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During the Dies Natalis on November 20, 2018, Peter Bakker – President and CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) – urged the business community to take on a leading role and secure a sustainable future for all. He believes we are entering a period of unprecedented transformation. On January 18, 2019, Nyenrode hosted a conference that fit in perfectly with this topic: 'Corporate responsibility in relation to climate change'. International firms, investment managers, insurers, human rights organizations and climate groups came together to address the key question: how can my business take responsibility for future generations?

How do we contribute to organizational change and learning in a more sustainable way that is compatible with the current challenges we face? Jeanine Jansen and Jessica Peters explored this and other questions during the first-ever Action Research PhD course at Nyenrode.

Digital transformation, spearheaded by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, biotechnology and the Internet of Things, is likely to push societies towards economic and political instability. With most economic structures relying almost entirely on employment – and on employees spending their wages – mass redundancy caused by ever-more efficient tech taking on human roles could throw the system into chaos and significantly widen the gap between the rich and the poor. As politicians scramble to resolve these issues, the resulting decline in taxes and business subsidies is likely to make governing problematic.

How do you keep reflecting in an ever-accelerating society? Robotization and digitization have become commonplace. Especially now, it is important to give direction to the increased volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in our lives. This is the message of Sharda Nandram, Associate Professor at the Center for Entrepreneurship & Stewardship at Nyenrode Business Universiteit. She has published three books on this subject.

On October 2nd, India celebrates the 146th birthday of its great leader Mahatma Gandhi, a champion of India’s independence after the second world war. Although the culture of India is very different from that of the Netherlands, in his policy we can nonetheless find important fundamental values that are familiar to Nyenrodians as well.

The paradigm for, notably, listed and other systemic business (including institutional investors) is changing with business stewardship focusing on balanced long term value creation for all stakeholders and aligned with a widely-accepted societal agenda.