www.efmd.org
EFMD
Special Issue_01 2007
The EFMD Business Magazine
The Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative
Taking action to ensure the next generation of business leaders act in a globally responsible way A call for engagement Our vision of the future is of a world where leaders contribute to the creation of economic and societal progress in a globally responsible and sustainable way. Our goal is to develop the current and future generation of globally responsible leaders through a global network of companies and learning institutions. Co-ordinated through EFMD and with the support of the UN Global Compact, the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative will reach its goal by taking action throughout the world on issues of new business practices and learning approaches, advocacy and concept development. Partnership in the Initiative offers an opportunity to participate in creating a new generation of globally responsible leaders and to be a catalyst for changed values and practices regarding corporate global responsibility. www.globallyresponsibleleaders.org Already, we are witnessing the emergence of a group of people with awareness and attitudes of corporate global responsibility. This portends a tipping point, the development of a critical mass with a genuinely global view and the skills and appetite to change things for the better. Work with us to ensure that this becomes a reality.
About EFMD EFMD is an international membership organisation, based in Brussels, Belgium. With more than 600 member organizations from academia, business, public service and consultancy in 75 countries, EFMD provides a unique forum for information, research, networking and debate on innovation and best practice in management development. EFMD is recognised globally as an accreditation body of quality in management education and has established accreditation services for business schools and business school programmes, corporate universities and technology-enhanced learning programmes. For more information, please visit www.efmd.org The UN Global Compact Launched by the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000, the UN Global Compact brings business together with UN agencies, labour, civil society and governments to advance universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. With over 2200 participating companies from more than 80 countries, it is the world’s largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative. For more information, please visit www.unglobalcompact.org
EFMD
Global Focus Volume 01_Special Issue GRLI
Introduction
Introduction
Ahead of time, but, after all, still behind This September the GRLI will celebrate three years of development and growth The GRLI is today globally recognised as an avant-garde group or laboratory with a unique and clear focus on developing a next generation of globally responsible leaders through effecting change in businesses and learning institutions. Our number of partners has grown and today there are more than 40 partner organisations of the GRLI engaged in more than 50 activities around the world – individually, in pairs, in clusters and as a collective. This special issue of Global Focus gives you some examples of the developing practice within our community of the GRLI. It demonstrates that what we set out to do three years ago – to create a community of action, practice and learning– has become a reality. With greater success inevitably comes greater responsibility. We find ourselves increasingly being drawn into intensively supporting the implementation of the vision of the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. We are equally dedicated to contribute to the development of new management education practices, and – more fundamentally – to the development of an appropriate role of business, management and leadership institutions in this century. Our specific project on “Reframing the Purpose of Management Education and Development” is a key learning initiative and will produce exciting and important results. We are in a position where we have the responsibility to disseminate our experiences; to share them, and closely collaborate with associations for business and management education around the world. As a small close-knit but global group of businesses, business schools and learning institutions we have the privilege of being able to function as a greenhouse in the larger garden of growing awareness and proven progress regarding issues of sustainability. Our current objective is to grow to only around 120 carefully selected partner institutions (60 businesses and 60 business
schools/learning institutions/NGOs) from all over the world engaged in our greenhouse community. Our partnership with the UN Global Compact is important. Our work and our outcomes are being fully integrated with the further development of the UN Global Compact and its ambitions regarding learning and education. In that regard we are fulfilling the ambitions laid out in our first agreement in November 2003. We have come a long way since we published the “Call for Engagement” document in 2005, which still remains the pre-eminent reference point for the challenge of creating a new generation of globally responsible leaders. However, we are still driven by the energy and dedication that comes from realising that there’s a long way to go – so, after all, we are still behind.
Anders Aspling Secretary General of the GRLI
pages 01_02
GRLI worldwide partners
A truly global community of action and learning 1 Asian Institute of Management – AIM The Philippines 2 Aviva UK 3 Audencia Nantes Ecole de Management France 4 Barloworld Limited South Africa 5 Bordeaux Business School France 6 Caisse d’Epargne Aquitaine Nord France 7 Center for Creative Leadership – CCL USA & Belgium 8 China Europe International Business School – CEIBS China 9 ESSEC Business School France 10 Fundação Dom Cabral Brazil 11 GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals Belgium 12 Griffith Business School Australia 13 Groupe ESC Rouen France 14 IAG – Louvain School of Management Belgium 15 IBM Worldwide 16 IESE Business School Spain 17 INSEAD France 18 Instituto de Empresa Spain 19 Karstadt Quelle / Arcandor Germany 20 Lafarge Ciments France 21 Leeds Metropolitan University UK 22 London Business School UK 23 Merryck & Co UK 24 National Australia Bank Australia 25 Northern Institute of Technology Hamburg Germany 26 Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management USA 27 Petróleo Brasileiro S/A – PETROBRAS Brazil 28 Queen’s University School of Business Canada 29 Responsible Business Initiatives Pakistan 30 Schneider Electric France 31 Stellenbosch Business School South Africa 32 Sunland Group ltd Australia 33 Telefonica Spain 34 The ForeSight Group Sweden 35 The Oasis School of Human Relations UK 36 United Laboratories The Philippines 37 Universidad del Pacifico Peru 38 University of Management and Technology – UMT Pakistan 39 University of Mannheim Germany 40 University of Notre Dame – Mendoza School of Business USA 41 University of South Africa, Centre for Corporate Citizenship South Africa 42 Wake Forest University – Babcock Graduate School of Management USA 43 Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research India
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Global Focus Volume 01_Special Issue GRLI
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GRLI worldwide partners
I have no doubt that globally responsible leadership has reached levels of inquiry not only between a wide variety of global stakeholders but more interestingly amongst the most critical being business leaders themselves. Through the GRLI, a representative network of inquiry has been established that can offer perspectives from developing and developed economies on issues related to responsible business leadership. The coalition succeeded in establishing a powerful reference platform which has already made significant strides in re-shaping leadership practice around the globe Professor Derick de Jongh Centre for Corporate Citizenship University of South Africa
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GRLI alliance
An alliance that means action The foundations and workings of GRLI by Mark Drewell, chair, and Pierre Tapie, vice-chair
In 2004, leaders from 21companies, business schools and leadership learning centres formed a unique working partnership, the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI).
EFMD and the UN Global Compact have committed their support to GRLI, whose vision is to build a world where leaders contribute to the creation of economic and societal progress in a globally responsible and sustainable way.
There is a movement from an initial start-up phase to something that is advancing in its uniqueness, substance, delivery and sustainability
Its goal is to do this by developing a next generation of globally responsible leaders through a worldwide alliance of companies and learning institutions, networking, acting and learning together to implement and promote globally responsible leadership. Specifically, it intends to build a body of knowledge on globally responsible leadership, develop globally responsible learning initiatives and promote the goals of the Initiative. So far, GRLI has built a unique and global platform for action and has accomplished a number of objectives. Most notably, perhaps, over the last 12 months it has expanded according to plans, adding some 20+ more partners to make a total commitment of over 40 partners. Uniquely, GRLI insists that partners join in pairs – a corporation plus a learning establishment such as a business school. Today it plays a major advocay and action role globally, and on a regional level. The April 2007 General Assembly of the GRLI in the UK, hosted by two GRLI partners, Leeds Metropolitan University and the Oasis School of Human Relations, has provided the group with considerable momentum. In many ways there is a movement from an initial start-up phase to something that is advancing in its uniqueness, substance, delivery and sustainability. Both learning institutions / business schools and corporate partners have become engaged and are demonstrationg
Global Focus Volume 01_Special Issue GRLI
Above: Making productive use of the Open Space Technology during the General Assembly
An alliance that means action by Mark Drewell & Pierre Tapis
pages 05_06
a new level of responsibility for action and the promotion of corporate global responsibility (CGR). We apply a questioning approach – to really ask ourselves what kind of world we want to build together. The language of sustainability – and language is one of the key ways of measuring progress – is now firmly established.
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Most notably, perhaps, over the last 12 months it has expanded according to plans, adding some 20+ more partners to make a total commitment of over 40 partners
But there are still major areas to more explicity addresss – for example, the whole system of business school accreditation – and we must also push forward on a range of bilateral and multilateral initiatives. GRLI will continue to grow. By around 2010 or 2011 it will have some 120 partners, a number that represents about 1% of the business schools in the world. We believe that is enough to act as a real and influential catalyst. And being a catalyst is the real aim of GRLI. It is not a club that you join and then sit back, it is an alliance that thrives on and is all about action – here and now!
Partner project
Reframing the purpose of management education and development The Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) together with its founding partners – the EFMD and the UN Global Compact – propose a joint project: “Reframing the purpose of management education & development”.
and key areas to be addressed in such a change process – organisational values, faculty development, learning philosophy and methodology, curriculum issues, the role of students, clients and other stakeholders, governance structure and processes and so on.
Why Globally Responsible Leadership: A Call for Engagement advocates a revised definition of the purpose of business: “to create economic and societal progress in a globally responsible and sustainable way”.
The ultimate aim is to develop a pro-active discussion on – the raison d’être of institutions engaged in management/ development learning activities and an understanding of key issues in bringing about change in this context – how to deal with these issues in a constructive, pragmatic and successful way.
The related challenges facing business (see Figure 1) and the change implied for companies and corporations is an area where learning institutions (business schools, centres for leadership, corporate learning centres, etc) need to demonstrate leadership by reframing management education and development. This in turn requires a comprehensive review of why and how current learning institutions operate. Who The project involves GRLI partners engaged in learning activities (business schools and others) that are committed to review their missions and operations based on the perspective of a changed world order and enhanced responsibilities for businesses, their management and leadership. What The project will include conceptual framing regarding the role of the learning institution, but will have a focus on the process of bringing about changed practice in the operations of the institution (see Figure 2). Improving the change process involves identifying drivers of and barriers to change, strategies to bring about change
How and when GRLI learning partners have piloted a progress-reporting format to identify how the change process is managed by GRLI learning institutions. A qualified group of Deans and Corporate Learning Officers (CLOs) will engage in the project for influence on and renewal of their own learning institutions. Ranking/rating and accreditation criteria will be considered to the extent they are relevant and available. A questionnaire will be developed to serve as a guideline in a process of consultation with stakeholders (internal and external, starting with the GRLI corporate partners). Conclusions and recommendations will be drawn from the above work and discussed, in the first instance, with the Deans and CLOs group. The first analysis of information and results will be available for the EFMD Deans and Directors’ Meeting in January 2008 and will be discussed by GRLI partner institutions in the second quarter of 2008 with final publication in the third quarter of 2008.
Global Focus Volume 01_Special Issue GRLI
Reframing the purpose of management education
Improving the change process involves identifying drivers of and barriers to change, strategies to bring about change and key areas to be addressed in such a change process Figure 1
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
FINANCIAL SOUNDNESS
CORPORATE CHALLENGES STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT, CO-OPERATION & COMMUNITY BUILDING
SOCIAL AWARENESS & RESPONSIBILITY
Figure 2
CLARITY, UNDERSTANDING & COMMITMENT TO THE PURPOSE OF CHANGE
DESIGN CHANGE PROCESSES
MEASURE & REWARD
TUNE INTO THE BUSINESS CONTEXT
DEVELOPING CORPORATE GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY
DEVELOP STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT SKILLS
DEVELOP GLOBALLY RESPONSIBLE MINDSETS
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Partner initiative
Barloworld and UNISA’s Centre for Corporate Citizenship Barloworld and the University of South Africa’s (UNISA) Centre for Corporate Citizenship (CCC) became GRLI partners with limited previous involvement with each other. But as a consequence, significant projects were initiated and completed in partnership between the CCC and Barloworld.
It is therefore important to stress the corporate role, certainly in this partnership, was never just one of sponsorship. With Africa Leads, for example, CCC and Barloworld sat down together and developed a rigorous set of criteria of what good practice and good behaviour in Africa relates to, another example of involving the business perspective.
For example, the CCC’s Derick de Jongh asked Mark Drewell of Barloworld to serve on the Advisory Council of the CCC, which brought valuable business expertise into the CCC.. Barloworld also agreed to sponsor the first South African Accountability Rating (AR) that was done in 2006. The CCC acted as the SA ratings agency and Barloworld the business partner. The AR will be repeated in 2007 and 2008 and has already significantly influenced the SA Corporate Sector’s corporate citizenship practices. The AR methodology strongly advocates for globally responsible leadership and is a very positive spin-off of the CCC Barloworld partnership.
Benefits work in both directions. As a consequence of feeling increasingly comfortable in the relationship with the CCC, Barloworld, requested the CCC to develop a detailed case study on the role that Barloworld played in the build-up to democracy in SA, something that probably would not have happened without such a close relationship.
The key to such a partnership and tackling the very important question of what do we have to do to create a new generation of globally responsible leaders is forging close personal relationships, which then naturally spawn opportunities for action. One example is Africa Leads. In partnership with the Global Compact and the GTZ, the CCC with the support of Barloworld published a book called Africa Leads in 2006. This book is a compilation of positive stories about the role of business in society in Africa. Through the stories in this book a strong case has been made for globally responsible leadership in Africa. Once again, the business insights from Barloworld were invaluable in assessing all the submissions and deciding which stories to publish
The CCC has also involved Barloworld in its own strategic processes. Barloworld for the past two years provided invaluable inputs in the strategic direction of the CCC. Through these inputs, the CCC ensured relevance in its value proposition to its broad stakeholders. For the CCC, by involving Barloworld as a thought leader in South Africa about the role that business has to play in transforming society, it has helped attracted other companies in SA to support the CCC in many other activities.
Barloworld requested the CCC to develop a detailed case study on the role that Barloworld played in the build-up to democracy in SA, something that probably would not have happened without such a close relationship
Global Focus Volume 01_Special Issue GRLI
GRLI Partner initiatives
pages 09_10
Partner initiative
GSK Biologicals and IAG-Louvain School of Management
Louvain had experience of doing this type of thing before and knew how important it was to first talk to the whole group together to explain what it was doing
GSK Biologicals joined GRLI in 2006 and through personal contacts with UCL-Louvain School of Management asked the school, as an outsider, to look at its positioning in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
industry. It gave a better idea of where there was real room for improvement because there might be some areas where it is difficult to implement something in the pharmaceuticals industry. For example, it may simply be impossible in that industry to rotate people’s jobs regularly.
This was an area where Louvain has some expertise. It had developed an existing questionnaire that looked at different aspects of CSR and believed it could offer GSK Biologicals a systematic methodology. In the event Louvain met the 15 members of the management committee of the Belgian plant (which is responsible for 80% of GSK Biologicals’ activities) and went through the questionnaire with each of them.
Louvain’s conclusions to the management committee confirmed that GSK Biologicals was good at its core business – everything to do with health and producing vaccines was very good. On the other hand there are other issues where there was room for improvement
What was important for GSK was that Louvain could show them that it had a systematic methodology. This was reassuring for them because some people within the company were a little sceptical, either because they thought they were a good company anyway or that the whole concept of CSR was a bit “fluffy”. Louvain had experience of doing this type of thing before and knew how important it was to first talk to the whole group together to explain what it was doing.
There was no dramatic situation but perhaps areas which maybe they didn’t feel were important. The environmental impact of their activities was one example. As a pharmaceutical company it is not the first thing they think about – they don’t produce much CO2 or by-products and so on. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t care about it. However, another issue was employee satisfaction. One of the problems was that the company had doubled in size from 2,500 employees to 5,000 in five years. Obviously that has implications for training and the level of attention individual employees can receive.
In all, the process lasted two months. As well as completing the questionnaire Louvain also did some preliminary benchmarking of GSK Biologicals against other similar pharmaceutical companies based on published data.
They knew they had this problem butit was useful for them to have an outsider saying so in a formal evaluation. In a way it gave them ammunition to go to the next step and say where are the areas to take action? It was useful to have a systematic rationale of what the problems are and also what the good things are.
The idea of benchmarking was not to create a league table but more a way to customise the questionnaire to the pharmaceutical sector. For example, while it might have identified where there were good things and not so good things, it wanted to know if this was specific to the company or specific to the
The next stage will be to present the results to top management so they can decide which of the priorities identified they want to tackle. Louvain suggested some and there are others they know they want to do. Then they will decide if they need help to do this, either from Louvain or from others.
Partner initiative
Bordeaux Business School and Caisse d’Epargne Aquitaine Nord Bordeaux Business School (BBS), in tandem with the Caisse d’Epargne Aquitaine Nord, a bank, joined the GRLI in June 2004 because they wanted to be part of a unique experience putting together companies and academic institutions at an international level and to enhance their approach to global studies and the concept of global responsibility.
BBS produced their first partnership evaluation in September 2005 and developed a three-point action plan. To set up: – A task force to develop a research programme and study the feasibility of creating an international doctoral programme for top managers in Caisse d’Epargne to address the issue of what it takes to create a globally responsible leader – A steering group to set up an international pilot programme to train teachers – A task force to disseminate the report on ranking and accreditation to international academic institutions. Global responsibility is at the heart of the mission of the school and participation in GRLI is enhancing these efforts. For example, the first annual report on global responsibility was published in 2006. It would now like to involve the participation of more people in the school in the activities and programmes developed by GRLI and at the local level to be able to initiate with Caisse d’Epargne a local global compact or at the least integrate other companies in the process. The school and Caisse d’Epargne are now actively involving students in CSR studies and are also setting up an applied research
programme whose first aim is to set up a foundation for north-south co-operation, developing entrepreneurship, demonstrating that you can develop a country through entrepreneurship. It will be a very interesting example of co-operation between the business school, NGOs and corporations. If it succeeds it could be a model for other areas. BBS hopes to have set up the foundation by autumn 2007. Another area of collaboration is to create a specific doctoral programme for top managers in Caisse d’Epargne to address the issue of what it takes to create globally responsible managers within the bank. Each doctoral candidate, who will also be an executive within Caisse d’Epargne, will be given a specific mission to solve a particular problem within the company. We will be able to start this DBA programme in 2008. From Caisse d’Epargne’s point of view, if it is its job to create the conditions for developing economies to grow then it also has a mission to create wealth – financial wealth, cultural wealth, educational wealth and social wealth. At Caisse d’Epargne the focus is on three groups: the young unemployed, those who cannot read and write, and the marginalised old people of society. Helping all three groups will also help to create wealth. If people can read and write and know what is going on they will be able to take part and help to create wealth. If we resist the marginalisation of old people we are creating a new market. The same is true for unemployed young people.
At Caisse d’Epargne the focus is on three groups: the young unemployed, those who cannot read and write, and the marginalised old people of society. Helping all three groups will also help to create wealth
Global Focus Volume 01_Special Issue GRLI
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GRLI Partner initiatives
Partner initiative
University of Mannheim and KarstadtQuelle University of Mannheim is the first German partner of the GRLI and has been a partner for a year – since summer 2006. Its corporate partner, KarstadtQuelle1, is one of Europe’s leading retail, tourism and mail order groups.
Mannheim says it realised that while universities and business schools abroad were actively integrating business ethics, CSR topics and sustainability issues into their curricula, the majority of German universities were (and are) hesitant to do so. Being one of the leading business schools in Germany and dedicated to educating responsible future executives, the university decided to take a major step forward and pursue the implementation of global responsibility into the students’ education and the long-term structural development.
The university is planning a weekend seminar for the upcoming semester focused on CSR and business ethics topics for undergraduate students from all disciplines
Moreover, as more and more companies recognise the importance and impact of CSR and sustainable business actions and decisions, the demand for managers with a holistic perspective is increasing. To meet this demand, the curricula have to be adapted accordingly – an issue Mannheim is actively tackling. So far, the curriculum for the BSc in Business Administration includes a mandatory course in business ethics, but more opportunities (curricular and extra-curricular) shall follow. In order to do this, the GRLI with its agenda and influence seemed to be an ideal partner to learn more about the significance of global responsibility in business education, to exchange good practice examples and develop ideas with other business schools, and to receive valuable guidance and support for this undertaking. Furthermore, by joining the GRLI, the University of Mannheim was able to secure KarstadtQuelle as its corporate partner,
a valuable liaison, as KQ has offered its expertise in assisting the university in revising the curricula, and the university and KQ are currently developing a course on CSR topics with KQ representatives and other CSR –practitioners as lecturers. KQ and Deutsche Bank (one of Mannheim’s CSR partners) have also agreed to offer internships in their CSR-departments to students. Hanns Michael Hölz, Managing Director of Deutsche Bank, held a kick-off event for the university’s deans and pointed out the importance of integrating CSR issues into the curriculum of today’s business education. Future objectives of the university include the appointment of a chair/professorship (teaching and research) for Business Ethics in 2008. With the appointment of this chair/professorship the university will also establish a research centre for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. For the upcoming fall semester the university is planning a weekend seminar focused on CSR and business ethics topics for undergraduate students from all disciplines. The seminar will serve as an introduction to the complex subject of corporate responsibility and will include speeches by academics and practitioners as well as a case study for the students to tackle. 2007 is the university’s 100th anniversary and is themed “Business Ethics – Business Reality”. In the course of year-long celebrations numerous guest speakers and lecturers will give speeches on CSR and business ethic topic. 1
From July 1, 2007 KarstadtQuelle will be Arcandor AG
GRLI principles
Continuous growth and delivery based on a solid foundation ACTION LEARNING – METHODOLOGY & PROCESS DEVELOPMENT
ADVOCACY
NEW CONCEPTS
EXECUTION OF NEW LEARNING PRACTICES
KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION
HANDS-ON RESULTS, LASTING EFFECTS & INNOVATION
PASSION
BUSINESSES & BUSINESS PRACTICE
ETHICS LEADERSHIP DIVERSITY
RESPECT
LEARNING ORGANISATIONS & BUSINESS SCHOOL PRACTICE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Global Focus Volume 01_Special Issue GRLI
GRLIguiding principles / Joining the GRLI partnership
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GRLI partnership
Why join the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative? Value for Business Schools / Learning Institutions 1 Engagement in hands- on activities to improve and renew the operations of the school; 2 Regarding – Concept development and research – Advocacy – Execution of new learning practices in relation to global responsibility issues 3 In collaboration and with the immediate reach of a qualified global community
of dedicated peers from leading businesses and learning institutions/business schools 4 With strong visibility, recognition and reputation building through the Initiative
itself, the UN Global Compact and EFMD 5 Opportunities to position you in a leading position regarding global responsibility
on a global basis, regionally and locally.
Value for Companies 1 Access to a global network of businesses and business schools in a genuine partnership
– and from that a wide range of opportunities for partnering for mutual value 2 Reputational value of being positioned as a leader in the most important subject
of our time – the role of business in the 21st century – Globally – Regionally/Locally 3 Opportunities to learn from other organisations experiences and participate in pilot
programmes and activities 4 Access to an emerging body of knowledge of best practice in global responsibility 5 The personal developmental value to the member of your organisation who represents
the company in the Initiative 6 The opportunity to contribute to creating the conditions which will make the survival
of our free enterprise system possible in the medium to long term.
Participation in the GRLI has yielded significant value to Barloworld for an extremely modest investment. Apart from the fact that it is an important initiative for the long-term sustainability of the market system on which our business depends, the reputation benefits alone justify the investment. If you add onto that the personal development benefits, access to best practice and building of relationships across the world both with businesses and learning institutions, the ROI is immense Mark Drewell, Group Executive Barloworld Ltd. – South Africa
They have the colour of a blue ocean and a clear sky
For more information on the GRLI, please contact: Martine Torfs Telephone +32-2-6290810 Email martine.torfs@efmd.org www.globallyresponsibleleadership.org
Phone: +32 2 629 08 10 Fax: +32 2 629 08 11
They represent I, we and all of us – from the smallest to the largest
Email: info@efmd.org
Three ellipses forming a circle as they expand – our globe
EFMD aisbl
Rue Gachard 88 – Box 3 1050 Brussels Belgium
What GRLI represents: