CoBS celebrates its 7th anniversary with a special issue

The Council on Business & Society celebrates its 7^th year of existence with a special anniversary issue of its quarterly magazine Global Voice.

To celebrate the alliance’s seventh year of existence, the Council’s magazine Global Voice will see a special anniversary issue published in web and print format . Offering a podium for all those who believe that business can have a positive role to play in society, Global Voice puts the spotlight on the Council’s faculty, students and corporate partners.  

Founded in 2011 on the initiative of ESSEC Business School, the Council on Business & Society – or CoBS as it is known – now counts five schools across four continents, each recognised leaders in higher and executive education: ESSEC Business School, France, Asia-Pacific and Africa; FGV-EAESP, Brazil; School of Management Fudan University, China; Keio Business School, Japan; and Warwick Business School in the UK.   

The Council’s mission is to promote responsible leadership and business practices internally and externally to the alliance for the benefit of tomorrow’s future managers, leaders and practitioners, typically from a CSR and CSV perspective. Closer to home, the Council at ESSEC nestles under the umbrella of the ESSEC Center of Excellence Management and Society, with many of this center of excellence’sprominent faculty and researchers regularly contributing to the Council’s projects, blog [r1] and magazine.

Originally created to provide a forum for academics, business leaders and policy-makers to debate on issues at the crossroads of business and society, in 2017 the alliance widened its scope and re-oriented its activities to launch a number of in-the-field projects and initiatives. These include faculty exchanges between the schools for CSR-oriented teaching and research assignments with a CoBS Responsible Leadership Certificate delivered to students at the host school, practical insights from business leaders on sustainable business practices, a shared learning repository gathering research-driven output as well as case studies, videos, articles and white papers with a CSR dimension, and a Young Leaders Impact Index (YLII) that plots the careers and viewpoints of graduates over a period of ten years. The CoBS, via its magazine and blog are open to contributions from faculty, students and practitioners alike and 2019 will see the launch of inter-school projects to bring students together in mixed teams to tackle a business and society issue.

The CoBS sits firmly on the humanist values of the School. “At ESSEC,” asserts Dean and President Vincenzo Esposito Vinzi, “we believe that training students and participants for responsible leadership is key for answering the challenges of a complex world. Together with the members of the Council on Business & Society, we strive to promote responsibility so as to impact today's economy and society, and shape tomorrow's world.”

Download the June 21st special issue of Global Voice magazine 

• Want to take part in the Council’s initiatives? Drop a line to tom.gamble@essec.edu

• If you are a school interested in joining the alliance, please contact Executive Director Prof. Christian Koenig @ koenig@essec.edu