Mr. Toshio Arima (Chairman of the Board, Global Compact Network Japan, Japan)

Two Drastic Changes in the SDGs Era

SDGs is now disseminating into Japanese business society. A recent research report says that about 60 % of the top management of Japanese large corporations well understand what SDGs is and are implementing SDGs in their business plans and conducts. This is happening globally as well.

I believe that there are two big and basic change occur during the SDGs era, next ten years. One is that the criteria of success and sustainable corporations will change from Financial Short-term Gains (FSG) to Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). Presently, a ticket to top management is mostly financial expertise. However, in the future, financial expertise is not enough, but wide and deep understanding of ESG will be the key. Secondly, as Keidanren, Japan Business Federation, declared in the “Innovation for SDGs -Road to Society 5.0-“, next ten years will be the time for transforming into Society 5.0 being driven by ICT of AI, IoT, Robots, Cyber Space and so forth. Most of the process works will be shifted to AI and Robots and workplace can be anyplace in the world. Thus, issues and solutions of the SDGs will be quite different from those of present days.

It is important to have basic knowledge of the ESG and basic literacy of the ICT of Society 5.0. But since knowledge and memory can rapidly outdate, and roles of people will shift to more creative matters, it will become extremely important and essential for business leaders to have capability of looking at the basic structure and substance and to explore “what and why” rather than just remembering how to do things well. Both Academia and Business Community need to cope with these drastic changes. Lifetime education and learning of the Liberal Arts may be one of the answers.

Professor Dr. Elisabeth Fröhlich (President of Cologne Business School, Germany)

The“Sustainable Development Learning Map”: an innovative teaching tool?

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) introduced by the United Nations intent to secure sustainable development at the economic, social and ecological level. In contrast to the MDGs., which had been applied in particular to developing countries, the SDGs refer to all states and form the global guideline for future sustainable development. Against this background, it makes sense for Business Schools to realize their responsibility to contribute to the successful implementation of SDGs through research and teaching. We have developed a “SDG Learning Map” that shows which content / SDGs sub targets can be addressed within the framework of an integrated, sustainable curriculum. The aim is to clarify which goals remain unachieved and why. New teaching and research content needs to be developed so that Business Schools can make their contribution to the SDGs. Another important aspect to deal with is the question what meta-competencies are required to address this necessary mind shift in corporate management. This innovative teaching approach should help to improve the quality of lectures in the context of sustainable management and thus the contribution of Business School to socially and ecologically relevant topics. And this idea can be spun even further. If we succeed in creating a global learning scenario that trains future leaders equally to meet the global challenge of corporate policy, we will succeed in making the world a place without climate change, forced or child labor or financial scandals.