What is Management meets?

The Management meets series aims to provide expert insight into a variety of industries, professions and topics.

This is a forum for building on expertise by asking questions, discussing challenges and networking with others in the field.

The themes of this event will resonate with everyone but will be of particular interest to:

• those working in sustainability
• those who want to understand more about how organisations can ensure their actions can have real impact
• business leaders looking to embed sustainability in their organisations' practices

Hosted by Associate Professor in Business and Society Grace Augustine, with speaker Meki Nattero, this evening will be an open discussion about bridging realities in sustainability.

In today's world, the opportunities to engage with people who live dramatically different lives from us are decreasing rapidly. We socialise with others from the same political leanings and socio-economic backgrounds and converse online in social media bubbles which act as echo chambers for our existing beliefs.

We are living through a time of increased scrutiny around business impact on society and the environment, as well as growing expectations for businesses to demonstrate their understanding of sustainability impacts and take action.

All of this means business leaders must make decisions to address risk and impacts on the environment and people touched by the company’s activities, at a time when it’s becoming more difficult to develop empathy for individuals and communities whose lives and contexts are radically different to their own. This disconnect is further reinforced by other factors such as corporate cultures, conflicting KPIs and different mindsets within management. So how can we bridge this gap?

Based on eight years working in the space of human rights due diligence in corporate settings, our guest, alumna Meki Nattero, has developed expertise in helping business leaders bridge the divide between themselves and individuals living dramatically different realities who are nonetheless key business stakeholders whose lives are affected by business decisions.

Meki will share her experiences with us, so we can learn how to enhance our empathetic leadership abilities in our day-to-day work.

Agenda

6.30pm – Arrival and refreshments

7.00pm – Session begins

8.00pm – Session ends. Time for networking

8.30pm – Event closes

Associate Professor Grace Augustine

Grace Augustine is an Associate Professor in Business and Society at the University of Bath, School of Management. She received her PhD from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and her master's degree from the University of Oxford. In her research, Grace investigates how social movements spur changes in organisations. In particular, how they can bring about entirely new movement-initiated fields and industries and give rise to or change occupations. Grace has published in leading management journals on topics of sustainability and social movements in business. Grace has also co-authored over 20 published teaching cases, including three cases distributed through Harvard Business School. Finally, Grace has worked with the International Labour Organisation to translate her research on corporate social responsibility and sustainability into practice.

Meki Nattero is passionate about social justice and nature. Meki has been helping organisations achieve sustainable impact through responsible business strategies in corporate operations and supply chains for 20 years. A social impact and human rights due diligence specialist with a background in environmental conservation, Meki led corporate engagement and transformation programmes with WWF globally and as a human rights consultant with twentyfifty Ltd. Meki focuses on the intersection of communities, climate change, and the environment and combines expertise in human rights, relationship-building, stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and project management. She has led transformative initiatives with public, corporate and third sector clients, in agriculture, private equity, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), industrials and telecoms. Meki holds a Licenciatura in Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a MSc in Responsible Business Practice from the University of Bath, England.