Rhodes University’s Investec Business School (RIBS) has been accepted as a partner of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI). The GRLI has about 67 partner organisations worldwide.
An elated RIBS Director Prof Owen Skae said it was a great honour for the school and confirmed the Business School’s “absolute commitment” to responsible leadership and management thought, practice and ideals. He attributed the GRLI’s acceptance of RIBS as a partner to the school’s core belief in “leadership for sustainability”.
“We are acknowledged as the first business school in South Africa to have focussed on environmental management as a core component of the curriculum. We broadened this to encompass sustainability.”
The GRLI is set up as a foundation of public interest in Belgium. Its stated aim is to become a worldwide network of companies and learning institutions which will "develop a next generation of responsible leaders" through collective and individual actions.
Prof Skae said RIBS actively promoted the understanding of business ethics and incorporated corporate social investment, responsible leadership, and sound environmental management practice into the “language of business”. “It was a logical progression for us to become partners in a global initiative emphasising this.”
RIBS also recently became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) – which is a United Nations initiative. The school is also an organisation stakeholder of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), chaired by corporate governance and sustainability expert Mervyn King. King is also a visiting professor at RIBS.
“Becoming a GRLI partner is consistent with our drive to contribute to the next generation of responsible leaders. Companies work with us because they now understand that business opportunity could arise out of a focus on sustainability. There is a clear recognition that business opportunities and job creation opportunities come out of thinking and implementing sustainable business practices in an organisation,” added Prof Skae.