New degree puts empathy into business
4 November 2020 at 9:21 pm
The nine-month program is aiming to redesign the systems we live and work in
The Master of Business Administration is one of the most well-known degrees worldwide. But now, a new degree is launching to equip leaders of all disciplines with the skills to run a purposeful organisation.
The Small Giants Academy Mastery of Business and Empathy (MBE) will draw on the guidance and teachings of some of the world’s foremost thought-leaders and luminaries, equipping leaders with a more regenerative understanding of business fundamentals.
Taking on its first cohort of students in early 2021, the program will run a range of online forums, workshops, and practical case-studies.
Kaj Löfgren, Small Giants head of strategy, told Pro Bono News that while the popularity of purpose-driven organisations has been rapidly on the rise, the crises witnessed through 2020 provided a perfect opportunity to push for systems change.
“We are living through an historic moment of turmoil and perhaps even an opportunity,” Löfgren said.
“Our economic system has been fundamentally disrupted in the last 12 months, and it’s in this moment that this idea of the next economy or an economy based on sustainability and based on justice for all is so important.”
He said the MBE was something a variety of leaders could engage in and get something out of.
“There is huge power in breaking down some of those barriers between business and the nonprofit world and understanding that when we’re all leading in a more purposeful way,
there’s a lot more that that brings us together than actually divides us,” he said.
Participants will be encouraged to support one another and set individual impact goals for their own organisations, something that Small Giants will be keeping a close eye on.
“The whole idea of this is that the leaders in this program are deepening the impact of their organisations, and that’s quite trackable,” Löfgren said.
“For example, it could be that leaders of business transfer their organisations to become B Corps, or start taking on impact investors rather than traditional investors, or it could be that civil society groups start working more collaboratively with others.”
Small Giants is running an information night on 24 November. Applications close on 10 January.
In many states, highly successful leadership programs have been running for many years – with the added advantage of giving you a local network through a face-to-face program. The nfp Leaders Institute of South Australia for instance runs the highly successful Governor’s Leadership Foundation program that for 21 years has been developing more holistic leaders by bringing together leaders from across all sectors to grow their self-awareness, learn to apply leadership frameworks and tools and undertake immersive visits to better understand the world from a systems perspective.