cbsCSR PhD Fellow Robert Strand in The Financial Times

cbsCSR PhD Fellow Robert Strand has achieved what no one at our research center has done before; a letter to the Editor of The Financial Times written by Robert Strand was published in the newspaper on 18 June 2009. We proudly cite from The Financial Times:

Leaders in touch with feminine side

Published: June 18 2009 03:00 | Last updated: June 18 2009 03:00

From Mr Robert Strand.

Sir, I appreciated your update regarding Norway’s law that forces listed companies to have more women as directors (“Skirting the board”, Analysis, June 15). I think Norway’s progressive move is indicative of a region that, as a whole, is secure enough in its own masculinity to embrace strong femininity. This has much broader outcomes than this one law and I hope that in addition to legislators, the business world takes note of what is going on in Scandinavia.

After completing my MBA in the US in 2005, I moved to Norway as a US Fulbright scholar to research corporate social responsibility across Scandinavia. During that time I became acutely aware of a different kind of business leader in Scandinavia than what I was accustomed to in US industry. I saw Scandinavian business leaders (men and women) who encouraged the “feminine” activities of collaboration, participation, and who were themselves far more modest and nurturing than what I was used to in US industry, where the masculine John Wayne beat ‘em at any cost style of leader was more likely to be hero-worshipped.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, a debate has ensued about how to “fix” business to make it more responsible to its stakeholders, and a particular discussion is focusing on how to “fix” business schools. Scandinavian industry and business schools offer valuable lessons for how business can be responsible to its stakeholders and demonstrate a true concern for them – and it is much to do with Scandinavia’s “feminine” approach. I am now back in Scandinavia to explore this further, and I am hopeful of encouraging business leaders and students from the US to look to Scandinavia for inspiration. Perhaps we would all be better off if those of us in the business world would get in touch with our feminine side.

Robert Strand,

PhD Fellow,

Copenhagen Business School Center for Corporate Social Responsibility,

Copenhagen, Denmark