While most of our students will enjoy their well-deserved vacation this month, we'll hold events at the upcoming Academy of Management (AoM), kick-off four Young Scholars Academies, launch the registration for the upcoming oikos FutureLab in November as well as the Call for Cases for our prestigious Case Writing Competition and introduce you to a very inspiring account of what drives Hanna Ebeling, former President of oikos St. Gallen, to resign from a comfortable banking job in London to start a 1-year fellowship in social impact investing in Manila. This and much more, in your oikos August newsletter.
oikos FutureLab
Registration for the oikos FutureLab 2012 (Nov. 19/20) is now open! oikos members and outstanding speakers from 3 continents will share their experience on developing impact-driven initiatives for a sustainable future. Join us in Switzerland!
oikos Students
oikos CEE Meeting oikos Chapters from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) will be meeting up from 7 – 9 September to dive into the topic of Sustainable Agritourism. The event is hosted by oikos Tbilisi and their invitation, although focusing on CEE, extends also to all other Chapters from the oikos network. It's not too late to join, the registration deadline is 7 August.
Student Reporters in Beijing
A new student reporter team prepares for Beijing-China. The team is led by a transatlantic team. Aishwarya Nair is Master of Science student at the University of Pennsylvania and Claudio Ruch is a student at the ETH in Zurich. See the profiles of our new team on the Student Rporter website.
oikos Academic
oikos at Academy of Management AoM 2012
Together with swissnex we are very happy to invite our academic alumni to a reception at the Academy of Management Conference in Boston – enjoy some organic wine & food in good company at SwissNex Boston on Monday, August 6 – space is limited to 50 attendees – so hurry up to register!
In this context, we are also delighted to announce a Professional Development Workshop on case writing in the field of inclusive markets at the upcoming Academy of Management conference, facilitated by oikos alumnus Michael Pirson. Join us in Boston!
oikos Young Scholar Academies
Four Academies are kicking off this month, as we will gather promising young researchers from all over the world around themes of sustainable development. Check out our participants' pofiles online to see what type of issues will be discussed in our upcoming young scholars academies in Development, Economics, Entrepreneurship & Organizational theory. Also, make sure to drop by our academic pages on our website from time to time for upcoming conferences and job opportunities.
oikos Case Writing Competition The call for cases for the oikos Case Writing Competition 2013 has been launched and we would like to to invite you to submit your new cases on Corporate Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship. The deadline for submission is October 26th, 2012. The first prize in each track (Corporate Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship) will be 5000 Swiss Francs (2nd: CHF 2000 and 3rd: CHF 1000).
More free cases at oikos Case Collection
We have added several more exciting cases in the oikos free case collection! Protected under Creative Commons license, these cases are free to use in a classroom. If you are a faculty member, you can request a free teaching note for these cases by sending us an email.
oikos Case Quarterly
The latest issue of the oikos Case Quarterly is out! This summer issue focuses on Cross-Sector Partnerships and we are featuring four outstanding cases on that topic.
30 seconds with...
Hanna Ebeling, LGT VP iCats Fellow and former oikos Sankt Gallen President
About four months ago, I dared to take the jump into the deep end of the pool and resigned from my comfortable banking job in London to parachute myself into a 1-year fellowship with LGT Venture Philanthropy in Manila as part of their iCats Programme. But let me backtrack a bit and tell you how this came about. I was oikos President of St.Gallen in 2003/2004 and spent most of my time fundraising as all of our multi-year sponsors had decided to cancel their engagement at once! At that point, Model WTO and the oikos conference were already established event corner stones with the Winterschool just taking shape. From following oikos activities as an Alumna it looks like we have come a long way since then.
Some people I met as President told me to initially take the commercial job route as it is not always easy to get into the charity/foundation space without hands-on work experience. In the end, I did just that: 2 year international graduate programme with HSBC, afterwards 3.5 years in London with the CIO. However, the personal satisfaction of really having made a difference at the end of a work day was always missing. As part of a talent pool programme, I got to spend two weeks with an NGO (baking artesan tortillas) in Mexico and I think that was the final trigger for me to get on the prowl for a more fulfilling occupation.
By coincidence, I heard about social impact investing which sounded like my dream combination of nerdy spreadsheets and due diligence but with a soft spot for the community perspective at the bottom of the pyramid. In my fellowship as Business Accelerator Consultant, I now work with promising early stage social enterprises that may not only require a small infusion of risk capital but also hand-holding in terms of organizational development. You would be surprised how process-driven and stringent the selection process is and how professionally we expect our entrepreneurs to improve the life of disadvantaged people. However, at the same time you also see the happy kids faces of our Rags2Riches mothers who produce fashionable hand bags out of scrap cloth in the urban townships next to a large pile of up to 40 year old rubbish that they call "smokey mountain". I very much enjoy living in both worlds: business mind-set trying to tackle social problems. Please be encouraged to follow your heart when it comes to the right job before you get too comfortable. There is a bit of an adventurer in every oikee after all, go to the edge and don't look down but across the gorge....
Outlook:
3 August 2012: oikos Academic Alumni Reunion at AoM/Boston Awesome event to meet up with our oikos, Ivey, ETH Academy alumni. First-come-first-served, register now; it's quick and easy!
6 August 2012: Case Writing Lab at the Academy of Management A great opportunity for anybody interested in case writing and inclusive markets to learn from experienced case writers and prize winning case authors.
19-24 August 2012: oikos Economics Academy
On "The Dynamics of Migration"
26-31 August 2012: oikos Entrepreneurship Academy On "Collaborative Entrepreneurship and Innovation"
26-31 August 2012: oikos Organisation Academy
On "Social Innovation and Organizational Impact"
7-9 September 2012: oikos CEE Regional Meeting
On Sustainable Agritourism, to be held in Tbilisi, Georgia.
17-18 November: Chapter Presidents Meeting in Rorschach/CH
19-20 November 2012: Save the Date for the oikos FutureLab On "Impact: Think - Act - Share", to be held in St. Gallen, Switzerland
Contribute
Let people know what you are up to and submit your oikos News for the next newsletter to: update@oikosinternational.org
Meet oikos...
Dawid Wroblewski will be a group discussion leader on the topic 'Ideal Green and Sustainable University' at the UNICA Student Conference 2012, held on 10-13 October, at University of Oslo.
Meet Jost Hamschmidt, Frederic Bärtl and Shailee Pradhan representing oikos at the SDC Conference in Berne in August
oikos at Academy of Management AoM 2012
Hanna Ebeling, LGT VP iCats Fellow and former oikos Sankt Gallen President
