The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is designed to tackle slavery in the UK by establishing a Commissioner for Anti-Slavery, and requiring businesses to publish a statement that identifies the actions taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in the business or in its supply chain (See: BitC Paper).

Supply chain concerns have been on the responsible business agenda for many years. Modern Slavery and the issues of human trafficking are now reigniting critical concern for the future, as we face increasingly complex supply chains with multiple tiers of suppliers in different jurisdictions (See: Channel 4 Documentary).

Sadly, no country in the world can claim to be slavery free. Whilst the extent of issue varies between nations, there are an astounding 46 million people worldwide living under slavery. In 2016, there were 3266 recorded victims of slavery in the UK of which 30% were children. The types of crime include forced labour, sexual exploitation etc. Much of this is hidden, either by location or by the complexity of our operations. A considerable number of our products maybe the product of slavery (See: productsofslavery.org).

The UK modern slavery act requires businesses to make a statement about how companies are acting to ensure their supply chains are robust and free of human abuse. Many leading companies have strategies that assess risks of modern Slavery across their operations. For these businesses working in partnership is key to better practices in this area. Transparency is key to ensuring progress on this issue. There are estimated to be 12-17,000 companies that must comply with the Modern Slavery Act, but the Act alone is no guarantee of practice improvement. The level of compliance with the act is currently slow and patchy.

A number of local initiatives are emerging across the country to establish slaver-free communities. These projects aim to increase local resilience to slavery, raise awareness of the issue, empower civic leaders to address issues, support victims, and ensure a slavery free economy (See: Nottinghamshire Police Commissioner).

For proactive companies, the best approach maybe to act to establish a process for continual improvement, be honest and clear about what is actual done, and provide a transparent and reasonable plan for the future.

Some positive examples of corporate projects:

• John Lewis
https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/content/dam/cws/images/tempfolder/csr/human-rights-june-16.pdf

• Nestle
http://www.nestle.co.uk/asset-library/documents/39506_nestle_mod-slave-act_ab_30sep.pdf

The implementation of Modern Slavery Statements is challenging, often across functional divisions from HR to logistics. Further challenges mean that smaller, second tier suppliers often face an unfair burden for the reporting of standards with larger businesses leveraging their power to force compliance and auditing costs down on to their suppliers and contracts.

Taking action
As part of a recent workshop with Business in the Community, we conducted a short exercise that looked at stakeholder perspectives on modern slavery. This was based upon a fictitious fashion retailer Wearing Well with a complex supply chain.

Participants were asked to imagine they were stakeholders of Wearing Well and to consider how Modern Slavery impacted them in this role.

• 1: Top management team of Wearing Well (CEO, COO etc.)
• 2: Employees of WW on the shop floor or in distributions centres
• 3: Local communities where Wearing Well operates
• 4: Suppliers and second tier suppliers to Wearing Well
• 5: NGOs and Media (e.g. Human Rights Watch, Transparency International etc.
• 6: National, International, and Local Government
• 7: Missing Stakeholders (e.g. Victims)

Below you can see some highlights of the discussions

What are the main learnings?
Alignment and collaboration is key to success for initiatives. In particular, establishing dialogue and partnerships with suppliers. Projects should be considered as ongoing processes for continual improvement, rather than one-off box ticking.

Establishing senior level leadership for modern slavery should be regarded as an opportunity. The cross-functional nature of the challenges needs an engaged leadership team that can bring together efforts from human capital and legal, with concerns from supplier and investor relations.

It was also felt that there was an opportunity to better align, supranational, national and local government efforts on modern slavery to ensure a more comprehensive and cohesive approach.

Making the narrative around modern slavery accessible whilst engaging with victims as human beings is essential.  There needs to be balance between promoting and rewarding better behaviours as leading examples, along with greater penalties for those who ignore or worsen the problem.

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Four MBA students from Nottingham University Business School recently made it to the final of a global competition searching for suggestions on how to improve sustainability at the Nespresso coffee company.

The quartet were finalists at the 2016 Nespresso MBA Challenge, one of only three teams – from a field of 86 MBA schools across 28 countries – invited to Nespresso headquarters in Lausanne to present their ideas in detail to a panel of international judges.

Entrants to the competition were asked to come up with new ways to inject ‘sustainability and shared value’ into the Switzerland-based coffee business. The Nottingham team of Liz Corbishley, Romiary Voos and Andrew Scyner, who are studying for our MBA in Corporate Social Responsibility and Jeti Olafimihan, the MBA in Entrepreneurship – made it to the final after two rounds of reviews by experts earlier in the year.

The other two teams were from INSEAD Singapore and Said Business School in Oxford – with the Oxford team running out winners.

In front of the panel of Nestlé-Nespresso executives, as well as academics and sustainability experts, the Nottingham team members expanded on ideas they had put forward after analyzing a case study based on the results of research carried out on Nespresso’s sustainable sourcing of coffee. Each team was allowed to be guided by a faculty member acting as coach – in Nottingham’s case Paul Caulfield, Assistant Professor in Responsible and Sustainable Business at ICCSR.

Team member Liz said entering the competition turned out to be an ‘extremely useful’ exercise and ‘a way of consolidating everything we had learned in the first semester in one practical project’.

She added: ‘We had an exceptional team. The group work was intense and extremely demanding at times, especially on top of our existing workloads and travel plans. But competitions like this are a great way for students to interact and learn from each other in a way that’s not possible in the modules.’

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At the back end of May 2016 we staged a joint research workshop for MSc Sustainability and CSR students from Nottingham University Business School and Royal Holloway.

This event was held at Senate House in central London on 25 May, attracting a total of 20 students from both institutions.

Matthew Johns, a sustainability consultant from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), kicked off this event with an interactive presentation, followed by student co-teaching sessions which included dissertation presentations and critiquing of their work in small groups.

Matthew, an ICCSR alumnus, gave an excellent presentation in which he provided an overview of his position at PWC and explained how his master’s dissertation had helped prepare him for the work he now does. He shared his thoughts on the critical importance of sustainability in everyday business, noting how research continues well past university, and put forward some handy examples of how to conduct ‘real-world’ research for a client. The students developed solutions for the problems at hand in small groups and discussed them with Matthew in interactive sessions.

After a coffee, tea and pastries break, used for inter-university networking, the MSc students – who came armed with a one-page overview of their dissertation plans – presented their work for critique by their peers. The three academic staff present were on hand if needed, though for the most part the students got on with it themselves very well and generated some animated discussions in the process. The focus and energy of the students looking into their research subjects was clearly evident.

The workshop concluded with a brief wrap-up session, which provided an opportunity to reflect on common areas of concern, and then discussions were transferred to a local pub.

The workshop was co-organized by the ICCSR’s Stefan Gold, Director of MSc Sustainability, and by Stephanos Anastasiadis, Deputy Director of MSc Sustainability at Royal Holloway’s Centre for Research into Sustainability (CRIS). Also in attendance was the ICCSR’s Associate Professor in Sustainability, Stelvia Matos.

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Our very own Paul Caulfield, Assistant Professor in Responsible and Sustainable Business at the ICCSR, has been awarded a 2016 Lord Dearing Award for excellence in teaching and learning.

The highly-valued award recognizes the outstanding achievements of The University of Nottingham staff, and in particular acknowledges those who are able to create a nurturing learning environment that is simultaneously challenging, creative and innovative.

The awards, which attract intense competition, are based on nominations, and are judged by an expert panel that includes the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Life, senior members of staff and officers of the Student Union.

Each year 20 awards are made to teaching staff and ten for staff from other categories such as technical or support employees. Paul will receive his award at the Nottingham University Business School graduation ceremony in July.

Paul, who is director of the Nottingham MBA, said of his application. “I think it is important for us all to continually seek to improve experience and enable our students to become insightful and responsible business leaders for the future.” The award panel commented on Paul’s use of new technologies, and efforts to integrate academic performance with contemporary management practice.

The Lord Dearing Award Scheme was created in 1999, and is named after the late Ronald Dearing, chancellor of the University of Nottingham from 1993 to 2000. Ronald rose from humble beginnings to become a senior civil servant and then chairman and chief executive of the Post Office. He was also author of the influential 1997 Dearing Report into higher education, which made 93 recommendations to government on the funding, expansion and maintenance of academic standards.

Full details of the 2016 awards can be seen here

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Two ICCSR staff members are playing prominent roles in organizing a conference in late June on the UN’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (UNPRME), which commit signatories to promote sustainability in business school programmes.

The two-day event at Nottingham Conference Centre, to be held from 20-21 June 2016, will be the third annual gathering of the UK & Ireland regional chapter of UNPRME, and will be staged in parallel with the 2016 annual conference of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN), which this year also takes place in the city – at Nottingham Trent University from 20-22 June.

Paul Caulfield, ICCSR’s Assistant Professor in Responsible & Sustainable Business, and Sareh Pouryousefi, Assistant Professor in Business Ethics, are organizing the UNPRME event in conjunction with Nottingham Trent, and some of its sessions will be held jointly with the EBEN conference.

Among the shared offerings will be a session on one of the EBEN conference’s two sub-themes: ‘Pedagogy beyond the business school’, with Paul co-hosting discussions on how to mainstream sustainability education beyond the business school curriculum. The main part of the UNPRME conference will feature short-sharp presentations of 10 minutes per speaker, plus 40-minute workshop sessions to follow.

Sareh will also co-convene the EBEN Early Career Workshop, which will provide detailed advice for PhD students regarding their research, and provide a networking opportunity with leading scholars in the field. Fifteen international PhD students have been selected and will be paired with mentors from the EBEN academic community.

The conference will also include a walking tour of the city, and a discussion of Nottingham’s industrial history and the role of garment workers in the historic Lace Market. The tour will end with a reprise of the ICCSR’s popular Film Series, with a special showing at Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema of The True Cost, a documentary film about the social and environmental impact of the multi-billion-dollar fashion industry.

Delegates from academia, business, public sector and non-profit organisations are welcome to attend the UNPRME conference, and the fee is £115, including a conference dinner and two lunches. You can book here to attend UN PRME only or book here to go to both the EBEN and UN PRME events.

Photo: By Vasa1628 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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A group of students has just completed this year’s Business Ethics module for MBA electives, which ran from 11-15 April.

The module which is taught by Dr Sareh Pouryousefi, Assistant Professor in Business Ethics aims to help students adopt a systematic approach to ethical issues in business, and to develop their analytical and decision-making skills when it comes to taking choices about ethical matters.

Using real-life case studies from the corporate world, it also draws on tools and approaches such as David Gauthier’s ‘morals by agreement’ and elements of game theory.                                                                                            

Students on the module complete a 15-minute viva and a 3000-word essay, the latter looking at a moral dilemma and describing the critical decision-making path they would follow as a business manager. 

Among those who took the module in mid-April was Paul Lawrence, who was pleased he made the ‘last moment’ decision to sign up. ‘It turned out to be the highlight module of the year for me,’ he says.

Paul is a full-time MBA student at Nottingham and previously worked as Centre Director of Ellel Grange, a Christian centre near Lancaster. ‘I’m someone on the general MBA route rather than a CSR student, but I never once felt that this was a CSR module I was gatecrashing,’ he says. ‘I was able to get fully involved and to contribute from all angles.’

He was particularly impressed with the ‘dynamic, enthusiastic and motivational’ way the module was delivered, including through group work, presentations and strategy games. ‘It was fast paced, deep thinking, and it pushed boundaries,’ he adds.

‘Overall the module helped me to gain a fresh appreciation of why I made certain business decisions in the past, and it showed me how I would perhaps approach those problems differently next time. It also made me appreciate how diverse opinions can be around a single problem.

‘That was made clearer to me by the fact that there were students on the module from all walks of life – from businesses, NGOs, and the third sector – and from more than 15 countries, which showed just how important this subject has become in the international arena.

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I was first exposed to the concept of sustainability during my undergraduate degree here at the University of Nottingham, where I studied management with German after travelling over from Slovakia. By taking modules such as business ethics and sustainable and responsible business, I came to appreciate the grand global sustainability challenges we’re facing – not least in terms of resource depletion and climate change – and the vital role that business plays both in contributing to and addressing them.

I was particularly inspired by Chris Barnatt’s technology and organization module, which explored the potential of innovative technologies – such as 3D printing, vertical farming, synthetic biology and nanotechnology – to address sustainability challenges. I soon realised that I’d like to learn more about sustainability, and even to specialise in it. That’s why I signed up for the MSc in Sustainability at ICCSR.

Since I really enjoyed studying at Nottingham University, and because of the international reputation of the ICCSR centre, Nottingham University Business School was the natural (and only) choice for me. Besides, what better place to do an MSc in Sustainability other than at the number one university for sustainability in the world?

So far on the course I’ve already gained valuable insights, and the lectures are really engaging and interactive. Studying for a master’s degree certainly requires a strong commitment, and it can sometimes be challenging. Fortunately, I’ve always been able to approach the lecturers with any concerns that I have, and I’m very happy with the results I’ve achieved so far.

Many modules on this course involve group projects, which I must admit are not my favourite assignments. But they’re a great way of learning to work in teams and to meet new people from other courses. In fact, a great thing about the course is that you meet exceptional people from diverse backgrounds. There are also plenty of opportunities to engage in activities outside the university – such as the recent ICCSR film screenings related to sustainability and CSR.

I’m glad I’ve found something I’m so passionate about. The course is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to make a significant and positive contribution to our society and to the natural environment. Sustainability is a subject that can’t be avoided anymore, and will without question continue to grow in importance. So I’m happy that I’ve taken the path that I have.

By: Diana Princova, MSc in Sustainability Student, 2015/16

Photo: By IIP Campaigns & Initiatives (Vertical farm) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Our annual Doing the Business Film Series was once again a great success.

This year the series featured two new films about social and ethical issues in business – The True Cost, which focuses on the social and environmental impacts of the global fashion industry, and Ice And The Sky, a survey of the state of Antarctica through the eyes of the French explorer Claude Lorius, made by March of the Penguins director Luc Jacquet.

The films were screened at the independent Broadway Cinema in Nottingham. Prior to the start of The True Cost, Wendy Chapple, Deputy Director of the ICCSR, gave an introduction to the event to a full house. MBA CSR student Liz Corbishley then led a question & answer session with Neil Jones, CSR Manager of the chemist business Boots UK alongside the ICCSR’s Paul Caulfield, Assistant Professor in Responsible & Sustainable Business. The debate included contributions from the audience on the social and environmental implications of the supply chain industry today.

Ice And the Sky, which was also a sell-out, was introduced by Sareh Pouryousefi, Assistant Professor in Business Ethics at the ICCSR, followed by a presentation by Doreen Boyd, Associate Professor and Reader in Earth Observation from the School of Geography, University of Nottingham. After the film screening, staff and students exchanged views with members of the public over refreshments at the Broadway’s Mezz bar.

ICCSR’s Doing the Business film series has run every year at Broadway Cinema since 2004, and features movies that raise business responsibility topics in an imaginative and thought-provoking way. Academic and administrative staff members from across Nottingham University Business School attended the events this year, along with students and alumni from ICCSR undergraduate, MSc, MBA, and PhD programmes.

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I came to the MBA in CSR at Nottingham to find answers.

I had spent the last ten years working in the non-profit sector, and the last four in Tanzania. As I had acclimatized to the humidity and culture, I had become increasingly discouraged by international aid. Sometimes it wasn’t enough. Sometimes it was mistaken. And sometimes it was willfully misdirected.

Yet the importance of someone doing something to support development became even more crucial in my mind. It seemed that increasingly hopes were being pinned on the private sector, yet how did their efforts fare in comparison to international aid? What was their role? Could they do more?

Nottingham’s MBA in CSR appeared to offer the potential answers.

However, when I started last September, I realised my questions were only growing in number. There were the easy, trivial ones:
• Can I justify spending money on chocolate digestives or should I get Asda’s own brand now that I’m a student again?
• Does everyone read the same sentence twenty times in difficult papers, and then realise they still don’t understand it?
• Is the Nottingham-wide generally accepted greeting of ‘Hiya’ contagious?

The answers to these were quickly found. In case you are wondering:
• Yes. ‘Chocolate’ is a generous description for the translucent spread covering Asda’s own.
• Probably. But it doesn’t really matter. There is always too much to read: focus first on what is interesting and second on what is useful.
• Regrettably yes. I can’t even remember what I used to say.

These easy questions merely skimmed my sub-conscious mind. The much more interesting ones were the ones thrown up in class.

There are 37 of us in this year’s cohort. Within this 37 we have 21 different nationalities, representatives from the private, public and non-profit sectors, and experience ranging from 3 years to nearer 20. So much of what I have learned has been from them. Many have left families and partners back in their home countries and I have had any unwitting prejudices I may have held challenged. It turns out that I actually like some bankers.

The fact that Nottingham also offers an MBA in Entrepreneurship, an MBA in Finance, and a General MBA means that the cohort is a diverse mix of experiences and perspectives. More so, I suspect, than many other universities.

Now back to the questions. Bigger, deeper questions include:
• What role can companies and industries play when markets fail? What role must they play? How should this be instilled and monitored?
• How can CSR managers defend social impact to their Boards?
• How can businesses be helped to understand CSR? Especially given most CSR managers in business have probably had very little exposure or training around the theory or experience outside their industry?

As the MBA progresses I am beginning to realise that it is not equipping me to answer these questions. However, it is equipping me to take part in the ongoing conversation around CSR, and that, in my opinion, is far, far more interesting.

By: Elizabeth Corbishley, MBA in CSR student 2015/16

Photo:By МихаилБанчев (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Superstar Brazilian footballer Hulk’s Football School is helping two ICCSR staff to study the idea of ‘productive entrepreneurship’, by which business activity can lead both to competitive advantage for an organization and to societal gain.

ICCSR director Jeremy Hall and Associate Professor in Sustainability Stelvia Matos have linked up with the Hulk Football School in Campina Grande, Brazil, whose patron and namesake, Givanildo Vieira de Sousa (AKA Hulk) plays for Brazil and the Russian Champions League contenders Zenith St Petersburg. When Hulk was a child, the current manager of the school, Mano Costa, subsidized his training, and after making it big, Hulk returned to his hometown to help others who, like him, come from poor backgrounds.

Like many soccer schools in Brazil, the Hulk School has a social dimension, and recognizes the challenges faced by those it recruits from poor backgrounds. However, it departs from most models by virtue of its level of sophistication. Hulk and Mano have emphasized the need for the School not only to subsidize kids to help them play, but to provide them with a more rounded education that gives them the life skills and the confidence to handle themselves in high pressure environments – on and off the pitch. Over the years Mano has seen many promising footballers fail to live up to their potential due to, for example, drug abuse and poor discipline. The School also acknowledges that most students will never make it professionally, but at the very least provide them with fundamental social skills to ensure they have a better future. All students must remain in school, eat healthily and stay away from drugs and alcohol.

Another pillar of the approach is that reliability and integrity are becoming an increasingly valuable attribute for footballers. This means not only recognizing the importance of training, teamwork and related technical skills development, but also an awareness of concerns over maintaining fair play, performance enhancing drug abuse, racism and bigotry. Over the years Hulk has overcome many struggles getting recognized, and has been the target of racism, yet he is still able to maintain his focus in a dignified way (for one such example, see this Guardian newspaper article)

One example is the school’s approach to its integration of players with a mental handicap. When one of these players scores, the entire club erupts in joy, and if any other player shows disrespect to such a footballer, he is immediately benched. According to Mano, you need to respect people before you deserve respect yourself.

Jeremy and Stelvia, who have recently returned from Brazil, are impressed that the school is focused on developing football talent for financial gain as well as social inclusion, and as such are exploring whether it is a potentially disruptive scenario that could have applications across the world. ‘We’re trying to see if this model can be useful to clubs elsewhere, including here in the UK, and whether coaches in the big leagues value their business proposition,’ says Jeremy. ‘The school is about identifying football talent, but at a deeper level it’s encouraging good citizenship through discipline and respect. Will clubs see this as the next paradigm in recruiting?’

With most football academies focused almost exclusively on producing good footballers, Jeremy sees Hulk’s initiative as a great example of productive entrepreneurship, potentially leading to a better quality product that changes the way the market works and leads to a net benefit for society.

Jeremy and Stelvia are also helping the Hulk School to produce a mission statement, which is expected to be finalized soon. And by the way, Hulk is playing in the Champions League this week, so stay tuned.

Photo (left to right): Givanildo Vieira de Sousa (Hulk), Stelvia Matos and Mano Costa

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