Transforming Education And Educating Tomorrows Transformers
Leaders from around the world learn about the coming transformations
This week marks the start of the latest edition of The Future of Capitalism, a global educational initiative co-founded byIESE Business School in Spain and Shizenkan University in Japan. I am proud to have been involved from the outset.
The online program examines critical questions facing business at a time of profound transformation, from capital markets and ESG to purpose-driven management, the relationship between companies and society and how corporate value should be defined and measured.
The Future of Capitalism was first launched as an MBA elective with the support of academic directors Antonino Vaccaro, Pedro Videla and Govert Vroom. Since 2020, it has brought together more than 1,000 participants from over 20 countries.
This edition marks an important milestone: for the first time, the program is open to MBA and Executive MBA participants—as well as recent graduates—from any business school in the world. The class is made up of approximately 300 students.
I will be taking part again, alongside such luminaries as Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever; Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy; Mads Christensen, executive director of Greenpeace International; R. Edward Freeman, professor at the University of Virginia; Colin Mayer, professor at the University of Oxford; Sandra WU, former chairperson and CEO of Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd. in Japan; and author Roman Krznaric.
The cross-institutional angle here is what makes this compelling. I sat through a traditional MBA program that was heavy on financializaton metrics and light on externalities. Having Ed Freeman and Mads Christensen in the same conversation space probly generates way more cognitive dissonance than most b-school curriula are designed to handle. Curious if the 1000+ alumni cohort ends up forming anyting like a sustained network postprogram or if it stays transactional.