (n=367) Third Sector/Civil Society/NGO Relationships (n=364) Human Rights (n=367) Corruption (n=365) Poverty & Inequality (n=371) Climate Change (n=365) Scale used: 1= no opportunity to study, 2= little opportunity to study, 3=some opportunity to study, 4=significant opportunity to study, 5=extensive opportunity to study. As evident in Table 7, undergraduates have the greatest opportunity to study issues related to responsible management within ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) courses. Given many recent examples of corporate misbehaviour and societal demands for greater accountability for private sector businesses, it is not surprising that ethics and CSR stand in the first and second position for undergraduate study opportunities. Of major interest for this research, though, is the relatively low ranking for undergraduates business to study about poverty and inequality (mean=2.51). The topic of poverty and inequality ranked next Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

19 Final Report to last. Only climate change ranked lower in terms of undergraduate student opportunities to study. Table 8 presents a rank ordered of the opportunity graduate students have to study the 14 topics that broadly encompass responsible management. Again, the ranking order is based on mean scores. Table 8. Graduate Opportunities to Study Topics of Responsible Management, Rank Ordered by Mean Score Mean Std. Deviation Statistic Std. Error Statistic Corporate Governance (n=344) Corporate Social Responsibility (n=353) International Development (n=345) Ethics (n=351) Sustainable Development (n=341) Social Entrepreneurship (n=344) Environmental Sustainability (n=347) Public Policy/Governmental Studies (n=340) Third Sector/Civil Society/NGO Relationships (n=341) Political Stability (n=333) Corruption (n=335) Human Rights (n=334) Poverty & Inequality (n=343) Climate Change (n=334) Scale used: 1= no opportunity to study, 2= little opportunity to study, 3=some opportunity to study, 4=significant opportunity to study, 5=extensive opportunity to study. 17 Graduate students have the most opportunity to study issues related to responsible management as part of corporate governance and CSR topics. Given the emphasis on corporate leadership and strategic management at the graduate level, it is not surprising that graduate students have the greatest opportunity to study corporate governance. Similar to the rank order of topics at the undergraduate level (Table 7), graduate opportunities to study poverty and inequality ranked very low. Again, it was next to last in the rank ordering. A comparison of means was conducted to determine whether there were any statistically significant differences between schools that were PRME signatories and schools that were not, with regard to the degree of opportunity students had to study the 14 identified responsible management topics. Table 9 presents the differences in opportunity to study these topics at the undergraduate level. The scales used for this question were: 1= no opportunity to study, 2= little opportunity to study, 3=some opportunity to study, 4=significant opportunity to study, 5=extensive opportunity to study. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

20 Final Report Undergraduates had statistically significantly greater opportunities to study the following eight topics: international development, sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, public policy, political stability, third sector/ngo/civil society, human rights and climate change. 18 Table 9. Opportunities for Undergraduate Students to Study Responsible Management Topics Compared Between PRME and non-prme Schools Is your business school a PRME Signatory? Yes No Opportunity to study topic in undergraduate curriculum Mean (n=85) Mean (n=59) Ethics Corporate Social Responsibility International Development * Corporate Governance Sustainable Development ** Social Entrepreneurship *** Environmental Sustainability Public Policy/Governmental Studies * Political Stability * Third Sector/Civil Society/NGO Relationships ** Human Rights * Corruption Climate Change * Poverty & Inequality * significant at the.05 level; ** significant at the.005 level; *** significant at the.001 level Table 10 presents a similar comparison of means between PRME and non-prme signatory schools and the opportunities graduate students have for studying the 14 identified responsible management topics. Table 10 indicates that except for corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and corruption, graduate students in PRME schools had statistically significant greater opportunities to study the remaining 11 topics. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

21 Final Report Table 10. Opportunities for Graduate Students to Study Responsible Management Topics Compared Between PRME and non-prme Schools Opportunity to study topic in graduate curriculum Is your business school a PRME Yes Mean (n=96) Signatory? No Mean (n=57) Ethics ** Corporate Governance Corporate Social Responsibility International Development ** Sustainable Development ** Social Entrepreneurship *** Environmental Sustainability ** Public Policy/Governmental Studies * Third Sector/Civil Society/NGO Relationships *** Political Stability *** Human Rights ** Corruption Climate Change ** Poverty & Inequality ** * significant at the.05 level; ** significant at the.005 level; *** significant at the.001 level 19 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

22 Final Report PERCEIVED BARRIERS QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS An important part of this research was to identify the challenges respondents perceived to be either obstacles or barriers to the inclusion of poverty in their school s current curricula, courses or modules. We note that care was taken to explain the survey s use of the word poverty. Survey sections included this statement: The survey uses the word poverty broadly and refers to teaching and learning about any of the following: the base/bottom of the pyramid, pro-poor business models, low income, subsistence or inclusive markets, etc. This survey section listed 23 items for respondent evaluation. The broad domains covered in these items were program leadership, pedagogy, accreditation, employer and student markets, funding, faculty development and curriculum. A five-point scale was used for all items as follows: 1=not an obstacle/barrier, 2=a slight obstacle/barrier, 3=somewhat of an obstacle/barrier, 4=a significant obstacle/barrier and 5=a very significant obstacle/barrier. Respondents were asked to evaluate each item in terms of the degree to which it was perceived as a barrier/obstacle in their school or program. Table 11 presents a rank ordering by mean score of the 23 items. 20 Table 11. Perceived Barriers/Obstacles to the Inclusion of Poverty Discussions in Programs, Modules, Curricula (Rank Order by Mean Scores) Mean Std. Deviation Statistic Std. Error Statistic Outside funding support (n=328) Time to develop appropriate teaching materials (n=329) Faculty development funds (n=329) Expectations of content coverage (i.e., no time in current course for topic) (n=331) Knowledge of best practices (n=331) Knowledge of appropriate cases with teaching notes (n=325) PhD educated faculty to teach topic (n=352) Publication outlets for research in this area (n=352) Employer market(s) (n=329) Faculty members willing to do research in the area (n=352) Support from managers/administrators outside business programs/business school (n=327) Disciplinary norms as to topic legitimacy (n=326) Faculty members ability to make the Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

23 Final Report business case for the topic (n=351) Knowledge of what other schools/programs are doing (n=350) Personal confidence to teach the topic (n=329) Institutional culture (i.e., openness to innovation & change) (n=329) Knowing the right place in the curriculum for the topic (n=333) Access to external speakers/contacts (n=350) Accreditation standards (n=347) Assessment of student learning on the topic (n=330) Student resistance to the topic (n=332) Dean s support for including the topic in the curriculum (n=349) Dean s understanding of the topic (n=351) Scale used: : 1= not an obstacle/barrier, 2=a slight obstacle/barrier, 3=somewhat of an obstacle/barrier, 4=a significant obstacle/barrier and 5=a very significant obstacle/barrier The greatest perceived barrier overall to the inclusion of poverty discussions in current business programs was the lack of outside funding support. The lack of time to develop appropriate teaching materials, along with the lack of faculty development funds and lack of room in current courses to cover the topic, were also identified as being barriers somewhat. Overall, respondents did not think designing assessments of student learning, outright or covert student resistance, or lack of support from the Dean were obstacles to including poverty discussions in courses, modules or in the curriculum. 21 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

24 Final Report QUALITATIVE RESPONSES In addition to the quantitative sections mentioned above, the survey two sections that asked respondents to more fully explain both the challenges and the successes they have had relative to the topic of poverty. In addition, they were asked for their perspectives on the possible opportunities in this respect. The first qualitative section focused on challenges. Respondents were asked to identify their first and second greatest challenge for including the topic of poverty into their curriculum, courses or modules. Respondents were then asked whether there was a plan for dealing with stated challenge(s). The survey skip logic led respondents to separate questions where respondents could either describe (a) how they or their school actually met or addressed the challenge(s) just identified or (b) what resources they would need in the next two years to overcome the challenge(s) identified. The second qualitative section focused on successes. Respondents were asked to briefly describe two success stories or success examples at either the school or course level that illustrated how poverty issues were incorporated into the curriculum, modules, or courses. The first qualitative section about challenges and plans resulted in 453 unique responses. The successes section had 210 total entries. 22 The qualitative responses must be interpreted with care. Links between a respondent s quantitative evaluation of obstacles/barriers and their qualitative response (if any) have not been made. The pages below present some of the key findings related to challenges, solutions, and opportunities for integrating poverty-related issues into management education. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

25 Final Report [The greatest obstacle is that] the focus of our teaching disciplines often competes with our ability to focus on what is important If something doesn't help us teach the disciplines, it faces higher hurdles for getting funding, teaching slots, etc. We're very rigorous, but are we relevant in a world where most economic growth is happening in emerging markets, where many of our existing tools and frameworks seem like corner cases? We teach to and for the developed world and ignore about 4-5 billion of the world's citizens, because their circumstances don't fit the assumptions of our disciplines very well. --- Survey Respondent, United States 23 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

26 Final Report CHALLENGES This section identifies the main challenges respondents identified in the open-ended sections of the survey. A Need to Better Understand Poverty At the highest yet most foundational level of understanding, respondents raised issues about the term itself. What does poverty actually mean and what should be included in that term? A representative comment is: It would be necessary to have a better understanding about the term 'poverty' in a global context and to change the mindset. 24 Topic Legitimacy A strong, recurrent theme from respondents was that of topic legitimacy: Why should poverty be considered a business topic at all? Representative comments include the following: The topic is not considered as legitimate and it is not on the radars [of stakeholders] There is no evidence why the subject should become part of mainstream business education, although social responsibility and sustainable development [are] widely accepted. not considered a BUSINESS topic/issue The sense that poverty is a bit peripheral - not central to what we do as a business school. Poverty is considered a sociology topic and is taught by the sociology department. Business oriented topics are seen as inconsistent with a focus on poverty issues. These are topics that are seen as more natural part of policy studies rather than business. The nature of management education generally (focused on the bottom line) [so that] challenges like addressing climate change, ethics, and poverty are seen as 'secondary' or even 'soft' subjects. Not a hot topic at the school... our school is primarily looking at business growth models rather than difficult social issues. How do we justify having this course in a business school? It is the job of business to address poverty? I may think it is, but I need to have a good argument for that and I'm not sure I do at this exact moment. Mindsets Closely related to the above quotations on legitimacy, many respondents noted that prevailing/existing mindsets/attitudes hindered poverty discussions. Some representative comments follow: [Our biggest challenge is] conventional mindsets around what management/business as a discipline does/should consist of. [We need] a different mindset and leadership. The managers (including the Dean) and the faculty of our school don't see a reason why they should include such topics in the curriculum. I think it would be difficult for our University management to understand and accept that poverty issues should be included in the MBA curriculum. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

27 Final Report Disciplinary Barriers/Boundaries Respondents noted as well the primacy of the quantitative disciplines (accounting, finance and economics) in their school/program. As such, faculty members in these disciplines were often viewed as gatekeepers of the curriculum, often impeding inclusion of poverty-related topics: The dominance in business schools of very conservative finance, economics, and quantitative disciplines, and the faculty socialized by PhD and disciplinary professional training into those disciplines. Creating a case for legitimacy among finance and accounting professors. Prevailing in the teaching of Economics: Simplistic liberal concepts, focused on the pursuit of profit and ignoring the other motives of human activity. Closely allied with this perspective were observations that a silo mentality existed within business programs/schools, similarly thwarting poverty discussions: Faculty are entrenched in functional silos and believe students need greater depth in functional knowledge such as accounting, finance, marketing, etc. Dominance of 'functional' subjects. Most faculty members remain focused on their disciplinary speciality and are protective of the amount of their discipline covered in a general business degree; thus finding additional 'space' for important topics is challenging. Silo-thinking within subjects; not-invented here resistance to topics. Poverty issues are very cross-disciplinary and just to add a BOP-course (situated e.g. in marketing) would not really solve the issue We have very few true incentives for crossdisciplinary courses. 25 A Congested Curriculum A common observation was that even if faculty members were supportive of this topic, there was simply no room within the current curriculum to place it. Respondents frequently viewed the curriculum as a zero-sum game: If something new went in, something else would have to be taken out: Limitations in the number of credits within the program and the need to cover certain basic concepts often leads to heightened competition for extras. There is always a reason why there isn't room for the topic. I teach in an undergraduate-only business program. The focus of the program is basic business knowledge. There is not much room in the curriculum to address these issues in any kind of depth. Not enough room in the curriculum once the core knowledge is covered. Lack of overall agreement that our curriculum should shift to spend more time on poverty - there are so many topics to cover, so courses and topics compete for limited time. Finding time in the current curriculum to fit it in. The curriculum is already congested. Fitting poverty into an already overcrowded curriculum - the reality is to determine what Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

28 Final Report would have to be taken out to create this space. I think the biggest challenge is simply a matter of space in the curricula. Many faculty already feel we are trying to do too much (and not as well as we might like to). This is certainly an important topic, but I think it needs to be part of a more broadly based design of curricula discussion - i.e., which topics will be focused upon where. Faculty Competence and Confidence Respondents frequently mentioned the lack of content experts to teach this topic. Often mentioned was the need to hire new faculty members who have done research in this field. Representative comments include the following: [The lack of] qualified (PhD) professionals in the area. Lack of specialists and teachers with PhDs to teach this topic, lack of interest among teachers to do research on this topic. The most important challenge is that we don t have enough faculty members who can make some business case for this topic and who are willing to do research in this area. Above all, additional human resources, since all people are overloaded. I, for instance, lecture 5 undergraduate courses in the winter semester, while in the summer semester I have 1 course in the undergraduate and 4 in the postgraduate programs. With all the projects, one simply cannot find time for drastic changes. Consequently, only incremental changes happen or people try to maintain the status quo. 26 Student and Employer Markets Student and employer markets are both critically important to business schools and business programs. Organizations want individuals who can solve problems and who can help them achieve their organization s mission efficiently, effectively and responsibly. Students, in turn, want the certification that formal business education provides. Management education is the intermediary between the two markets. Respondents frequently noted the lack of student interest in issues related to poverty. Often the lack of student interest was driven by respondent perceptions of job markets. Respondents reported that students did not see any relation between poverty topics/issues and possibilities of employment upon graduation. No demand equalled no need. Respondents noted the following: Neither faculty members nor the students see the need for the topic, which causes reluctance to include the courses in [the] curriculum. The number of MBA students, really interested is those issues, is rather limited. Most of them look for straight business management ideas and methodologies. There is no strong drive/demand for such teaching from the established market (students, employers). The most important barrier perhaps is that students may not immediately find a benefit by way of improved placement opportunities. Total absence of interest from the clients, i.e. MBA students. I believe that the most significant obstacle to poverty discussions in our business school are students' expectations. They pay money to study business, so significant attention to the Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

29 Final Report issues of poverty in our classes is likely to puzzle them. [The most important barrier] might be student interest: Students might ask themselves: what is the relevance of this issue for my skills / knowledge / professional career? Respondents often noted that employers were not asking for graduates with skill sets that included understanding the role of business in alleviating poverty. With businesses/employer markets showing no or limited interest in the topic, the incentives for programs/schools of business to include poverty discussions were viewed as marginal at best: Business schools define their product on the basis of market demands. Market never emphasizes the need for effective teaching in this area. [First is] the need by local employers to see that it is important. Being a regional university the employment for graduates is mostly in the region. Demand for this kind of knowledge is very low. [The most significant challenge] is employment opportunities. There are not enough students at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels that express sufficient interest to choose the topic as major. Students prefer courses that will enable them [to] find employment easily. To have enough demand to make it feasible for school to offer it, and enough demand for graduates so they can find jobs in this field. Accreditation Respondents noted the influence of accreditation and accrediting bodies in curriculum, course and module offerings: [T]he payoff that would be most likely to get the Dean's attention would be interest on the part of accrediting bodies. Should accreditation bodies include poverty as part of their expectations it would make the development of such modules much easier. We need AACSB to acknowledge in its review processes that relevance to the world's needs is as important as the number of peer reviewed journal articles we publish Our school has offered courses on business and poverty for seven years, and there has been no recognition of that innovation in two cycles of AACSB review. Policy coming from EQUIS, AMBA, AACSB. We need to lead a change in industry and accreditation. While I know of two or three colleagues who are also interested in these topics as both opportunities for teaching innovations and for research most are dismissive of these issues and incorporate them only to the extent that AACSB might mandate. 27 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

30 Final Report SOLUTIONS This section presents solutions that emerged from survey respondent descriptions of their successes. Begin close to home This is an umbrella term that captures respondent s perspectives that they began to include poverty-focused items/discussions in domains of interest that were literally close at hand. These domains were typically the course(s) that the respondent already taught, the existing faculty with whom the respondent typically interacted, and local community organizations. The following are a representative sample of comments in each category. 28 Courses: I have managed to squeeze in a reading on microfinance in the small business finance unit. I try to spend at least 20 minutes on the topic (which may not seem like much, but it is still much work wedging this into the course). The plan is personal, but in my pre-grad and postgrad studies I integrate cases of organizations that have overcome poverty and that work with their communities with that goal in mind. I include thoughts and lectures of contemporary sociologists and philosophers (Bauman, Lipovetsky, Sennett, Castells, Beck, among others), also movies like Ressources Humains (a film by Laurent Cantet), Inside Job and The Margin Call. They help [students] see organizational reality and to think of administrative decisions made based not only on their financial effects but also the social ones. Personally, I have included some case studies related to poverty in one of my courses taught at a master program this course is about development economics. In my class on management I incorporate the ideals of Catholic social thought into the essence of all business and that includes the preferential option for the poor and the concept of human dignity. In business ethics courses, I usually integrate a role play Stakeholder Dialogue in supply chains. I teach International Human Resource Management and I educate my students into the effects of globalization through in-sourcing and out-sourcing emphasising how labour 'flexibility' often translates to labour insecurity for the workers it affects. I have a course in Public Finance and one of the topics is distribution of income, poverty and poverty reduction including poverty reduction program in Georgia. Usually I ask students to make their presentations on the topic which we discuss in the class. But business students don't feel that this is their field issue! Faculty: Formed an informal committee to discuss poverty issues. I would like to introduce the topics to the various faculty of the school through an informal discussion. I plan on running sensitization and motivation workshop for this purpose. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

31 Final Report Community: [W]e partnered with Assocham, an umbrella organisation of Chambers of Commerce, in a pioneering study on successful initiatives of corporates, cooperatives, gov[ernmen]t agencies and NGOs within a managerial framework, which was formally presented to the Prime Minister and Gov[ernmen]t of India. This study was an eye-opener for us. Project in which students work and play with migrant children at a child care place in our city and at the same time evaluate their capabilities together with researchers of our university to assess dimensions, extent and potential measures against poverty in the sense of capability deprivation. [We use] a business incubator that links students with community development projects - [for example,] to aid in the generation of new or different type of income generation for marginalized populations such as women farmers. Collaboration with NGOs and CSOs, which deal with social entrepreneurship and education of other NGOs and/or advocating social entrepreneurship and its impact on poverty reduction. Involvement with the neighbouring slum community and developing a closer relationship with its representatives. Leverage the co-curriculum Respondents frequently noted that students were actively engaged with poverty issues through co-curricular activities. Such activities included fundraising for charitable organizations, formation of clubs and service organizations, and volunteer work in community organizations. Leveraging the co-curriculum is a creative response to the over full curriculum described in the previous section on Challenges. While the curriculum itself does not offer much in the way of academic study of such matters, the students get [a] semester-long hands-on [service learning] experience. Sometimes the students even continue the relationships they form well after the courses are over. Student associations organize charitable events for poor children at Christmas time. They also organize humanitarian missions in Burkina Faso and Madagascar. Students are organizing different funding campaigns to support different organizations locally or abroad. We are, for instance, supporting the development of several villages in Africa. Nevertheless, students had also the chance to see that poverty can also be around the corner and that people living next to us might be suffering We raised money [for] a local woman shelter in the area. We support student-run initiatives (clubs, outreach events) that help create and nurture community around social change and doing good. As students are attracted and validated by their peers, they gain courage in pursuing this path. 29 Create service learning opportunities Respondents also noted the role action/service learning projects played in engaging students with poverty-based issues. Service learning projects ranged from short term projects, e.g., six-weeks, to long term ones, e.g., an entire semester. Selected examples follow: Our students do a fairly extensive servant-leadership project that often provides them with Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

32 Final Report exposure to non-profits addressing issues in poverty. The Introduction to Management course uses service learning methods to have student initiate a project where they raise funds. The students learn management and leadership skills, while the money is used to fund a small NGO that sends senior students to supervise micro finance initiatives in Uganda and Peru. University (UD) is involved in employee volunteering activity through ENGAGE Dubai, an initiative by Dubai Chamber. Faculty members and students actively take part in volunteering opportunities. Our accounting department operates a VITA program (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) where students work with locally impoverished individuals to prepare a tax return that will yield them a better outcome. We have service-learning courses that focus on justice, public-private, and other related issues. 30 Develop new courses/certificates Central to all academic programs is the development/evolution of courses and other types of academic offerings (such as short courses and certificates). Frequently, respondents mentioned the inclusion of poverty discussions in newly created courses on sustainability, sustainable development and social entrepreneurship. However, poverty discussions were not only in those new, emerging domains, as the following examples indicate: I created an undergraduate course on business and poverty [and] was able to launch an MBA course that has since become part of our MBA emphasis in sustainable business. Inclusion of specific sessions [on poverty] as part of MSc in Social Responsibility and Sustainability. This academic year I have started to teach new course Social Corporate Responsibility, which is devoted to issues of CSR history, CSR advantages for companies, CSR models, CSR in Corporate Governance, CSR in market activity, [etc.]. Into this course I have used eight case studies of companies best practice in different fields of CSR including practice of fight with poverty in Ukraine. We just started a Social Entrepreneurship major and MBA concentration. New course this fall on social impact. Competitive application for 12 qualified and interdisciplinary students to focus on water quality in developmental contexts and the consumer viability and micro-venture potential for a water low-cost/low-tech purifier. We have added concentrations in social entrepreneurship in both our undergraduate and graduate programs. These concentrations have allowed our students to consider deeply the intersection of business with issues of poverty often with students from other disciplines. We are introducing interdisciplinary UG minors that draw heavily from existing humanities courses exploring many of the BoP root issues. UG students gain greater exposure to the subject through this minor. We have created a Sustainability Certificate, introduce[d] new curricula, and host high-profile speakers to energize students in this direction. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

33 Final Report Mandate involvement Respondents from some schools noted a very direct way in which they engaged students with the issue of poverty: They made either a course or a service/action learning project a requirement for graduation. Respondents said: My university has a compulsory course on doing a civil service independent of what the department student is attending. The school requires that all undergraduate students gain a first-hand experience on community-based projects for the needy (whom you would say are poor, etc.). Every student has to carry a project addressing corporate social responsibility (like raising funds for the fight against AIDS, for the fight against poverty or hunger, etc.). All students have to complete a 6-week stay at their own expense, with a rural NGO and prepare a study report on live managerial problems affecting the NGO for 3 course credits. All students also must mentor a 7th Standard slum child to enable goal-setting for the child and compassion/understanding among our students. We believe that our students become better managers with sound social values. Students are encouraged to improve the lives of the needy in community-based projects both locally and abroad. This is part of their graduation requirement. Introduction of compulsory courses in graduate programs: The first compulsory course all of our students [is a course that] emphasizes Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. By these means, the school starts to encourage students to act with a constructive attitude towards poverty, not just studying it but also taking a step forward to provide solutions. The course, "Enterprise, Society and the State," is compulsory for our MBA students and elective for the other graduate programs. This course is intended to give students the whole perspective to deal with poverty and other common issues of our reality, [including] the joint efforts of the enterprise, the society and the State. 31 Leverage PRME Some respondents noted that participation in PRME, itself, created opportunities to discuss poverty-related issues. For example: We use the PRME-initiative to comprehensively integrate Sustainability and BoP issues in our curricula and research. We use the PRME-initiatives to convince our colleagues. 2-3 professors incorporating some aspects of PRME into their courses. A faculty member is playing a significant role in the UN Working Group in this area. It is beginning to permeate our discussions - especially with respect to the PRME. Legitimize the topic As noted in the previous section on Challenges, obstacles to the inclusion of poverty in the curriculum, courses and modules were varied. These barriers involved resistance from key stakeholders (students, employers, faculty both within and outside of business). Also, there were complex issues related to disciplinary and cross-disciplinary boundaries and curricular/course/module design. Respondents reflected the complex reality of management education by citing a number of different strategies used to legitimize the topic of poverty in their schools and programs. Selected examples include the following: Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

34 Final Report Students are encouraged to think about Bottom of the Pyramid (or relevant concepts) when they search for a master thesis. Increasing integration of social innovation themes within core curriculum. Establishment of a funded centre for social innovation. (Note: social innovation to broadly include creative organizational responses to social and environmental problems and possibilities.) A dedicated center of expertise in Social & Solidarity-based Economics percolates the way [poverty] topics are dealt with, producing a strong basis in terms of knowledge. We started an annual speaker series in spring 2009, called Global Problems & Solutions Colloquium The colloquium brings thought leaders and leading practitioners to share their struggles with our students and faculty in figuring out solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems The cross-disciplinary and cross-sector interactions were wonderful unintended consequences of this innovation. [T]he invitation to write a Master thesis on related topics. We host a bi-annual "Business and Global Poverty" conference that focuses on the role of business in alleviating poverty. Every year, our MBA students organize a Social Responsibility Forum that lasts 2 full days, attracts international participation, and promotes these issues widely within the school. 32 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

35 Final Report OPPORTUNITIES This section of the report summarizes respondent perspectives on what needs doing next to move the discussion about management educations role in - and relationship to - poverty alleviation forward. Build a strong business case One respondent, as noted in the Challenges section of this report, got to the essence of things. This respondent summarized both the challenge and the implied opportunity thusly: How do we justify having this course in a business school? It is the job of business to address poverty? I may think it is, but I need to have a good argument for that and I'm not sure I do at this exact moment. Many respondents echoed that sentiment. Selected variations on this theme follow: Without a compelling case, it is unlikely that my faculty would be engaged with a change. I [need] to hear from an international perspective why it is important to address this issue. There is a lack of recognition of its value and the topic is generally reduced to an issue of public service or civil society. A need is not created. Lack of understanding [of] the need for poverty topics in management education. We don t have enough faculty members who can make some business case for this topic. All attempts to do so in executive education programs have failed so far due to the academic, not practical business case, being presented. Create a case for legitimacy. 33 Collectively, these statements suggest there is a need for a strong, compelling business rationale for thinking about poverty as a business topic. In short, what s needed is a business case. Find champions Champions are individuals who advocate for ideas/ approaches that are innovative, disruptive, overlooked and/or disparaged. Champions are change agents. Respondents identified the need for champions as follows: I guess lack of a champion (at any level) is probably the key missing ingredient. [We need] faculty champions. The issue of poverty would have to be top of mind... a faculty member or student grassroots group would have to champion the idea and its importance. Change attitudes of stakeholders Closely linked with above need for champions is the need to change stakeholder attitudes. As noted in the Challenges section of this report, topic legitimacy is a critical barrier. Respondents noted that without changes in stakeholder attitudes, forward motion on this issue will be limited: Change [the] mindset of everyone from faculty to the President. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

36 Final Report Overarching global campaign aimed at changing attitudes of the executives of the boards & senior management of privately owned institutions. [What s needed is] attitudinal change of students and more participation for the prime stakeholders who are the recruiters. We have to do two things for our Dean and teachers: 1. Convince them that a certain part of their courses can and should be given to poverty discussion. 2. Educate them on how to do it. [We need] commitment from the administration and the need by local employers to see that it is important. Should accreditation bodies include poverty as part of their expectations it would make the development of such modules much easier. All resources needed to raise awareness of the importance of the topic first to policy makers, then to the leadership of the education institutions. 34 Share best practices Knowledge of best practices helps organizations learn. By making explicit what works, organizations are able to learn from each other, thereby shortening their own organizational learning cycles. Selected respondent comments on the need for knowing best practices are these: We have to study best practices: how do other business schools persuade their students to accept poverty discussions in business education? Information exchange on teaching - materials, best practices and so on - will be of great help. Time and expert advice from schools that have successfully incorporated poverty into their curriculum. Easier access to best practices from other schools. Knowledge of best practices for teaching the topic. Find the right terms and language Respondents also affirmed the importance of not only finding the right vocabulary so that shared and common meaning can develop but also of using that common vocabulary effectively within and outside the academy: It is a challenge to find the right vocabulary/language to talk about poverty in the business schools and discuss the value and opportunities associated with considering it in the curriculum. Poverty is not a very attractive subject sustainability may be more engaging. Companies might be interested in the topic but they might not call it with the same vocabulary that we have (a common vocabulary is yet to develop to clarify what is BoP, what is pro-poor, what is CSR etc., how they are related and how they are different) When I asked a MNC if they have a project for the poor, they referred me to CSR department; but later when I asked them what project they have for rural markets, then I found [out] about their business projects. Develop corporate partnerships Respondents noted the prima facie need to have closer working relationship with corporations: Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

37 Final Report We also need help gaining access to organizations working on issues at the interface between poverty and business. We need more projects with companies. [L]ook for champion companies that wish to share their experiences and spread their cases. Some kind of industry partnership. Conduct relevant research Respondents noted the need for more research related to poverty issues/topics. [Number 1 barrier is] proper research of the topic. [We need to] develop and encourage active research funding applications. The most important obstacle is lack of funds for research in poverty-related topics. Adequate funding should be provided in the form of postdoctoral training, grants or research projects. A lack of funding in order to research and develop this aspect within the institution. We need resources for research. Create new teaching materials Similarly, new topics and what is perceived to be a new content area requires new teaching materials: [We need] the books and the study material to back the issues. Try to find cases and curriculum models that could be incorporated into current class offerings. Knowledge of appropriate case studies. Instructional materials and good case studies. A good "thought piece" published in a top managerial journal would be helpful to kick-off the class. An outside contribution in this area would be most welcome. The course would start with foreign materials and, in a few years, they would be gradually replaced by domestic materials. I think that the most important aspect is to give more adequate material to faculty materials to which the can refer to. At the moment, case studies, textbooks are not picking [up] on the subject. More electronic cases and forum access for staff and students to share ideas and views. 35 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

38 Final Report [T]he main problem at my university is that there is no interest, because there s the belief that successful models are the ones worth studying. When a very poor person has some success with a microenterprise and makes a living for, say, ten years, nobody notices. When somebody starts a business and ten years later they have a company with US$1 million in sales and two dozen employees, everybody wants to know why it was so successful. Of course, the first case is successful because a whole 36 family could subsist and probably will subsist for many more years close to a poverty level, even if the owner isn t considered successful. In the second case, the company may go broke at any moment, lay off the employees and in turn they ll go back to poverty. Still, it s the second case that university students are interested in. --- Survey Respondent, Puerto Rico Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

39 Final Report PRME-RELATED IMPLICATIONS/ REFLECTIONS This section uses the six Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) to present survey implications and reflections. Principle 1 Purpose: We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy. This survey, as well as previous surveys carried out by CEEMAN and the PRME Anti- Poverty Working Group in 2008 and 2010, reflects a growing awareness among management educators and business school administrators around the globe that the need for sustainable development and responsible leadership has never been greater and that the expectations from business education and leadership development institutions are also higher than ever. Business schools, as the main providers of educational services, as well as their associations and other stakeholders, not only need to act on their own but also need to exchange views and ideas as well as collaborate and develop new ways and means to achieve sustainable development and develop responsible leadership for a better world. In this context, fighting poverty is not only one of the major Millennium Development Goals, but also a big challenge for all of management education s stakeholders. The results are a reminder that businesses and business schools do share a common purpose, since markets are at the center of all economic activity, yet that the need to develop inclusive markets is sometimes hindered by language and perspective. 37 Principle 2 Values: We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact. The study shows that both undergraduate and graduate students have more opportunities to study other topics in the area of responsible management than they have to study povertyrelated topics. The main challenges in this context include: still insufficient legitimacy of the topic, prevailing mindsets and attitudes, disciplinary barriers/boundaries and the related silo mentality, a congested curriculum, student and employer markets, the lack of faculty competence and confidence, in addition to the lack of external incentives from international accreditation and ranking schemes. There are also numerous solutions in this area. These include integration of poverty-related issues into already existing courses, both those related to a broader area of responsible management as well as those that are considered as core management courses. These solutions also include the development of new courses, either under the umbrella of CSR and responsible management, or as various interdisciplinary courses on Base of the Pyramid issues, or as topics such as business and poverty, social entrepreneurship, social impact, etc. In addition, leveraging the co-curriculum takes place in a number of different and innovative Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

40 Final Report ways and serves as another response to the over full curriculum. Encouraging students to integrate Base of the Pyramid issues into their master theses is an additional solution. It is encouraging that some of the above-mentioned solutions were facilitated by faculty and institutional involvement in PRME. Among the opportunities in these areas particularly important are those related to building a stronger business case and increasing the legitimacy for including poverty into educational programs and curricula. Finding the right terms and language to be used within and outside the academia is another opportunity with a strong potential. Another important opportunity relates to faculty champions. This is consistent with the findings of the first WG survey which indicated that the strongest facilitating factors for including discussions of global poverty in a school were (a) having one or two faculty champions; (b) strong leadership from the dean; (c) congruence with the business school s mission; and (d) support from the entire faculty. Principle 3 Method: We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership. 38 Among the main challenges related to the learning frameworks, materials, processes and environments related to the integration of poverty-related issues into management education, were the following: dominance of functional subjects, the lack of faculty competence and confidence, the inter-disciplinary character of the topic, the lack of appropriate cases, text-books and other learning materials, and insufficient knowledge of best practices for teaching the topic. Solutions in these areas are also encouraging and confirm a major finding of the WG s second global survey: That innovation in teaching methods is occurring globally around the issue of poverty. Poverty-related cases are increasingly included in various courses, and students are more and more being asked to make presentations or take part in debates, role plays and other interactive learning methods. Invited speakers, along with the organization of thematic conferences and events, are also good examples for this. Particularly important are service learning opportunities, project works, student-led campaigns, events and other initiatives and volunteering activities, including those co-organized with the local communities and bodies. Some of these activities are mandatory, so they directly request students to engage with the issue of poverty. The study identified numerous opportunities in this area. Among them are those related to creating new teaching materials, sharing best practices, creating electronic platforms and forums for sharing ideas among faculty and students, faculty development, as well as developing corporate and community partnerships. Collectively, survey responses under Principle 3 support the need for the Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions, a document that has been developed as a complement to this report. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

41 Final Report Principle 4 Research: We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value. The field of research has come out as one of the main challenges and at the same time also main opportunities related to integrating poverty-related issues into management education. Previously mentioned issues of the legitimacy of the topic, and the related lack of understanding and even appropriate vocabulary, have to do with the lack of respective research. On the other hand this is closely related to the lack of funding, the lack of time, the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, the lack of faculty competence and confidence, as well as other self-imposed internal and external limitations, including international accreditation. Principle 5 - Partnership: We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges. One of the main challenges identified in the survey was the questionable legitimacy of the topic of poverty for management education, and the lack of interest in student and employer markets. Solutions that include various forms of partnerships with business partners, social entrepreneurs, business incubators, cooperatives, local and international NGOs, governmental agencies and local community seem to provide answers for many of the above mentioned challenges. Partnership benefits also include opportunities for bringing real-life experience and business practice into the classroom, for inviting speakers from the corporate world to serve on panels and participate in conferences on the role of business in alleviating poverty, as well as for sponsoring centres for social innovation at business schools. 39 Partnerships are also seen as a great opportunity for changing the mindsets and attitudes of all stakeholders equally those from the corporate world and the management education community. Quite often business schools have a wrong perception of what the educational market needs and wants are. Bringing faculty champions together with corporate champions could have a high synergy-making potential. Principle 6 Dialogue: We will facilitate and support dialog and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organizations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability. Challenges, solutions and opportunities in the area of partnerships indicate the need for a wider and more intensive dialogue among all stakeholders, interest groups and social partners on the role that businesses as well as management education could and should play in both fighting poverty and achieving the first Millennium Development Goal. Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

42 Final Report Particularly important in this respect is the fact that some respondents in the survey noted that participation in PRME itself created opportunities to discuss poverty-related issues. This is an important opportunity with a huge potential to help: a. Individual schools to start and/or lead poverty-related initiatives for their own organizations b. Groups of schools and their stakeholders to collaborate together on projects related to integrating poverty-related issues into management education; and c. PRME as an initiative to further enhance its value as a learning and action network for the purpose of fighting poverty through management education. In this context, the Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education will continue to facilitate dialog and implementation of the report s main findings and recommendations. 40 Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

43 Final Report APPENDICES Table A. Cross Tabulation of Private/Public Status by Accreditation Accreditation AACSB EQUIS CEEMAN AMBA IQA Total Public School Private School Total Table B. Cross Tabulation of the Mix of International to National Students by Accreditation Accreditation AACSB EQUIS CEEMAN AMBA IQA Total Completely international student body Predominantly international student body Predominantly national student body Completely national student body Total Table C presents the five items that respondents affiliated with public programs perceived to be a greater barrier/obstacle to the inclusion of poverty discussion in their school/program than respondents affiliated with private schools/programs. Table C. Analysis of Variance between Public and Private Programs and Perceived Obstacles/Barriers to Inclusion of Poverty in Programs Sum of df Mean F Sig. Sq. Sq. Faculty Between (Combined) members willing Groups to do research in Within Groups the area Total Accreditation Between (Combined) standards Groups Within Groups Total Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

44 Final Report Knowing the right place in the curriculum for the topic Institutional culture (i.e., openness to innovation & change) Do you or your school have a plan for addressing/over coming this challenge, obstacle or barrier? Between (Combined) Groups Within Groups Total Between (Combined) Groups Within Groups Total Between (Combined) Groups 2 Within Groups Total Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

45 May 2012

46 2012 Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education A Compendium of Teaching Resources Sponsored by the PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education

47 C O L L E C T I O N I N T R O D U C T I O N The goal of this Collection is to provide short summaries of what works when it comes to integrating the issue of poverty into management education. The audience for this collection is the global community of teachers, scholars, institutional and program leaders at schools, colleges and educational programs, who are interested in this topic. The emphasis on successful experiences is a unique feature of this Collection. Collection entries follow a standard format. They are one page in length. Each entry identifies an item by name, summarizes the item s content, identifies the course and course level in which the item was or could be used, presents learning goals for the item, describes the personal experiences of the author with the item and provides a URL if the item is accessible online. Hyperlinks in the table below will take you the first entry in a category. The Collection is comprised of the following thirteen categories. Activity type Cases Journal articles Books /Book chapters Non-academic articles Video or films Pictures Active learning activities Major projects or assignments Invited Speakers/Lecture Series Online activities Courses Programs /Modules Research Beginning Section Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here If you would like to contribute to the Collection, please send your contribution to: PRMEPovertyGp@gmail.com Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

48 CASE Case Name URL Course Course Level Brief description Learning points Experiences Submitted by The Sweetest Business of Nestlé Venezuela: El Dulce Negocio Global Marketing MBA This case describes how Nestlé targeted low income housewives in Venezuela to increase sales of their sweetened and evaporated canned milk products. Nestlé chose sweetened milk because many other milk products had price caps set by the Venezuelan government. Nestlé s final strategy was to encourage low income women to become entrepreneurs: bakers. Nestlé supported women with baking sessions, videos and trial products (especially sweetened milk) so that these women could run a successful cake business from their homes. (1) Introduce students to low income consumers in a country outside India or Africa (2) Illustrate the holistic way Nestlé thought about its low income target market (3) Stress the value of consumer psychographic profiles that are discussed in the case narrative I teach this case to stress the importance of having a detailed consumer profile for low income consumers. This takes marketing strategy out of the impersonal, abstract realm and forces students to connect with real individuals and to think about their daily lives. I also show two video clips of Nestlé s training videos: (Tres Leche [Three Milks]); (Lemon pie). There is also an English language summary of El Dulce Negocio, which seems to be produced by Nestlé: Al Rosenbloom, Professor, Dominican University, USA, arosenbloom@dom.edu Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

49 CASE Case Name URL Course The family of sago producers in Pak Phanang, Southern Thailand Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management Course Level 1-5 Brief description Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by This case looks at the circumstances of a family living in Southern Thailand, who have access to sago wood. The family is very poor, and they are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through processing the natural sago surrounding their house, while trying to diversify their produce and develop their supply chains. The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by families living in real poverty, and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the family can enhance their income from sago production, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. Mark Neal, PhD, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, info@markneal.com, Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

50 CASE Case Name URL Course A Community of Weavers in Southern Thailand Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management Course Level 1-5 Brief description Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by This case looks at the circumstances of a traditional community of weavers living in Southern Thailand, who are reliant upon these traditional skills for income. The community is very poor, and they are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through diversifying their products, and developing their supply chains. The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty, and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the community members can enhance their income through diversifying their products, and developing their supply chains, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. Mark Neal, PhD, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, info@markneal.com, Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

51 CASE Case Name URL Course A Community of Rice Farmers in Southern Thailand Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management Course Level 1-5 Brief description Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by This case looks at the circumstances of people living in a village in Southern Thailand, which relies upon rice farming for its income. The community is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing their farming methods, their rice milling processes and supply chains. The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty, and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the farmers can enhance their income through developing their farming methods, their rice milling processes and their supply chains, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. Mark Neal, PhD, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, info@markneal.com, Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

52 CASE Case Name URL Course Microfinance in a Community of Small-Holder Farmers in Rural Cambodia Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management Course Level 1-5 Brief description Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by This case looks at the circumstances of people living in a farming village in rural Cambodia. The community is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing their farming methods and supply chains. The case looks at how a microfinance scheme supports them in these endeavors. The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty; and to enable students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. In this particular case, an aim is to enable students to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance in these circumstances. Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the farmers can enhance their income through developing their farming methods and their supply chains, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. They also find it interesting to examine and evaluate the impact that microfinance is having in these circumstances. Mark Neal, PhD, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, info@markneal.com, Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

53 CASE Case Name URL Course Eco-tourism home-stays on the Mekong, Cambodia Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management Course Level 1-5 Brief description Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by This case looks at the circumstances faced by people living in a riverside village in rural Cambodia, which has traditionally been reliant for its welfare on fishing and agriculture. The community is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing eco-tourism home stays on the banks of the river Mekong. The case looks at how a microfinance scheme supports them in these endeavors, and it examines the effects that the eco-tourism initiative is having on the life of the village. The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty; and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. In this particular case, an aim is to enable students to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance in these circumstances. Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the villagers can enhance their income through engaging in eco-tourism, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. Students also find it interesting to examine and evaluate the impact that microfinance is having in these circumstances. Mark Neal, PhD, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, info@markneal.com, Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

54 CASE Case Name URL Course The Muslim fishing village in Pak Phanang, Thailand Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management. Course Level 1-5 Brief description Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by This case looks at the circumstances faced by people living in a village in Southern Thailand, who are reliant upon fishing as a livelihood. The village is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing their fishing methods, and diversifying their produce. The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty; and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the village can enhance its economic welfare from fishing, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. Mark Neal, PhD, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, info@markneal.com, Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

55 CASE Case Name URL Course Course Level Brief description Learning goal(s) McKague, K. and Branzei, O. (2007). E+Co: The Path to Scale. London, ON: Ivey Business School Publishing Upper Level Undergraduate and MBA A case on an organization, E+Co, which financed renewable energy entrepreneurs in the developing world. The case orients students to the challenges and issues of providing clean energy to the 1.6 billion people in the world without it and outlines the challenges E+Co faces to go from 1 million people served with clean energy to 100 million. A major challenge for all social enterprises is reaching scale, both in their social and environmental impact as well as in financial self-sustainability. This case stimulates students to think about very practical strategies for how E+Co can reach scale. Experiences Submitted by Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

56 CASE Case Name URL Course Course Level Brief description Learning goal(s) Submitted by McKague, K. and Branzei, O. (2007). City Water Tanzania. London, ON: Ivey Business School Publishing Upper level undergraduate or MBA This multi-part case illustrates the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles which influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates, by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in forprofit solution to water and sewage provision in Africa (Nigerian and South African strikes precipitated the break-up of City Water) and Latin America (Cochabamba, Bolivia; Kibera, Nigeria). The case can also be used to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of conditional aid in an international business class. The case requires a grasp of fundamental principles of strategy, policy, and international business. 1) To illustrate and debate the role of private sector initiatives in reaching the tenth Millennium Development Goal target - to cut in half, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. 2) To discuss specific goals and challenges of public-private sector partnerships in providing clean water and sanitation in developing countries. 3) To provide an example of failure. 4) To help students work through, and develop a fine-grained understanding and appreciation of how companies could respond to demands for improved water supply and sanitation. Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

57 CASE Case Name URL Course Course Level Brief description Learning goal(s) Submitted by Value Chain Development: CARE Kenya s Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor. London, ON: Ivey Business School Publishing Upper level undergraduate or MBA Case A examines how CARE, a non-profit international development organization, begins to pursue a market-based approach to meeting its poverty-reduction mission. Specifically, George Odo, a CARE project manager and the case s chief protagonist, explores how previous work with low-income livestock herders in drought-prone eastern Kenya might offer an opportunity to work with value chain actors to improve access to markets and increase farmer incomes. With the Kenyan livestock project as the pilot for this new approach, Case A s main decision point concerns a strategic choice regarding the role CARE should play in the value chain to support low-income pastoralists. Options include: 1) becoming directly involved in value chain transactions, buying and selling livestock and providing inputs to farmers, or 2) acting as a value chain facilitator to provide the information and incentives to existing actors to make the value chain more efficient and inclusive for low-income producers. This strategic decision is part of a larger proposal students are tasked to create for CARE s market-based livestock project. Case B describes the decisions CARE actually made in structuring the project and its choice to become directly involved in the value chain, buying cattle from farmers, negotiating a deal with a large farm to fatten the cattle and transporting the cattle to market. Case B is set three years into the project and describes some of the serious challenges CARE s strategy faces. Case B s decision point concerns developing options for how the project can be turned around, including CARE possibly playing an indirect role as value chain facilitator and catalyst. 1: Value Chain Conceptualization 2: Value Chain Mapping 3: Value Chain Roles 4: Understanding the Movement in the International Development Community Toward More Market-based Approaches 5: To Provide an Example of Learning from Failure And Changing Course Based on Difficult Experience Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

58 CASE Case Name Habib, A., Gulamani, S., Lau, B., Lesau, O. and McKague, K. (2010). IRC in Sierra Leone: The Path to Scale for an Alternative Microfranchising Model. Ann Arbor, MI: William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan URL Course Course Level Upper Level Undergraduate or MBA Brief description This case examines how the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nonprofit international development organization, develops a unique microfranchising model and explores the challenges and opportunities for refining it and taking it to scale. The case decision maker is Barri Shorey, the IRC manager responsible for piloting the model over its first year of operation. Students are given the background, successes and challenges of the pilot to date and are asked to consider their strategy for establishing the effectiveness and sustainability of the initiative in the future. Learning goal(s) Submitted by 1. Understanding microfranchising. The origins of the concept and its relation to social enterprise and microfinancing. 2. The path to scale begins with refining the microfranchising model. One of the important lessons to be brought out is the importance of further refining, testing, and systematizing IRC s microfranchising model before scaling it up. 3. Goal Clarification. At this early stage, the project could be taken in a number of directions, and it will be important to ensure the goals of the initiative are clear, so that these can be aligned with strategy and decisions around youth recruitment, staffing, monitoring and evaluation, levels of support, and partner selection. 4. Moving beyond subsistence. Starting from low levels of business knowledge and experience, the IRC project needs to consider how to move youth beyond subsistence petty trading activities. This includes both growth and financing options for the microfranchises. 5. Training and capacity building. For youth that want to grow their businesses, training and capacity building in business skills are essential. This can also be achieved through developing mentoring and business networks. 6. Franchisor support. Often with limited financial and business capacity themselves, franchisor businesses would benefit (as would their youth franchisees) from business development support. Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

59 ARTICLE Author + Title John Ireland, Lessons for successful BOP marketing from Caracas slums Publication Title Journal of Consumer Marketing, 25/7 (2008), pp Course Course Level Brief description Learning points Experiences Submitted by International Marketing Undergraduate This article describes the challenges of marketing to urban slum dwellers. It uses the Caracas slums to illustrate how some firms have successfully marketed their products/services to urban slum residents. A marketing mix (4 P) framework is used to structure the ideas presented. 1) Low income individuals living in urban environments are different from low income individuals living in rural/dispersed environments 2) Because of point 1, successful firms cannot simply transplant successful BOP strategies from rural environments (such as India) into urban environments 3) Firms targeting urban slum dwellers can take advantage of structural aspects of urban life: saturated media, transportation systems, high density living and proximity to establish product outlets I have students read this article after foundational articles by Prahalad and Hart. I use the article to contrast the first wave of BOP thinking, which focused on India and rural markets, with second wave thinking about low income, urban markets. I have students work in class in teams to contrast Rural BOP Markets with Urban BOP Markets. This task uncovers most points in the article. One conclusion from this reading is that urban slum dwellers take advantage of structural aspects of living in a large city and use these things (proximity to shopping malls, public transit, brand building through TV/radio) to shop for products. Students come to understand that urban slum dweller consumer behavior converges, in some ways, to a more standard marketing mix approach. I also like the article because it reminds students that BOP consumers are everywhere not just in rural India and Africa. The Casas Bahia case can be used in conjunction with this article. This case, about a successful Brazilian retailer of electronic equipment, can be found in CK Prahalad s book, Finding Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, as well as on line at Al Rosenbloom, Professor, Dominican University, USA, arosenbloom@dom.edu Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

60 ARTICLE Author + Title Publication Title Course Course Level Brief description Learning goals Experiences Submitted by Juan Alejandro Cortes-Ramirez, The miracle fruit : how a cooperative of fruit producers has vanquished poverty and brought peace and development to a small village in Colombia International Journal of Case Method Research & Application, XXIII(1), Organizational Theory and Design Graduate This article presents an innovative intervention by a fruit producers cooperative called Asofrutas located in the region of Antioquia, Colombia. The article examines how this cooperative overcame the challenges of poverty and achieved a greatly improved standard of living in a village once plagued by violence. Cooperative members developed these capabilities through the intervention and assistance of Corporation Prodepaz, an organization that supports community projects for self-sustainability. 1. Reality can be more interesting than fiction. This fruit producers association achieves the ideal of a human centered management. 2. It is a goal to reflect upon local society and management theory and answer how is that this small organization can achieve so much with so many resources?, why others organization with big budgets and plenty of resources do not achieve the same in comparative terms? 3. Another goal is to think about what are the challenges and barriers that prevent managers to act within the boundaries of social justice. The first time students read this article and I present additional facts and pictures about Asofrutas. They entered into some kind of magical realism narrative, like an altered reality. But the truth is that this is only two hours away driving from their homes. Most of my graduate students work for private companies and (although social problems are evident once one transit the streets of Medellín), they do not care so much for this problems, sometimes phrases like those are state problems, social security institutions must take care of that, arises on the debate, but when they are confronted to this small organization and learned how they have displaced violence, brought life-quality and vanquished poverty on its community just by running this association, then is when the reflection emerges. The debate is enriched by the complementary works and perspectives of authors like Amartya Sen the social justice perspective), Manuel Castells (the power perspective), Zygmunt Bauman, Gilles Lipovetsky (the ethical and postmodern point of view), Omar Aktouf (a critical perspective on management). The main conclusions are oriented in the way that simple actions can really contribute to restorative justice, and that companies, no matter they size, are responsible to bring those actions of well-being specially in this new democracy times. Juan Alejandro Cortes-Ramirez, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia, juan.cortes@upb.edu.co Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

61 ARTICLE Article Citation Course Course Level Brief description Learning goals Submitted by McKague, K. (2011). Dynamic Capabilities of Institutional Entrepreneurship. Journal of Enterprising Communities, Vol. 5, No. 1: Upper level undergraduate or MBA To explore the dynamic capabilities which may be important for changing the practices and assumptions about the role of business in development, the article investigates a high-profile project at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) known as the Growing Inclusive Markets (GIM) initiative. The GIM initiative is described by the UNDP as a new multi-stakeholder initiative that strives to study, understand and share with the broader development and business communities ways in which the pursuits of profit and human progress can work to mutual advantage. This concept that profit and human progress can work to mutual advantage is a significant departure from historical assumptions of the UNDP and many other organizations in the business community and the development community. Before the 1990s, business was typically seen as a major contributor to the problems of human development rather than a source of solutions and the UN s work on Transnational Corporations sought to limit the unchecked power of large companies operating across international boundaries. Many organizations within the business community continue to hold the view that engaging in socially or environmentally related activities with the poor is something best understood through the lens of charity or corporate social responsibility. At the same time, many organizations within the development and civil society communities continue to strongly hold the view that business is a major problem of underdevelopment and not part of a solution. Contrary to these common understandings and entrenched ideologies, the UNDP s GIM initiative sought to fundamentally change these views towards an understanding that the private sector can be an important part of the solution to underdevelopment and that engaging with the poor as suppliers or customers can be fundamentally good for business. This paper both traces the UN s history in working with companies (from seeing them as part of the problem of poverty to part of the solution). It also identifies specific capabilities that the UNDP had to develop and practice in order to facilitate including business as one of its main stakeholder groups. Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

62 ARTICLE Article Citation Course Level Brief description Learning goals Submitted by McKague, K. (2012). Bangladesh s Rural Sales Program: Towards a Scalable Rural Sales Agent Model for the Distribution of Socially Beneficial Goods to the Poor. Social Enterprise Journal. Vol. 8, (1). Upper level undergraduate or MBA Purpose of the article In Bangladesh, 30% of the population lives beyond the 'last mile' of traditional distribution networks and serving this rural low-income population with socially useful goods is a huge challenge. One of the most innovative and successful cases of its kind in the world, a social enterprise rural distribution model originally developed by CARE Bangladesh and the Bata Shoe Company illustrates the possibility of combining marketbased solutions to poverty with socially responsible business growth. Design/methodology/approach This in-depth case study was developed over the course of three field visits to Bangladesh between November 2009 and September 2010 based on 25 face-to-face interviews with rural sales women, Bata employees and CARE staff as well as participant observation and review of project documents and media reports. Findings The case provides insights into the origins, lessons learned and key success factors of viable rural sales agent distribution networks serving the poor. A key tension to be managed is keeping the costs of the network down while ensuring that every member is adequately incentivized. Social implications The 3,000 women sales agents in rural Bangladesh engaged with the Rural Sales Program have benefited from earning viable incomes in contexts where opportunities for employment and empowerment of women are limited. Rural populations have gained affordable access to socially beneficial goods such as fortified foods, seeds, daily necessities and shoes. Companies have benefited from learning how to adapt their product offerings to meet the needs of low-income customers. Originality Where rural sales initiatives elsewhere have faced challenges, this case is the first published account of the origins of how CARE, Bata, and other companies established a viable and scalable rural sales agent distribution network for the commercial benefit of companies and the economic and social benefit of poor women and their customers. Many interesting product innovations have been developed for BoP consumers. But often the major challenge remains for distributing socially beneficial goods to the poor who need them. This case describes how the Rural Sales Program in Bangladesh overcame multiple challenges to establish a viable rural distribution channel by partnering with multiple companies and taking a market-based approach. Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

63 ARTICLE Article Citation Course Level Brief description Learning goals Submitted by Kevin McKague, David Wheeler, Corrine Cash, Jane Comeault and Elise Ray (Eds.) Introduction to the Special Issue on Growing Inclusive Markets. Journal of Enterprising Communities People and Places in the Global Economy, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2011 Upper level undergraduate or MBA One of the great challenges of the twenty-first century is to re-invent both the language and the practice of international development. In recent years, a crisis in confidence has emerged within the international development community among a number of activists, bilateral agencies and multilateral institutions that has led to a questioning of the traditional roles and effectiveness of the donor state, the recipient state, and the myriad international and local actors standing between development assistance and the poor. This current period of reflection has allowed bilateral agencies, non-governmental organizations, and multilateral agencies like the United Nations Development Program to revisit their own approaches and to explore the potential for private sector activity to make a positive contribution to poverty reduction. Economic growth is not necessarily translated into poverty alleviation, and the factors that have allowed some countries to grow their economies and include the poor in their local, national, and international marketplaces as producers, consumers, employees, or traders may be political, cultural, social, economic, regulatory, technological, or ecological. In most cases, these factors depending on their force and direction are intertwined in a complex web of drivers and inhibitors often only barely understood in terms of their overall impact on private sector development in the developing world. Into this uncertain and complex set of systems has been added a new impetus to discover how and under what conditions inclusive enterprises become established, grow, and replicate. Regardless of terminology and the diversity of approaches, there remains a pressing need to discover what works and why when enterprise activity that generates positive outcomes for low-income individuals emerges and is successful. There is also a need to learn from these observations in a way that transcends the anecdotal and starts to move the development community towards empirical and generalizable findings and lessons learned. This article (an introduction to a special issue on growing inclusive markets) provides a broad overview of the history and major trends that have contributed to current interest in poverty alleviation by the private sector and social entrepreneurs. Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

64 ARTICLE Article + Author Wheeler, D., McKague, K., Thomson, J., Davies, R., Medalye, J. and Prada, M. (2005). Creating Sustainable Local Enterprise Networks. MIT/Sloan Management Review, Vol. 47, No. 1: Course Level Brief description Learning goals Submitted by Upper level undergraduate or MBA The authors analyzed 50 cases of successful sustainable enterprise in developing countries and developed a conceptual framework called the Sustainable Local Enterprise Network (SLEN) model. Successful sustainable enterprises in developing countries often involve informal networks that include businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and local communities. These networks can lead to virtuous cycles of reinvestment in an area's financial, social, human, and ecological capital. Successful SLENs require at least one business enterprise to ensure the network's financial sustainability and serve as its anchor; however, a cooperative or a profitable social enterprise launched by a nongovernmental organization may play that anchor role. Although multinational corporations were sometimes part of the SLENs studied, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and sustainable local businesses were more common. Concludes with recommendations for fostering the development of SLENs, such as setting up training programs in sustainable entrepreneurship in developing countries. This article helps show that when dealing with complex business models related to the challenge of poverty alleviation, many organizations adopt a network approach, partnering with a variety of other organizations to undertake business ventures and achieve social and environmental outcomes. Students learn to shift their thinking from thinking about single bounded organizations (companies or NGOs) to thinking of enterprise in terms of enterprise networks that combine multiple complementary resources and capabilities that provide mutual benefits for all participants. Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

65 BOOK Book Title URL Course Course Level Brief description Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage A wide range of courses on strategy, business-in-society and sustainability Undergraduate & graduate Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage (Stanford University Press & Greenleaf Publishing, 2011), co-authored by Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva, invites current managers and future managers to explore the best possible strategies for the growing social and environmental pressures. With the rapidly declining resources, increasing societal expectations, and radical transparency that define business reality today, how is business to compete? The vast majority of business chooses to see sustainability as cost. A small minority of companies prefers to view it as a small niche, charging premium for it, or compromising on product quality and performance. But a small group of companies following the path of embedded sustainability, which, as the best practice suggests, is such deep integration of social and environmental performance into the company DNA, that it literally transforms its business model with no compromise to price or quality. Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by Both, business and academic communities have used the many tools offered by the book as applied guidance for creating and capturing sustainable value in practice. As a classroom resource, the book offers insights into the history of relationship between business and society (Chapter 2: The Brief History of Value), highlights many strategic approaches to managing social and environmental pressures (Chapter 3: What Would A Strategist Do?), and offers practical framework for embedding sustainability into existing traditional organizations (Chapters 5, 6, 7& 8). The book concludes with a forward-looking discussions on the big debates within sustainability field, including such heated questions as the role of government, the future of consumption, and the limits of business as a force for good (Chapters 9 & 10). At many schools, Embedded Sustainability serves as a guide for a practicum, where students are required to develop a real-life sustainable value project with a clear business case and comprehensive implementation strategy. Filled with examples and illustrations from best global practices, Embedded Sustainability serves as inspiration for what many managers believe to be impossible: to create value for society while discovering value for business. Nadya Zhexembayeva, PhD, Coca-Cola Chair of Sustainable Development IEDC-Bled School of Management, nadya.zhexembayeva@iedc.si Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

66 NON-ACADEMIC ARTICLE Article Title Integrating Community Partnership Perspective in University Functions: A Strategic Approach to Strengthen University Community Linkage URL Course Higher Education Management Certificate Program Course Level Higher Education Management Training (Graduate/ Post-Graduate ) Brief description The primary functions of the universities include teaching, research and extension. The fundamental purpose of the knowledge creation and dissemination is deep routed in the need for socio-economic development of the society, where the university exists. This relationship holds valid conceptually for all the universities irrespective of region and society, yet the different universities display different models in terms of type and level of community involvement. The experience shows that most of the academic institutions address the community development aspect just as a part of the University Social Responsibility and thus, leaving a big question in terms of usefulness and relevance of such approach. Focusing on the issue, the present article broadly aims to explore the changing role of the universities in the society and community development under the changing global academic institutional environment. The paper analyses the strategic issues which need to be addressed by the universities in order to design and adjust their roles and responsibilities as the catalyst of social-economic development through active community based partnership. The paper conceptualizes a model for effective communityuniversity partnership across all the major functions of teaching, research and extension. The paper is likely to provide a new and effective framework for integrated context-specific community-focused university function design, but without making any compromise with its universal character. Learning goal(s) To develop the appreciation for higher-education and community partnerships for poverty eradication and socio-economic development; To make the higher-education managers aware of the challenges in effective integration of social-economic development issues in higher education; and To suggest a strategic management model for context-specific and need-based design of courses/ programs to address sustainability issues. Experiences During the discussion, participants actively involved and raised the related issues; Helped in brainstorming on the possible higher education innovations and interventions to focus on socio-economic development issues; Brings the focus on planning and implementation of the sustainability programs by main-streaming it in the higher education. Submitted by Shiv K. Tripathi, Professor, Mzumbe University, Faculty of Commerce, Tanzania, sktripathi@mzumbe.ac.tz Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

67 FILM/VIDEO Film/Video Title URL Course Course Level Brief description Learning goal(s) Experiences Submitted by Be Birmingham - Social Inclusion Process Business, Ethics, Responsibility & Human Rights Postgraduate MSc This short film explains the social inclusion process in Birmingham City. This initiative was set up after riots that affected the city in August Issues of unemployment and poverty were seen as possible influences. see link to report that explores the background To understand the meaning of social inclusion and how this can impact poverty. To explore a live case study on the City of Birmingham and understand how different actors working together (Business, Government and Community Groups) can make a difference. One of the key lines of enquiry for the social inclusion process is Inclusive Economic Growth. This aims to see how business can work with government and community groups to enable all people in the city to benefit from economic inclusion. Carole Parkes, Director Social Responsibility & Sustainability, Aston Business School, UK, c.l.parkes@aston.ac.uk Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

68 FILM/VIDEO Film/Video Title URL Course Level Brief description Learning goal(s) Submitted by VEV Senegal: Wind Water for Life Undergraduate or Graduate Local Senegalese company "Vent l'eau pour la Vie" is repairing and manufacturing wind water pumps - providing an invaluable service that promotes renewable energy, provides clean water, helps reforestation efforts and improves livelihoods for villagers. This company is a client of clean energy finance company E+Co ( French with English subtitles. See also the UNDP Case Study and interview with the author Mamadou Gaye This short video illustrates how local entrepreneurs in Senegal took over an NGO and turned it into a financially viable renewable energy enterprise (windmillbased water pumping). Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, kevin@fsed.ca Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

69 FILM/VIDEO Film/Video Title URL Course Course Level Brief description Bapu-Bazar 1 : Community-Partnership Oriented Entrepreneurial Training Innovation in an Indian University National Service Scheme Program (Non-Credit) Graduate Level Students The initiative was launched by VBS Purvanchal University, Jaunpur (India). It focuses on managing the supply-chain of used cloths, toys and other items of daily use to help the poor in the region. Students collect cloths and other items from their respective surroundings and prepare it for the next-use. They organize the special camps to sell it to the needy poor at a token price. The token price is charged to generate feelings of honor and pride of ownership. Learning goal(s) Enhancing social-responsibility orientation among the students by involving them to help the poor; Developing socially-responsible entrepreneurial skills through action-learning; and Inculcating moral-leadership values among the students by designing and implementing community-partnership based social development project. Experiences Within 1 year from the introduction of this innovative project, more than 1000 students voluntarily joined the project. During last 1 year, 6 camps have been organized by the students to sell the used cloths, toys, house-hold items at a nominal token price. The number of beneficiaries (poor and below poverty line rural people from northern India) crossed Based on the students learning experiences and social impact, the model is being planned for other courses of the universities. Submitted by Shiv K. Tripathi, Professor, Mzumbe University, Faculty of Commerce, Tanzania, sktripathi@mzumbe.ac.tz 1 Bapu is an Indian word to call father lovingly. People use this title to remember father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. Bazar is Indian equivalent for physical market-place where people buy and sell the things. Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

70 PHOTOS Title Course Course Level Photo(s) Photos of Dharavi, Mumbai, India International Marketing, Global Marketing (MBA) Undergraduate, Graduate Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

71 Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

72 Learning points Experiences I use these photos that I took to: 1) Help students visualize the slum that is talked about in Chapter 1 of CK Prahalad s book, Finding Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, and in Prahalad and Hammond s Harvard Business Review article (September, 2002), Serving the Poor Profitably 2) Dispell some myths about life in a slum 3) Encourage students to think about individuals living in Dharavi as an active, vital market 4) Prompt thinking about the poverty penalty that Prahalad and Hart talk about Students might recognize this slum as the slum that was in Slum Dog Millionaires. This immediately builds interest in the pictures. I generally print the photos and ask students to circle things that they notice. I encourage students to look closely at the photos. I also encourage student s to move past the summary statement: Things are poor/dirty in a slum. Points I try to make are: 1) Slums are ecosystems in themselves; they are communities in which individuals buy and sell goods to each other. The two pictures of the ATM and the fruit stand with two cellphone carrier brands (Orange and Airtel) help make this point. 2) Space inside Dharavi is limited. There is constant interaction between residents. Companies can use this to their advantage: there is rapid diffusion of ideas through good word of mouth in an environment like this. 3) Individuals living in Dharavi still desire the basic things all individuals want: products that work, products that meet their needs, etc. All individuals want to be treated with respect and dignity. Submitted by Al Rosenbloom, Professor, Dominican University, USA, arosenbloom@dom.edu Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

73 PHOTOS Title Course Course Level RAMBO: Responsible Research and Community Partnership Non-Credit Community Outreach Activity Graduate / Post-Graduate (MBA) Photo(s) Learning goal(s) To develop orientation among MBA student towards the social issues through research; To learn the application of management theory in improving the livelihood of the poor in surrounding areas; and To develop skills for integrated research and outreach action for poverty eradication. Experiences Students actively participated in the initiative. During the piloting it was observed that the activity was helpful in developing the social development perspective among the students. The initial piloting result confirmed that with a little fine-tuning such activities would help in poverty eradication. Submitted by Shiv K. Tripathi, Professor, Mzumbe University, Faculty of Commerce, Tanzania, sktripathi@mzumbe.ac.tz Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

74 PHOTOS Title Course Course Level Photo(s) Bapu-Bazar 2 : Community-Partnership Oriented Entrepreneurial Training Innovation in an Indian University National Service Scheme Program (Non-Credit) Graduate Level Students Learning goal(s) Enhancing social-responsibility orientation among the students by involving them to help the poor; Developing socially-responsible entrepreneurial skills through action-learning; and Inculcating moral-leadership values among the students by designing and implementing community-partnership based social development project. Experiences Within 1 year from the introduction of this innovative project, more than 1,000 students voluntarily joined the project. 2 Bapu is an Indian word to call father lovingly. People use this title to remember father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. Bazar is Indian equivalent for physical market-place where people buy and sell the things. Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education