We wanted to achieve the following 4 objectives by implementing the project Create & share business courses which describe conscious business practices at bachelor-, graduate- & executive education Explore, describe & teach innovative conscious pedagogic methods that support our conscious business courses Adapt our academic courses to executive training on conscious business Ultimately, we wanted to contribute to the transformation of European businesses to conduct business more consciously More specifically, our Conscious Business Curriculum was to innovate ‘traditional’ business courses in 4 ways. Embed ethics and ethical dilemmas in our course to emphasize the relevance of ethical behavior, inclusion, and diversity. Secondly, to teach leaders that they need to serve people & planet, to become more system-oriented, ethical, inclusive, and conscious about the impact of their decisions and actions. Thirdly, we aimed to emphasize Stakeholder Integration addressing the gain of all other stakeholders, environment, communities, employees, suppliers, and society at large. As a fourth aim, we described companies as purpose driven, addressing real societal needs while making profit.
Many of the challenges Europe faces require businesses or support from businesses to create innovative solutions. Businesses created innovation, jobs, and wealth, and yet they equally cause, or significantly contribute, to some of our biggest problems: climate change, inequality, public health deterioration, etc. For the last 10 – 15 years researchers demonstrated that consciously led companies not only ensure all stakeholders benefit as a result of economic progress, but conscious businesses also are economically more successful. In our project, “conscious business” refers to conducting business in a way that is purpose-driven, ethical, human-centered, sustainable, and inclusive, where all Business Stakeholders win - not only shareholders and managers. Hence, the need we addressed with this project was to promote the teaching of conscious business practices at european business schools and economics faculties. More specifically, we addressed the lack of course content on conscious business, the inability to freely access such material and be trained on it when needed, the inexistence of a community of like-minded business professors in Europe to exchange, grow and expand conscious business teachings.