For our Inspirational Women Shaping The Future Of Business Education series, we speak to Prof. Dr. Désirée M. van Gorp, Professor of International Business at Nyenrode Business University
- Name: Désirée van Gorp
- Job title: Professor of International Business
- Institution: Nyenrode Business University
Prof. Dr. Désirée M. van Gorp LL.M. is Professor at Nyenrode Business University, and part of Nyenrode’s Faculty Research Center for Entrepreneurship, Governance & Stewardship.
Désirée teaches BSc, MSc, Executive MBA, Full time MBA, Modular MBA and various executive education programmes while advising boards and management in her field of expertise. She has been elected various times as professor of the year.
Currently, Prof. Dr. van Gorp is Chairman of the International Advisory Board; Chairman of the Full time MBA Program Committee; and Deputy member of the Appeal Committee for General Management and PhD programs.
She holds a master’s degree with a specialization in international law from Leiden University. She obtained her PhD in business administration at Nyenrode by defending her dissertation entitled, ‘Offshoring in the service sector: an empirical investigation on the offshoring behaviour of service firms and its influence on their foreign entry mode choice’.
Why do you work in education?
My work in education has been a huge source of inspiration throughout my life.
Years ago, I made a career change, and I landed in education. It felt like coming home. Still, to date, I have that feeling of being where I want to be. The combination of education, research and working with organizations in the public and private sector as well as the daily interaction with my students and alumni allows me to be on a continuous learning curve. I can reinvent myself multiple times in the way and what I am teaching.
These are important elements that fuel my curiosity to learn new things and the joy of sharing them with others. Contributing to making this a better world by educating responsible leaders is the mission of Nyenrode Business University. It makes every day a different one and it is what makes me tick. I don’t take this for granted and am grateful every day to be able to do this.
What’s the most rewarding part of your role?
The most rewarding part of my role is to be on a continuous learning curve, fuelling my curiosity and joy by interacting with people in a meaningful way to make this world a better place.
I learn from my students and participants in our programmes every day. Having been elected professor of the year multiple times is one of the rewards, reflecting the joy of interacting with students and alumni throughout my career.
At the same time, it has been rewarding to combine the different threads of interest in my life. Having a background in human rights, a passion for nature and international business, all come together in my role – for example, in my research and my practice regarding ecosystems. It enables me to support organisations and students in their ecosystem thinking and making difficult partnerships work that aim to have a positive impact in the world.
“The most rewarding part of my role is to be on a continuous learning curve fuelling my curiosity and joy of interacting with people in a meaningful way to make this world a better place.”
This also is the reason that I founded Young & Bold to combine many of my threads of interest. It is a foundation for future leaders who want to impact our community in a positive way. It is for those who care about social impact issues and believe solving them is a priority for making a lasting impact on society.
Please tell us about a challenge you’ve overcome to get to where you are today. What did you learn?
I’ve overcome many challenges, and they shaped me into the person I am today. Some of these usually don’t appear on a CV.
Taking care of my mother when she suffered from dementia has taught me to live even more by the day, to embrace imperfectionism and to give back to the two people, she and my father, who have laid the foundation for who I am today. They have fuelled me with the freedom of thinking that helps me in my academic work; installed norms and values that guide me through life, and the love for nature and the entire ecosystem that drives my teaching and research today.
Doing all this together with my brother strengthened the value of family ties. He is a professor too – there is so much we share.
Having to leave my career in topsport at an early age due to a knee injury has strengthened my ability to reinvent myself and discover new paths from acting on my love for theatre, to learning new languages.
Have you ever had a role model? If yes, who? And how have they impacted your career or outlook?
My role model from a very young age, even before I knew her name, is Jane Goodall. I was very young when I got to know about her work. I don’t even know how this occurred, but she was there and never left my thoughts since then.
Last year she became 90 years old, and I must have learned about her work when she was at the early stage of dedicating her life to conservation and animal welfare issues. At that time, I was sure that I would follow in her footsteps and live with the chimps or at least become a vet.
Neither of those two options happened.
What did happen is that, throughout my teaching career, I integrated my background in human rights in different courses related to international business, international diplomacy and especially building sustainable global value chains.
More recently, I have developed a design thinking leadership program that runs at the Wildlife Forensic Academy in South Africa. The program combines elements of innovation, ecosystem thinking and (personal) leadership by taking conservation as a case. The returns of this program go largely to the training of African conservation rangers who otherwise couldn’t afford it.
Together with my brother and others, I also engaged in developing and teaching a masterclass for bachelor students where they work with business, medical, forensic and law students in an interdisciplinary way on a conservation case.
Lastly, I developed an online game for children which has the primary purpose to connect young people in a playful way with nature. It emphasizes the broader impact of human actions on the environment. This became my way of giving back to society in line with Nyenrode’s mission to educate responsible leaders.
What advice would you give to others to succeed in their careers?
The advice I would want to give to others to succeed in their careers is based on the following three pillars symbolising that life is more than a career:
- Be on a continuous learning curve. This is essential in today’s world that in many ways is in transition from healthcare and mobility to energy transition, conservation and biodiversity. This demands from us to reinvent ourselves more than once in a lifetime and help organisations do the same.
- Embrace the imperfectionism, don’t wait for the perfect picture, the perfect moment, as it may withhold you from doing a lot of things in life that you start to regret later on. Live life the fullest.
- Realise you are part of a wider ecosystem and that your actions have an impact on others. Being aware of that may have a positive impact on yourself and others around you of which you may not know their names and faces. It can influence for example what you buy, what you eat and where and how you enjoy your holidays or what kind of work you are going to so.
Interested in this series? Keep reading…