Most management institutes in India are criticised by the society for not making much contribution in the field of business sustainability and associated public policy processes. IIM Lucknow, in the year 2011-2012, became the first IIM to establish a dedicated Centre of Excellence for Business Sustainability. Another step has been taken in this direction with the launch of a Post Graduate Programme in Sustainable Management – PGP SM.
PGP SM is a two year full time residential programme. This programme is being conducted at IIM Lucknow’s Noida campus in Delhi NCR region. The inductions programme for the 1st batch is from 1st July 2015-2nd July 2015.
PGP SM graduates will be instilled the ability to think in a holistic way about different aspects of sustainability challenges in the business environment using a dynamic systems framework. They would be equipped with management and leadership skills to formulate and solve problems at the appropriate scale and ability to recognise the interconnectedness of economic performance of businesses with coupled social and environmental systems. They would also be able to produce policy relevant results.
Programme Background
In the last two decades the business paradigm all over the globe has witnessed a radical shift. A lot has changed in the way business is required to respond to various challenges it faces from different societal actors. Due to increased awareness in the society about environmental degradation, global warming, climate change, and socio-economic implications of ever-increasing corporate power, nation states have forced businesses to mould their business strategies to align with national and global Sustainable Development objectives. At the same time, evolution of voluntary norms and proactive steps taken by some industry associations, have brought Sustainability agenda to the fore front of business strategy. Academia, all over the world, has been increasingly engaging itself in suggesting alternative business strategies that promote cleaner, greener and socially responsible production systems. All these are forcing the companies to internalize the costs hitherto passed on to various stakeholders in the production system, thereby increasing the cost of production.
Increased pace of industrialization in the world, and especially in developing countries, has resulted in unprecedented demand for natural resources, most of which are non-renewable in nature. In the name of industrial development, communities dependent on these resources are being deprived of their only source of livelihood. At the same time, with increased exposure to urban areas aspiration levels of the local communities are also rising. Companies are making all kinds of promises to meet aspirations of local people in lieu of their natural resources, which are hard to fulfill. Hence, now local communities are becoming sceptical about industry’s/ government’s intentions and are not ready to part with their livelihood sources.
In the changed business environment, businesses have started facing a business environment which comprises not only of traditional stakeholders – owners, shareholders, employees, and customers – but also large numbers of non-traditional stakeholders – institutionalized community groups, environmental NGOs, minority groups, media and the society at large. Businesses, in order to perform in a sustainable manner, have to be responsive to the needs, demands and expectations of all these stakeholders. Different stakeholders have diverse, and oftentimes, conflicting demands and expectations from businesses. Moreover, their expectations are dynamically evolving which further complicates the business manager’s job of providing the greatest possible quantities of all the desired outputs, in a sustainable manner. Hence, today’s business managers need to understand and appreciate the expectations of all their stakeholders and behave in a socially responsible manner. Concepts like corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate citizenship, corporate social opportunity (CSO), stakeholder management etc., are gaining prominence in the parlance of management practices.
At the same time, Indian public policies too are undergoing radical transformations to meet the changing developmental needs of the country, including that of the businesses. Public policy formulation in any society is a complex process which needs active inputs not only from all the relevant stakeholders but also from the academia in terms of their long-term implications for the society. Academic institutions should proactively involve themselves at each and every stage of the public policy formulation and implementation process. Their timely interventions can help the policy makers in designing better policy interventions and effective implementations.
Programme Objectives
Postgraduate Programme in Sustainable Management (PGPSM) has been designed to enable the students to:
- Understand societal development from multiple perspectives
- Acquire knowledge and skills in functional areas of management
- Actively participate in the growing world-wide debate on the purposes and responsibilities of business
- Become informed, self-aware and socially and environmentally responsible individuals, contributing to social change
- Challenge the status quo and suggest new and innovative opportunities for businesses to grow without compromising social and environmental responsibilities
Programme Scope and Coverage
During first year, the students will study 19.0 credit courses most of which will in functional areas of management with few courses focused on Sustainable Management to give them orientation in the area of Sustainability and its challenges. Almost all courses in second year (14.5 credits) will be from various aspects of Sustainable Management ranging from Global Warming and Climate Change to Renewable Energy to Public Policy. In addition, the students are required to take an Integrated Project which will run throughout second year. There will be two months of industry/academic internship between first and second year.