Since we last spoke, life, and business schools, have continued along more or less as normal until all of a sudden, the world has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. The repercussions of this are, of course, tragic, but for some of us it is an opportunity to think about the changes that could come of this. It is a chance to pause and rethink what we do, why we do it, and how we could do it differently.

I started the first Future MBA 100 series in 2014 when my daughter was born, as a way of contributing to the world around me while at home taking care of her. I challenged myself to come up with one idea a day for 100 days as a brainstorming exercise, and posted them without filtering them, the good and the slightly rough. My thoughts and ideas on what the MBA could and should transform into for the good of both society as a whole and also business schools themselves were not only shared around the world, but many were adopted by a whole range of institutions, well beyond business schools. A cleaner version of all the ideas, plus a few extra ones, was eventually published in a book, The Future MBA: 100 Ideas on Making Sustainability the Business of Business Education (Routledge) and are still equally relevant today. I then posted a second series in 2017 highlighting examples from 100 schools who were implementing ideas similar to the ones in the book.

As I am now at home again, like many of you, sharing my home office with my husband and home-schooling young kids, I’ve decided to start a new Future 100 series (this is part of my approach to protect my mental health!). This time it focuses on exploring how business schools can go beyond teaching innovation to practicing innovation. So, for the next 100 days, I will be exploring 100 different ideas of how business schools can engage in and learn from COVID-19 and come out stronger and more relevant than before, always still with a sustainability lens.

As a reminder, this is a creative exercise. I don’t over think the ideas, I just post them as I have them, once a day. I will keep the comment sections open and encourage you to add to, play around or test out the ideas for yourselves.

I hope you will join me again and see where this 100 days will take us! Tomorrow will be Day 1…better start thinking about my first idea!