Council on Business & Society

Heritage and Mission

The Council on Business & Society (The CoBS), visionary in its conception and purpose, was created in 2011, and dedicated to promoting responsible leadership and tackling issues at the crossroads of business and society including sustainability, diversity, ethical leadership and the place responsible business has to play in contributing to the common good. In 2020, member schools now number 7, all “Triple Crown” accredited AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA and leaders in their respective countries.


  • ESSEC Business School, France-Singapore-Morocco

  • FGV-EAESP, Brazil

  • School of Management Fudan, China

  • IE Business School, Spain

  • Keio Business school, Japan

  • Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

  • Warwick Business School, United Kingdom.

Vision and Purpose

The Council is dedicated to shaping the next generation of managers and leaders…under a cornerstone belief in the Dignity of the Person and the Common Good by building their capacity for good judgment”. We bring together scholars to develop actionable research with a positive impact on the ‘person in the street’. The Council believes that today’s challenges cannot be addressed at the level of a single country and offers a unique global though local perspective on issues relating to CSR, sustainability and responsible business practices.


The Council effectively contributes to the ‘internationalisation’, ‘ethics & social responsibility’ and ‘corporate connections’ chapters for accreditations and rankings and has a global voice with an annual organic digital imprint of 1.4m and was ranked 6th social media CSR influencer in the world in 2020 by the Social Media Research Foundation.

The CoBS is active in 3 Major Areas

Research & Publications

  • Tracks and workshops in international academic conferences bringing together faculty from the CoBS schools on a given business and society theme.

  • Research-based thought leadership through the CoBS Insights platform.

  • A quarterly magazine Global Voice

  • CoBS Publishing books.

  • Co-authored faculty articles in the wider press

  • Research projects.

Pedagogy

  • Responsible Leadership online course.

  • Condensed learning capsules for practitioners: The CoBS Research Pod series.

  • CoBS CSR Faculty exchange with the teaching of a module & CoBS Responsible Leadership certificate.

  • A range of shared learning content for responsible leadership & business practices including podcasts, cases studies and videos.


Events

  • Global Forums involving Deans, faculty, students and industry experts. Previous themes: Leadership & Governance, Healthcare, Energy.

  • An annual Student CSR article competition open to all students and programs from the member schools.

  • CoBS online Masterclass series featuring CoBS faculty, practitioners, organizations (ex: PRME) and students.

  • Participation in GBSN seminars and joint projects.


Thought leadership: Research-based and opinion articles from the faculty of the 7 member schools via CoBS Insights