Conclusion

Megan Buchter – AIM2Flourish, Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University – USA

As AIM2Flourish looks towards its 10th anniversary in 2025, we marvel at the number of student-written stories of positive, successful business innovations that have been documented so far. At the time of this writing more than 5,000 stories have been published on the AIM2Flourish website. However, it’s not just the number of published stories that defines our success, but the connections that have been made from AIM2Flourish and the students impacted. The Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) class, created at the University of Guelph in Canada and now expanded to include universities in seven countries is one such example of the growing and flourishing connections made and the positive impact on the students participating.

During the COIL class students are put into cross-university teams and asked to analyze a handful of AIM2Flourish stories in the context of one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. After months of meetings and discussions, their analysis and insights are shared in this very book you are reading. If you’ve gotten this far in the book then you’ve already read many student reflections citing how the COIL experience helped them see how diverse backgrounds influence perspective and how they were able to find common ground with the other participants and learn about the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Additionally, you’ve already read about how participating in COIL gave students the opportunity to engage with real business solutions making progress towards the Global Goals by reading and discussing AIM2Flourish stories and to see the importance of business innovations in local communities.

The purpose of AIM2Flourish has always been to both provide an experiential, educational opportunity for students to learn about positive business, AND to also share and celebrate stories and examples of business and entrepreneurship solving the world’s greatest challenges. The COIL experience completements the AIM2Flourish purpose by both having students experience positive business through interactive discussions with peers from around the globe, AND sharing their perspectives and conclusions about the businesses profiled through this open access publication. It is an honor to participate and collaborate in the COIL experience on our shared mission to change business of the future, by changing how we educate students about business now.