In an Ideal Business How the Ideas of 10 Female Philosophers Bring Value into the Workplace

Business decisions are not just based on abstract theories or models. They reflect a world view of how a company operates and the philosophy of management that it follows. Even denying any connection between management and values is a philosophical statement in itself.

Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, President of the prestigious IE Business School, looks to the greatest female philosophers from modern history to help us bring purpose and meaning back into the workplace and management education. He shows how their pioneering work can be applied in specific situations, from Iris Murdoch’s emphasis on compassion to Hannah Arendt’s work on making the world more human, each philosopher can, in a very practical way, help inform your own approach to work and life.

Packed with examples, personal stories and anecdotes from some of the world’s most influential companies and women in business, this book examines how the contributions from female philosophers stand up in the real world, helping to drive inclusion, diversity and ultimately, innovation.

1. Why Female Philosophers Matter to Management: Randi Zuckerberg.- 2. Balance: Patricia Churchland / Belinda Holdsworth.- 3. Courage: Ayn Rand / Jiang Qiong Er.- 4. Virtue: Philippa Foot / Angelica Kohlmann.- 5. Love: Iris Murdoch / María Benjumea.- 6. Authenticity: Elisabeth Anscombe / Catherine Moukheibir.- 7. Humanity: Martha Nussbaum / Olga Urbani.- 8. Fortitude: Hannah Arendt / Maria Tereza Fleury.- 9. Passion: Simone Weil / Michelle Raymond.- 10. Ethics: Adela Cortina / Inés Temple.- 11. Vision: Simone de Beauvoir / Usha Prashar.- Epilogue - Resolve: African Challenges / Ifeoma Idigbe.

Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño is the President of IE University and a recognized influencer in global higher education. He is also the Vice-Chairman of Headspring, a company owned by the Financial Times and IE Business School providing custom education programs for companies worldwide. He was distinguished with the Thinkers50 Founder’s Award in 2019.

Iniguez is the former Dean of IE Business School and has played a leading role in business education. He was portrayed by the Financial Times as “one of the most significant figures in promoting European business schools internationally”. He was the first European appointed as “Dean of the Year” by Poets & Quants (2017).

He serves on the boards of EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development), Renmin University Business School (China), Antai Business School (Jiao Tong University, China), LUISS Business School (Italy), Mazars University (France) and FGV-EASP Fundaçao Getulio Vargas (Brazil). He is a pastChair of the Board of AACSB.

He is the author of The Learning Curve: How Business Schools Are Reinventing Education (2011), Cosmopolitan Managers: Executive Education That Works (2016), and In An Ideal Business: How the Ideas of 10 Female Philosophers bring Values into the Workplace (forthcoming 2020), as well as co-editor of Business Despite Borders: Companies in the Age of Populist Anti-Globalization (2018), all published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Iniguez is Professor of Strategic Management. He holds a Degree in Law, a Ph.D. in Moral Philosophy and Jurisprudence (Complutense University, Spain) and an MBA from IE Business School. He was a Recognized Student at the University of Oxford, UK.