Journal Press India^®

I am pleased to invite you for XX Annual International Conference on the broad theme, “Global Vision 2030: Challenges and Opportunities” and Seminar Session on “Sustainable Development 2030: The Road Ahead” scheduled to be held from Jan. 4 to 5, 2019 at Deen Dayal Upadhayay College, University of Delhi, Dwarka, New Delhi, India.

One of the sub themes of Global Vision 2030 is the International Seminar on “Sustainable Development 2030: The Road Ahead,” which is based on Sustainable Development Goals of the world adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015 and governed by the central UN platform i.e., High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. “The scale and ambition of this universal Agenda can be judged by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets. The goals include ending poverty, eliminating hunger, good health and well-being, high-quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, innovation in industry and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, taking action on climate, protecting life underwater, protecting life on land, peace and justice bolstered by strong institutions, and partnerships toward achieving the  goals.”  (https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld)

“The regional road map of Asia and the Pacific region further specifies priority areas of cooperation, means of implementation and partnership, technology, finance, policy coherence and other details to achieve SDGs 2030.” (https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/publications/SDGs-Regional- Roadmap.pdf)

There are other initiatives apart from SDGs e.g., World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has also made a very comprehensive report with the vision 2050 which sets the agenda decade by decade that needs to be achieved if we want this world a better place to live in 2030 and beyond. “As global business faces new and complex challenges and opportunities, our science- based approach and targeted business solutions aim to scale up business impact. We target the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through six work programs to achieve systems transformation.” (https://www.wbcsd.org/)

Similarly there is another initiative by World Business School Council for Sustainable Business (WBSCSB) which is a “sustainability think tank and platform of action for business schools to contribute making business sustainable through their research, education and engagement, contributing to address major sustainability issues in society.” Within the framework of the 50+20 report, they have conducted a survey on the future of business education. “176 respondents with different professional backgrounds completed the survey, representing 30 countries around the world. 81% of respondents demand that business schools should focus in future on developing leaders that drive global problem solving with all stakeholders. A surprising 51% of respondents demand that business schools should focus on the bottom 4 billion of the pyramid (i.e. developing and emerging countries). Furthermore, there is clear consensus that key stakeholders business schools should focus on are entrepreneurs (65%) and SMEs (small & medium-sized enterprises) (51%).

When asked how the success of business schools should be measured, research is not mentioned at all and the salary increase of graduates as well as the ranking of the school are considered largely irrelevant (70% and 65% respectively). Respondents measure the success of a business school solely by the competences, abilities and skills of graduates, namely: the ability to adopt different perspectives & understanding the larger picture (76%), holistic decision-making skills, including societal and environmental factors (75%), entrepreneurial skills (54%) and leadership skills (50%).

The future of management education: Developing sustainable leadership skills through experimental learning

This sentiment is confirmed when defining future educational priorities of students. Developing leadership skills ranks as the clear no. 1 priority: for young students it is defined as ethics, values and developing the person (82%), and for professionals / executives as developing leadership skills as defined as responsible, sustainable and ethical behavior (85%). Executives are also clearly expected to understand the larger context of business, societal and environmental issues (80%). Leadership competences to be developed most are deeply engrained ethics and a responsible behavior (77%) as well as critical reasoning & holistic decision-making (64%).

When asked how such leaders can be developed, the respondents clearly favor new emerging pedagogical approaches: creating experimental learning situations for personal leadership skills (52%), embodied and experimental learning (49%), values-based learning (49%) and hands-on learning situations (47%).

The future of management research: Sustainability, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and future oriented

New priorities for management research emerged: resolving societal and global issues (47% each), interdisciplinary issues in business (46%) and trans-disciplinary issues of business and other sectors (45%). Topics to be addressed are:  how to make business responsible & sustainable (72%), how to develop globally responsible leaders (65%) and the role of business and its responsibility towards consumers, society and the planet (63%).

There was clear consensus that future research should be conducted in an inter-disciplinary (84%) and transdisciplinary (78%) manner and as action research (74%). There is an overwhelming request that research objectives address emerging issues of the future (91%) rather than studying current and past phenomena.

Respondents believe that management research should be conducted for various societal stakeholders (58%) and business practitioners (58%) rather than for an academic peer audience (12%).” (https:// www.bsl-lausanne.ch/5020-report-a-survey-on-the-future-of-business-education/)

The above-mentioned report by WBSCSB clearly tells that we need to change the vision and mission of the business schools, followed by pedagogical changes and other changes if we wish to achieve the expectations.

EY has also worked on preparing Vision 2030 for Higher Education in India which states that, “By 2030, India will be among the youngest nations in the world, with nearly 150 million people in the college-going age group. Higher Education in India: Vision 2030 tries to articulate an ambitious vision for higher education (HE) reform and lays out a roadmap for achieving this. However, the scale and complexity of the individual states calls for a state-specific approach to achieving this vision. All states need to adopt a transformative and innovative approach across all levers of higher education: from curricula and pedagogy to the use of technology to partnerships, governance and funding, to become globally relevant and competitive.” (https://www.ey.com/in/en/industries/india-sectors/education/ ey-indias-vision-2030-a-state-focused-roadmap)

There are various other dimensions of Global Vision 2030 which relates to each sector, industry, materials, technology, mobility, people, etc. It would really interesting to be part of this mega event on Jan. 4-5, 2019 and contribute towards the development of the world to make it a better place to live in the decades to come instead of degrading the world. We need to consider intergenerational and intra generational equity and handover this planet earth to the next generation with a sense of contentment that we have made it better then what we got.

I present to you the current issue of DBR and request you to share your feedback to enable us to further improve the quality of DBR.

Rtn. Prof. Ajay Kumar Singh

Editor-in-Chief