ESG - Corporate Strategy

Publicly traded companies are increasingly challenged to contribute to sustainable development and improve quality of life for everyone. The years ahead will reveal the negative side effects and blind spots of conventional strategy tools, which often focus on short-termism, profit maximization, and share price. Historically, social expectations of businesses have been limited to the creation of wealth for owners and shareholders as well as the creation of jobs and economic development for the communities in which they operate. This limited set of expectations has allowed managers to focus on profit maximization as their primary objective and source of value creation. 

Transformative business models, however, will become increasingly important as businesses face the challenges of climate change, resource scarcity and social inequity that dominate today’s competitive business landscape. Acquiring the skills to help navigate these conditions will be essential to businesses that seek to thrive and foster a more sustainable world and create shared stakeholder value. 

This course will explore the fundamental role of business in contributing to a more sustainable and just world and the emerging strategies companies are using to align business value creation with social and environmental impacts.  How corporations successfully balance the expectations and interests of stakeholders with profit maximization will be explored. This course will also identify the impacts, risks, and opportunities that leadership must assess and develop strategies to address. The course will explore the benefits of ESG/Sustainability in business, how for-profit businesses can thrive in a competitive setting while still creating long-term stakeholder value, and how companies have embedded ESG strategies, plans and programs to address their related challenges and opportunities. In addition, the course will consider business drivers and macro forces that inform ESG strategy and key concepts and tools that are essential to developing value generating ESG strategies that are good for people, planet, and enterprise profitability.