Dear Readers,
We’re delighted to announce the final results for the 2020 CSR student article competition.
Warm congratulations to all the competition winners, runners-up and finalists from each participating school for their superb articles which indeed have an impact – and have a voice! We must also congratulate every one of the students who participated in these exceptionally complex times, many of whom saw themselves returning home to their families at the outbreak of the current health crisis and all of them having to deal with the novelty and challenges of fully-online studies – Covid19 did not put a stop to their classes, assignments and busy schedules! Many thanks in addition to the members of the various faculty reading panels who gave up their free time and put a lot of effort into adjudicating the articles within each school.
The quality of the students’ articles submitted was extremely high and it was heartening to see so many engaged voices from tomorrow’s future managers and leaders on topics that will surely shape the post-Covid world into what we can only hope will be a better, more equitable and just system of things – the need for integrity and concrete action from companies in their pledge to become more sustainable; women’s rights and gender equality and the imperative of eradicating domestic violence; a review of our healthcare systems and crisis management policies that students brought to light from first-hand experience during the current upheaval; social enterprise and the desire shown from students to add purpose, meaning and the common good to their professional lives and business in general; the role that everyone in an organisation can play – including that most unlikely of heroes, the accountant – in promoting ethics and sustainable business practices; and finally, the need for companies operating in the extractive industries – oil, gas, minerals – to urgently find ways to balance their carbon footprint, adjust to sustainable practices, and ultimately respect the planet by giving back as much as what they take out.
The 2020 competition winners in each school are:
In alphabetical order…
- José Javier Pérez Barea, Executive MBA participant, IE Business School, with Social Entrepreneurship: Definition and research trends
- Shriya Chowdhury, MSc Management student, Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, with How can companies contribute to decreasing domestic violence against women?
- Cécile Guignard, MSc in Management student, ESSEC Business School, with How Covid19 shows that companies can play a role in decreasing domestic violence
- Ruth Vieira Melo, Undergraduate Business Administration degree student, FGV-EAESP, with Human rights are Women’s Rights: Women take the lead to ensure security and autonomy for themselves and future generations
- Sofia Tziortzi, BSc Accounting and Finance student, Warwick Business School, with From bean counters to changemakers: How accounting can save the world.
The 2020 competition runners-up and finalists in each school are:
- Fatima Alam, Runner-up, MSc Human Resource Management student, Warwick Business School, with The virus of social distancing and human connection.
- Carlo Alberto Calchera, MiM student, ESSEC Business School, Asia-Pacific, with Greenwashing in the new millennium – do (and how do) companies walk-the-talk?
- Aïda El Kohen, MiM student, ESSEC Business School, with Greenwashing: Fool me no more!
- Yuqian Li, MSc International Management student, Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, with The environmental and social sustainability of the social entrepreneurship
- Dinka Sabalic, Runner-up, Global online MBA participant, IE Business School, with Sustainable extractive companies – the way to survival or conscientiousness?
- Joyce Sano, Runner-up, Undergraduate Business Administration degree student, FGV-EAESP, with The Brown Company’s Eco-Guide to Greenwashing
- Edward Keunuk Shin, Runner-up, MiM student, ESSEC Business School, with Win It All – a game plan for responsible business
- Megha Sureshkar Global MBA participant, ESSEC Business School, with Doing Good While Doing Bad: A Near Impossibility?
Winners will receive €500 equivalent in prize money. All participants in the 2020 competition will receive certificates. Student winning, runner-up and finalist articles will appear in the traditional high-summer issue of Global Voice magazine on June 21st alongside those of our super professors, whose research into responsible leadership and business practices and belief in the good cause is internationally recognised.
You, our readers
And lastly, thanks to you – our readers from over thirty countries around the world – for staying with us over the past 2-3 months and sending in your encouraging comments to the articles. Indeed, there are now more of you than ever – professionals, entrepreneurs, managers, instructors, students or folk with the same passion and hopes as ourselves. Some of you ask if you can appear on the blog with your own, original articles. The answer is yes. Send them to me with a short introduction via the CoBS website contact page and we’ll see what we can do.
In many countries, confinement or lockdown as it’s called, is beginning to be relaxed and as you return to something approaching normality, have a think about all the important lessons the crisis has taught us – some very positive for people and planet that we can keep, some negative and that have to be tweaked, improved, revamped or discarded entirely. Above all, take good care and safe keeping to yourselves and loved ones.
Kind regards,
The 2019 competition

Results: The 2020 Student CSR Article Competition