Managing for Tomorrow

 “Managing for Tomorrow: Solving the Sustainability Puzzle” is a short-term study program, which is jointly organized by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Gies College of Business, and WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. 

On the basis of insights into current and future challenges affecting businesses around the globe (including climate change, population dynamics, urbanization, inequity, etc.), students learn to analyze their implications on business strategy, management, and other core business functions. Students develop a sense of dealing with trade-offs in global business and learn to understand drivers for change and innovative solutions.

Inspired by lectures, workshops, start-up and business visits in Vienna and Graz, as well as excursions such as to the Raxalpe, international student teams work on their own sustainability projects under the guidance of their course instructors and sustainability authors, Alice Schmidt and Claudia Winkler.

For their project, each student team chooses a company such as the US shoe brand Allbirds, Austrian supermarket Billa or Swiss mining company Glencore, and investigates its strategy and approaches to sustainability, with a focus on the six puzzle pieces (climate action, circular economy, social justice, responsible consumption, sustainable business and technology), as well as proposing strategies to become more sustainable.

The program takes place on site at WU Vienna from May 20-30, 2025 for bachelor-level students from Gies College of Business, from WU Vienna and from selected international partner universities. The program is designed to be highly interactive, and a priority is placed on group discussion and international teamwork.