Principle 6: Dialogue

We will facilitate and support dialog and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organisations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability.

Besides our historical partnership with corporate partners, CEMS aims at establishing a long standing and mutually beneficial partnership with civil society organizations working in different economic or social sectors. Since 2009, CEMS started inviting non-profit organizations to join CEMS as Social Partners in order to influence and strengthen its social commitments and teachings. Today,eight social partners are members, including CARE International, Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International, and Global Alliance for Banking on Values, Kiron Open Higher Education, Transparency International, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the European Space Agency (ESA) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). CARE International, Fairtrade and WWF have a seat on the CEMS Boards and have a voting right. We aim at identifying the most effective ways to work together with our social partners, and to help them influence CEMS the most while minimizing time and cost on their side. This impact is being made possible by the diversity of these social partners. The wide range of their activities – fairtrade, environment, humanitarian actions, anticorruption, and dialogue between cultures – enable them to enrich significantly the dialogue with the academic members, the corporate partners and the students. Our aspiration is to develop an environment in which their impact and their influence can be maximized.

• Corporate Partner Benchmarking Meetings

Additionally, the benchmarking meetings, organized once a year, where corporate and social partners can network, discuss and exchange best practices on Human Resources and business themes of common interest. The agenda, content and delivery of the meeting is developed in close cooperation with Corporate Partners. In 2020, the Benchmarking meeting was hosted by Kearney, Coca-Cola HBC and Zurich Insurance Company about the topic “Building a Cross-Generation Ecosystem”.

Photo: Massimiliano Stucchi

• Annual Events

Finally, the Annual Events, which bring the whole community together for dialogue, are organized every year on a rotational basis around member schools. Academic members, corporate and social partners, students and Alumni get together to explore the future of management, as well as the changes and improvements that can be made in the various areas of actions identified around the globe.

Photo: Xiaomeng Liang

• Virtual Collaboration

Accelerated by the shift in stakeholder preferences that resulted from the global pandemic of 2020-2021, many new opportunities for virtual dialogue have been created. The most impactful example is the Leadership is a post-Covid-19 World webinar series. Global research found that 87% of CEMS Alumni and Corporate Partners believe the way their companies operate globally will change as a result of COVID-19. To better understand how companies and people have been impacted and provide guidance to navigate this new normal, CEMS conducted a series of interviews and discussions with academics and business professionals from the CEMS Global Alliance, published in The CEMS Guide to Leadership in a Post-Covid-19 World.

Watch the Panel Discussions with industry experts and academics (Africa and Americas regions to come in 2021): • Leadership in a Post Covid-19 World: EMEA • Leadership in a Post Covid-19 World: APAC

Read the Press Releases: • Pandemic presents a rare opportunity to redefine leadership, reveals new CEMS report • Lack of face-to-face contact at work, due to COVID, could harm careers of young professionals • Global teams are likely to communicate MORE frequently post-COVID-19, however relationship quality may be compromised.

GUIDE Leadership in a Post-Covid-19 World