Annual celebration at CBS: Future employees must have a strong inner compass

”The challenges we face can only be solved by people with a strong inner compass and innovative force, and we must give the next generations an extra dimension that goes beyond skills and qualifications. So, the Nordic Nine mindset really is spot on.”

These are the words of Christian Jensby, future CEO of Deloitte, who participated in a panel debate last Friday at CBS’ annual celebration on which competences the business community will need in the future.

He and three other participants, Nima Sophia Tisdall, Co-founder of Lobster, Nana Bule, Operating Advisor at Goldman Sachs, and Christian Sparrevohn, Co-founder of the Footprint Firm, agreed that soft competences will prevail more in the future.

Being curious about society, being willing to learn something new and acting responsibly were keywords mentioned by the three business professionals, who also highlighted sustainability, climate crisis and new technologies as challenges faced by companies.

Discussion, inspiration and reflection

As the 400 guests reflected on these messages over their chicken fumé, Torben Möger Pedersen, Chairman of the CBS Board of Directors, explained the concept of this year’s annual celebration:

”As a business university, our goal is to constantly offer the right solutions to society’s many challenges through research and competent candidates. This is why the 2023 CBS Annual Celebration is different. We want to give students, researchers and representatives from the business community the opportunity to discuss, inspire and reflect on our common future”.

For this reason, the celebration was titled “Capabilities for a positive future”, and in addition to three lovely courses, the participants also had a taste of the Nordic Nine, which is a set of transformative capabilities that all CBS students must learn.

The capabilities which have been developed with more than 3000 actors from the business community and academia must prepare the students to navigate in a still more complex world and take responsibility for the development of companies and society.

Praise from the minister

Exactly responsibility and the need of a wider approach to business was repeated in several speeches.

”Today, not only profit will decide the success of a company, there is also an ethical and moral aspect,” Christina Egelund, Minister for Higher Education and Science, ascertained. She praised Nordic Nine and emphasised that the graduates of the future will have to go back to university several times for further training. A model widely supported by the government’s education reform, the minister said.

Earlier, CBS President Nikolaj Malchow-Møller spoke about his fascination of the children’s books about Curious George and emphasised that curiosity will not do it alone. You must also be interested in other people and have the right competences if you wish to contribute to solving future challenges. And at CBS, the answer is Nordic Nine.

Professor Mikkel Flyverbom was the toastmaster of the evening, and the Ukrainian ambassador Mykhailo Vydoinyk won big applause when he thanked CBS for the exchange agreement made with Karazin Business School in Kharkiv. The agreement means that 25 Ukrainian students will arrive at CBS in the summer.