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2016 V&R Participant- Dr. Anat Alon-Beck

Dr. Anat Alon-Beck, International Business and Management

Go Sustainable: Fundamentals of Business

Course Syllabus: INBM 100

I was very fortunate to participate in the 2016 Valley & Ridge Program. It helped me revise and further develop the Fundamental of Business course, which I am teaching in the fall & spring semesters, as well as my other courses. The Program allowed me to improve my teaching methods by incorporating additional innovation and sustainability readings and class exercises.  The objective of this course is to give students a fundamental knowledge of business and management, and to encourage them to think about opportunities to contribute to (rather than exploit) the environment, society, and future generations.

The course framework calls attention to the fact that corporations can gain competitive advantage in the marketplace by incorporating innovative sustainable long-term operational strategies. Discussions with the Valley & Ridge participants on issues such as innovation, corporate social responsibility, access to justice, the meaning of sustainability, and corporate strategy, helped me revise this course.

I chose to devote some of the class exercises on ways to help students to deal with the challenges concerning effective team building and problem-solving. For example, the Trout Galley Team Building exercise, which will take place following class discussions on the meaning of sustainability to for-profit corporations, will require the students to use limited art materials, in order to produce a poster on this topic, while also managing their limited time and building collaborative relationships as teams.