Companies Urged to Be Bolder and Drive Greater Social Awareness

The World Forum of the International Association of Jesuit Business Schools (IAJBS), which took place virtually at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, from July 20^th to the 22^nd, concluded with a call to renew Jesuit business education so that "business leaders challenge themselves with a transgressive vision to renew the concept of business with an eye towards the creation of a just social order in which all can flourish."

"We have a responsibility, not only to reformulate our curricula, but to confront or redesign business strategies and structures to be more adaptive in the face of adversity with a sense of care for people and dignity at work," noted the deans and heads of Jesuit university business schools.

"Technology is changing the world and thus education and business.  Therefore, today we have the opportunity to anticipate and discuss new challenges.  One of them will be artificial intelligence as an axis that allows us to build a common good and make a more dynamic and disruptive world, where Jesuit schools contribute to guide and shape a better future and, at the same time, provide knowledge to governments.  This is the next transformation where our students need us," commented Paul Almeida, Dean of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

The participants agreed that companies are, and will continue to be, an important axis of growth for society.  Therefore, "business leaders must migrate to a leadership focused on social justice, where it is possible to generate greater inclusion of gender, ethnicity and social groups to ensure a more nurtured, more courageous and daring conscience to reform the concept of business that serves to promote wealth for all," said Luis Arriaga Valenzuela, S.J., rector of ITESO.

For the deans, some of the key skills for the leaders of the future are some abilities such as the following: thinking and acting critically and strategically; acting in a manner that is consistent with the highest ethical standards; communicating and negotiating effectively; collaborating and working in teams to solve complex problems creatively and effectively; thinking and acting as a global citizen, promoting organizational and productive strategies and practices that are environmentally and socially sustainable.

The more than 200 participating deans and academics are members of the business schools grouped in the IAJBS, which are made up of 29 Jesuit universities in Europe, 87 in Asia, 12 in Africa, 31 in Latin America, and 30 in North America.  Among others are the ITESO School of Business, as well as the McDonough School of Business of Georgetown University (Washington, DC), the College of Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), the Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE, Barcelona), Saint Joseph University (Beirut), and Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines).

During the three-day Forum, whose 26^th edition was organized by ITESO, topics discussed included "how to create and stimulate faculty in the inspirational paradigm of business education," developing "a vision of the essential capabilities for a new form of leadership in Jesuit business education," and "recreating a new economics and business curriculum: towards a new model of Jesuit business education."

With the review of these topics, the International Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (IAJU) seeks to train professionals to promote sustainable enterprises and innovations, to solve the main needs of society, and to generate decent jobs and wealth for all.