A new approach to IB Business Management

The International Baccalaureate has released a new Diploma Programme Business Management syllabus for first exams in 2024. There are four key concepts in the syllabus: creativity, change, sustainability and ethics. One of the three exam papers is solely focused on social enterprise. This revised syllabus, with an increased focus on social enterprise, sustainability and ethics, provided a great opportunity for a textbook to explore the latest thinking about the roles and responsibilities of businesses in society and the natural environment.

Online textbook provider Kognity took up our (teacher-author) challenge to push the syllabus even further with its content. We were keen to ensure that IB Business Management students learn that ALL businesses have a responsibility to meet human needs and solve real problems within planetary boundaries - social enterprises should not be a niche area of business! We searched for leverage points throughout the syllabus to embed Doughnut thinking and the five principles of regenerative and distributive business design wherever we could in the textbook.

The article below explains the approach to getting the Doughnut into the textbook, while working within the syllabus mandates. As far as we know, this is the first secondary school business textbook to include these important ideas, and it is reaching thousands of students worldwide - it would be great to see more authors and textbooks get on board!

A new approach in DP Business Management (Kognity article)