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MBS Targets World's Best Practice in Social Impact

Eighteen months ago, Melbourne Business School created a new innovation in corporate social responsibility by establishing its Asia Pacific Social Impact Centre.

Things have moved quickly since then. The centre has recruited Professor Ian Williamson as its new head and the Centre is developing new programs that aim to put Australia on the map as an international case study in how business schools can serve as a positive change agent in their communities.

By 2012 Ian expects the centre will have produced a graduating cohort of at least 30 students with a Graduate Certificate of Social Impact.

He adds, "We will have (hopefully) had two consecutive winners of the Melbourne University Social Entrepreneurship Business Plan Challenge.

"We will have successfully graduated a cohort of aboriginal business leaders from Victoria with a certificate in foundational business skills necessary to enhance the value of their businesses.

"We will have a set of international partners who exchange faculty and ideas on social entrepreneurship and social responsibility.

"And we will have funded and promoted ground breaking research in areas of social responsibility and social entrepreneurship."

Very few business schools have integrated the notion of social impact and social responsibility across the domains of pedagogy student learning, research and outreach.

Ian claims it will make MBS an international case study for other business schools.

The Asia Pacific Social Impact Leadership Centre was originally formed as a two way partnership between MBS, and the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, which provided funding of $1.5 million. The Centre has since partnered with the Centre for Social Impact and is now a part of a national centre network made up of Melbourne Business School, the University of NSW, Swinburne University and the University of Western Australia.

Each school has its own centre, and they all work on local, as well as collaborative national social impact programs.  According to Professor Williamson, the truly innovative element of these centres is that they are all based in business schools.

"The idea of working with business leaders to focus on social impact is in general, a big departure from the past," he says.

Previously we've largely focused on bedding these types of activities solely within the third sector or government. Today we also view the for-profit sector as a true partner in driving social impact."

Professor Williamson links this back to the centre's broad aim, which is to focus on social issues by facilitating effective partnerships between for-profit, non-profit, government and philanthropic organisations.

He says, "Leveraging resources and skill sets in each sector generates a more holistic solution to complex problems. For example, to address the big issues of education, poverty and health care you need the scale and reach of government organisations, the client orientation of non-profit organisations, and business school models of how to mobilise and organise resources."