Sustainability in action: United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (UN PRME)

Practice with purpose: people, planet, profit Dr Leila Alinaghian (Associate Professor of Business Relationships and Impact and Director of the Full-time MBA) epitomises Cranfield’s commitment to responsible business education in action, both through her teaching and her research in the field of social procurement. Leila’s advocacy has seen her closely involved with Social Enterprise UK, the national body for social enterprise businesses with a social or environmental mission, and in particular their Buy Social Corporate Challenge, which aims to recruit high-profile businesses to collectively spend £1 billion with social enterprises.

“I’ve always had a passion for social impact and advocacy. I love the idea of making the world a fairer and more compassionate place and, at the personal level, of changing lives. In our communities and globally, we are surrounded by social problems such as mental health, inequality, homelessness, reoffending, and mass migration – you hear the sad stories in the news every day. “Businesses have begun to take a lead role in addressing these complex, multi-layered global social challenges, and are increasingly trying to bring about a positive impact on the planet and the communities in which they are

operating. As part of this, they are starting to engage in new practices, one of which is social procurement. The practice involves corporates buying from social enterprises. While these have a social mission at their heart, such as to eradicate poverty, or to support people who have experienced homelessness to be able to move forward in their life, they use business to solve their chosen societal challenge. They are businesses that apply market solutions to social problems.

“Social impact is one of the remaining competitive advantages that’s available to businesses – and in many ways it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.”

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