October 31st, the 7th International Advisory Board Meeting (IAB) was successfully held online with total of 19 board members participating. The meeting was spearheaded by Prof. ZHANG Xinsheng, President of International Union for Conservation of Nature & Chairman of ZJU-SOM IAB.
Dean WEI gave a report on social responsibility and sustainability of management school from facets of talent cultivation, academic research and social services, which is in consistence with the concept of “healthy power” of the School’s value. Dean WEI concluded with the question on how business schools can become more socially responsible, in terms of teaching & learning, academic research, national & local outreach, industry connection and internationalization.
Mr. Ruud Peters, CEO of Peters IP Consultancy B.V. came up with the idea that the business schools need to accelerate their focus on corporate responsibility, and integrate it into the programs. The School may miss the link between the integration of its social responsibility with the other goals of the companies. He suggested that the important element to be integrated into the curriculum is to incite companies that have been successful in integrating the economic performance with the corporate social responsibility goals.
Prof. Danica Purg, President of CEEMAN, advised from the perspective of outreach. She said: “The School can make a kind of committee for promotional activities. Besides, the School should think about faculty development like participating in more case study competitions and research studies, organizing more international conferences, and etc.
Mr. WANG Jianzhou put forward some thoughts on how to guide companies to conduct their social responsibility and how traditional companies can realize their digital transformation. He encouraged the School to cultivate students with digital DNA through giving technology-combined lectures and guide those traditional companies to complete real digital transformation.