#international #newbusinessmodels #projectbased #Breda

Why?
Today’s global social and environmental issues are complex and complicated. They cannot be solved by governments on their own. Companies and institutions also play a huge role in this necessary sustainable transition. By taking part in this programme, you will learn how to act upon these issues to make an impact.

How?

It is uncertain what various current developments will bring, but they are here to stay. The Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain will provide our society and businesses with new opportunities.
As a course participant, you must prepare to embrace this uncertainty. You will challenge the existing business models from the perspectives of personal leadership and sustainable thinking.
And you will develop new ones to make a meaningful contribution to the 21st century embedded economy.
You will develop skills with respect to sustainable business models, sustainable strategy and transition, inner leadership, system thinking, ethics, creative thinking, change management, and intercultural collaboration.
In order to prepare you for the ever changing social and business reality, we will not provide traditional lectures nor specific books for you. In fact, rethinking a new economic system cannot be done with traditional teaching. Instead it requires a truly innovative didactic approach. Therefore, you will learn in a new, adventurous way by working on real-life projects and researching the business and sustainability themes that appeal to you. In this way you will shape your own learning path while contributing to the learning community of fellow[1]students and coaches. That requires an inquiring, curious and open mind in addition to pro-activity, discipline and self-reliance. Coaches will support you in creating your own learning strategies, guide you through your learning process and act as sparring partners.
You are fully accountable for your own learning process

What?
You will benefit from the programme’s strong industry linkages as you will be working on actual projects with real organisations. Some of the projects previous students worked on in order to challenge the existing business models are:

• How can the manufacturing industry contribute to a circular economy in North-Brabant?
• Which business and/or societal solutions are possible to diminish the negative effects of ‘the last mile’?
• How can Zero Waste NL develop a business model that allows the Zero Waste NL movement to become sustainable in the long run?
• (A) Design the purpose-driven workplace of the future, (B) examine what is withholding organizations at this moment to become purpose-driven and (C) develop an integrated change-approach to turn these ‘traditional’ organizations to purpose-driven ones.
• Based on multiple scenarios, how can Brundtland build an eco-village together with stakeholders that is sustainable and circular, both from the start and in the long run?

In order to answer these questions, students have conducted research in numerous fields of interest:

• Planetary economy: challenging the models of endless growth
• Re-thinking corporate strategies for a sustainable and equitable future
• Transforming economic thinking towards sustainable development
• Personal footprint: create your own model for a positive societal and environmental impact
• Impact investment for both financial return and social and environmental good
• Multiple value creation and social enterprising

 

Learning goals

This 30 ECTS programme is entirely project-based. This means traditional lectures, exams and schedules have been replaced by assessments, demand driven education, individual coaching and serious games. Instruction hours, stand-up meetings, additional courses and keynote speaker sessions are organized in an agile way. We strive to match each Dutch student to a foreign student in order to broaden their perspectives.

Upon completion of the Business, Leadership and Sustainability programme, you will have experienced:

• who you are as a leader and what role you play or can play in the bigger picture.
• how you can engage and inspire all your relevant stakeholders as part of your sustainable business strategy.
• how you can use contemporary trends and developments to your advantage as a sustainable business leader. 
• to understand the new economic order and what is necessary to move towards a sustainable future.
• how you can successfully make an impact in a company or its entire supply chain.
• how you can use creative and innovative thinking to develop sustainable business models.

In order to meet these challenges, you will be examined / assessed on the following

learning goals:

Personal leadership (PL)
The student demonstrates accountability with regards to his personal development based on his value drivers in order to shape the future.

Business assignment (BA)
The student creates a sustainable business model leading to multiple value creation.

The student uses change management theories in order to implement the sustainable business model successfully.

The student understands the new economic order and what is necessary to move towards a sustainable future.

The student demonstrates appropriate research skills and attitude in order to execute the two business assignments.

Grading

The individual assignments count for 67% of the final grade, whereas the group assignment for 33%. Last but not least, we expect an active participation and meaningful contribution

The entire programme consists of various modules:

• Personal leadership 10 EC
• Business model innovation 5 EC
• Sustainable transition 5 EC
• Multiple value creation 2 EC
• Strategic management 2 EC
• Change management 2 EC
• Sustainable economics 2 EC
• Research skills 2 EC

These modules are integrated into the four assignments (PL/BA) and will be assessed during the oral exam and the final presentation at the end of the minor.

This is what you could be working on:

Testimonials:

"I am very satisfied with my course at Avans, I found very welcoming teachers with whom I established a good relationship, something that had never happened to me in my Italian university where there is a tendency to maintain a student-teacher distance.
The minor I think is well structured and having classes only until Thursday allowed me to travel a lot during the weekends.
Not proposing traditional lectures, but innovative didactic I think is the strong point of this minor as it makes the students very participative.
As for my group work with Canon, it didn't go according to our expectations in part because of us, I think we could have given and done more, and in part because Canon could have stimulated us more.
Instead I think individual work is really motivating, because it allows you to create your own business so you can use a lot of creativity to overcome the various obstacles you encounter".

Thank you for this amazing experience!
Giulio  Lombardo | 2023 Semester 1

“Taking part in the minor of Business, Leadership & Sustainability was a positive experience which will resonate for the rest of my life. I have learnt that we as a species need to take responsibility for our actions, not only in scope of impacting the planet, but also the lives of other people.

I have learnt that cooperation is key to success and that the real change, real impact, starts with myself. The minor also encourages students to look deeply into oneself, and nudges positive change; of character and view of the world. All the trips and assignments were great experiences, though I would have liked to see more lectures being done. Great time and great minor!”
Maciej Fortunski (Poland)

I had been looking forward to study abroad for a long time and Avans Hogeschool was an obvious choice for me. Here I knew I could develop my professional skills in regards to sustainability and leadership but also grow as a person and enjoy university life in an international environment.

After finishing my experience here I can say I was able to do that and so much more!

This course has helped me to think more independently and to be more proactive: to search for things I can learn and things I can do regarding sustainability.

The several groups projects I have developed in these past months have also made me a better leader and encouraged me to keep improving my leadership skills.

I can confidently say I will never forget this experience and the skills I have learned and perfected here will be with me for the rest of my life. This was in a huge part thanks to all the amazing professors that guided and helped me on the several projects I worked on. No words in the world can describe how much they have helped me and inspired me.

I would recommend this experience to everyone! It was definitely one of the greatest chapters of my life. 
Marta Teodoro

Level: third-year or fourth-year bachelor

This programme has been designed for students who wish to promote social, environmental and economic sustainability in their personal and professional lives.

A video-pitch of approximately 2 minutes is required in order to assess your eligibility and motivation for this program. Please, elaborate on why you would like to join, how you wish to promote social, environmental and economic sustainability in your personal and professional live and how you deal with uncertainty, the key issue in our minor.
The deadline for this video-pitch is 15 November 2023
Send your video-pitch to: minoren.bdk.breda@avans.nl.

We strive to achieve a 50/50 mix of Dutch and foreign students.

Schedule:

• PL#1: My Value Drivers → presentations week 2 to 4
• Project proposal → week 5
• Mid-term evaluations → week 8
• Deadline of PL#2 and BA#1 → Friday, week 12
• Individual assessments of PL#2 and BA#1 → week 13
• Deadline of BA#2 (group) → Friday, week 16
• Final presentation BA#2 (group) → week 17

Assessment

Business, Leadership & Sustainability challenges you to develop your own sustainable thinking and business models. We work with multi-level assessments: self-assessment, peer-assessment and coach-assessment. These assessments are based on the level of complexity, self-reliance and self-efficacy.

At the end of the programme, you, your peers and coaches will decide collaboratively whether all the ECTS credits will be accredited.

Remarks: 

the programme starts on Tuesday, 30 January 2024 (09.30 a.m.).

The first two weeks consist of crucial team building, allocation of the assignments and the vital explanation of our modus operandi (didactic approach). Make sure to be on time. If not, you maybe should reconsider your application.

We will end the programme after 17 weeks, which is mid June 2024 at the latest.