An election to a board is by definition always important, but in my opinion there are at least a couple of reasons for the high importance of the ongoing election to the CBS Board.
On January 1. 2012 CBS welcomes a new president, and several members of the CBS Board will be new or relatively new members. In my view the board should regard this situation, as an opportunity to rethink its role in the organization. During, what might be labeled, the Knutsen regime, the board did not benefit from the resources possessed by the CBS employees. More precisely, for a long period the board did not manage to mobilize the employees’ knowledge, creativity and energy. Instead, a lengthy and increasingly opaque strategy process exhausted the organization. The result of this process was a strategy that made sense to few, and which even fewer engaged with.
It was a strategy that put CBS to a halt, instead of boosting CBS. Partly because it simplified the reality and challenges CBS faces, and reduced strategy to a question of identifying of potential solutions and make the right choices for the organization. If we, as an alternative to this simplistic worldview, acknowledge that CBS is embedded in a continuously changing reality filled with complex challenges, then we will be far more likely to realize that the long term survival of CBS depends on employees who commit themselves to local development of knowledge and ideas, which makes it plausible that CBS can handle the challenges it encounters. With CBS’s recent history in mind, we know that such commitment does not emerge out of nowhere, and that it might go away easily. Hence, it is important we get a board that treasures as well as encourages it.
Another reason for the high importance of the ongoing election to the CBS Board is the continuous growth of the CBS organization. It has in many ways become obvious that CBS’s activities can solely be housed in the existing premises with great difficulty and costs. As an example it is worth mentioning that the Solbjerg Plads building in many ways looks fairly old, even if its inauguration took place only a little more than 10 years ago. For the purpose of documenting the extend of this challenge, occupancy measurements are currently undertaken in the class rooms at Dalgas Have, Kilen, Porcelænshaven and Solbjerg Plads. In addition, a number of detailed suggestions for the construction of new buildings on campus have been developed.
However, it is not obvious that the only solution to the lack of space at CBS is more buildings on campus. Another, and previously used, alternative is to rent space or buildings elsewhere in the city of Frederiksberg. This alternative represents an interesting opportunity, because it can create time for an investigation of and a debate about what an expansion of the premises on campus might look like. Also, such a debate might open up for a discussion focusing on how CBS can organize for the growth facing the organization in the years to come. Such a discussion will become both interesting and productive, if we can mobilize an engaged and qualified participation in it. Whether that happens will to some degree depend on the board’s attitude towards the process.
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