The Global Challenges of our Times Call for New Business Models

The Global Challenges of the 21st Century – A post by Prof Nicolas Forsans

Once again in 2017 the World Economic Forum highlighted in its 2017 Global Risks Report the interconnections that exist between some of the most significant challenges that are shaping business and society in the 21st century. Those interconnections are represented below in their Risk Interconnection map.

Risk-interconnection-mapEconomic and societal challenges

Globalisation has lifted millions of people out of poverty by enabling people in emerging countries to take part in world trade. Deregulations and privatisations have encouraged competition and innovation, leading to declining prices and higher quality products while urbanisation and industrialisation in emerging economies have enabled 3 billion people to generate an income of at least $10/day.

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FT Preview – Teaching the Impact of Climate Change to the Leaders of Tomorrow

What happened yesterday had been anticipated for a long time. The opening of the United Nations’ 21st Conference of the Parties (or COP21 in a nutshell) in Paris yesterday evidences how urgent the need to tackle climate change has become. A recent paper in Nature shows how horrendous the economic and human cost of climate change would be – with about a quarter of the world’s GDP wiped off by 2100 and the burden of the cost falling onto the world’s poorest countries left to pay the price for it.

Teaching the Impact of Climate Change to the business leaders of tomorrow

While the Financial Times gave editorial prominence (subscription req’d) to its coverage of the opening of COP21, it also features an article more focused on MBA programmes that that deliver a more sustainable approach to business and management education.

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