DMSB Keynote Speaker Encourages MBAs, New Startups, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Life is Like a Venture Investment, Biotech Entrepreneur Tells Business Graduates – D’Amore-McKim Blog
The Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business selected biotech entrepreneur Dr. Gerald Chan as the keynote speaker at the DMSB graduation ceremony last month.
Dr. Chan, whose private investment firm Morningside Group funds “life sciences startups that are working to discover new ways to treat disease,” implored the assembled crowd at Matthews Arena to “live a life that makes themselves and their loved ones proud” even if “life can be at times so scary and at other times so exhilarating.”
Dr. Chan shared a personal anecdote about his father’s refusal to accept a job at casino on ethical grounds: “Had he accepted that offer, our family would have become financially richer. But because he acted on his ethical principles against his own economic interest, my family can stand tall today.”
D’Amore-McKim School of Business graduates, during last month’s ceremony / Photo via damore-mckim.northeastern.edu
You can read the full article here for a complete overview of the ceremony.
Winning Paper Shows Network Effects Fuel Business Value and Upend Strategy – Questrom School of Business Blog
BU Questrom School of Business‘ Marshall Van Alstyne recently co-authored new research that finds that “platform businesses” that depend on high numbers of users like Microsoft, Apple, Uber, Google, and Amazon scale much faster by moving value creation from “internal production to external orchestration.”
In “Platform Ecosystems: How Developers Invert the Firm,” Van Alstyne and his co-authors conclude that this approach will reverberate through “every part of a business, from marketing to operations to human resources.”
“Instead of a firm doing all its own marketing, consumers can add value through viral marketing. Instead of AirBnB incurring operating costs of a hotel stay, ecosystem partners bear those costs.”
“Instead of hiring employees inside the firm, platforms rely on freelancers outside the firm. In each of these instances, the value-creating activity shifts from inside to outside the firm. This shift affects all of the traditional business functions. It also has profound implications for fair division of wealth in society.”
You can read the full article here and the complete paper here.
25 MIT Startups To Watch – MIT Sloan Newsroom
On Saturday, September 8, Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship told the crowd at the MIT Kresge Auditorium, “We’re not just going to be doing another dating app.”
“We’re going to be doing things like addressing inclusion in society, making a more informed citizen throughout the world, cybersecurity, mental health, urbanization, improving ed-tech, improving health care. These are significant problems that the brightest people in the world should be working on, and those people are MIT students.”
The ambitions Aulet spoke about were created from the 25 startups built within the MIT delta v accelerator, which you can check out here.
Top Schools Tackle Sexual Harassment, NFL Protests, and More
Should business schools teach ethics and social responsibility? In the past, top MBA programs stuck to a fairly typical curriculum: finance, marketing, accounting, economics. And while those topics still comprise the core of most MBA programs, they’re now only a part of the whole.
Beyond allowing MBA students to focus their studies in areas like entrepreneurship or technology, MBA programs are also taking on some of the most prominent ethical topics of the day, asking students to weigh in on current headlines and happenings. It’s the MBA ethics debate.
According to a United Nations group survey of business school students from around the world, students believe that ethics are a business’s most important responsibility. According to the report, “the exposure to, and teaching of, business ethics does not merely assist business leaders to resolve moral dilemmas. More importantly, it matures their proficiency in moral judgment and their ability to incorporate social issues in the decision-making process and assists them in implementing this in an all-inclusive manner.”
For example, last year a group of business executives—including the CEO of PepsiCo and head of General Motors—got together to dissolve two business councils that consulted with President Trump after insensitive remarks about the white supremacist violence that took place in Charlottesville, VA. And other executives such as the CEO of Patagonia, Yvon Choinard, have been vocal about political and ethical issues—even using their companies to take positions on social responsibility that would typically be considered outside the scope of business.
So, it’s no wonder many business schools have been making business ethics a more important part of their curriculum. The question is, “How should business ethics be added to the MBA curriculum, and how is it being added currently?” It depends on the school.
At Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, Professor Edward Soule teaches courses on business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and leadership. During these classes, he told the New York Times that he has assigned coursework covering a range of trending topics including sexual harassment at Uber, social justice protests by N.F.L. players, and how companies like Amazon have responded when attacked by President Trump.
“Something has changed,” Soule said. “I would be kidding you if I told you there wasn’t a different vibe in the classroom. Ethics and values have taken on more significance. It has to do with all of the things going on in this administration, often things that challenge our understanding of ethics and leadership.”
Students discuss the recent NFL protests in Prof. Ed Soule’s class at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. Photo via Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times.
Georgetown McDonough is also home to the Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics (GISME), a center that examines the ethical issues inherent in the functioning of a market society. Students, faculty, and researchers who participate in the center explore ethical questions as they relate to business and bring ethical considerations to bear on policy decisions regarding the regulation of markets. These are especially salient issues for Georgetown McDonough given its Washington D.C. location.
“At the McDonough School of Business, we have developed a method of teaching business ethics that includes normative experiential learning, communicates in terms readily understood by business students, and involves actual ethical decision-making on the part of the students,” Michael Douma, assistant research professor and director of GISME, said in a news release. “We have found that our approach results in students being more invested in the course and more committed to resolving ethical issues that confront them in a business environment.”
Another example can be found at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. According to John Hooker, a professor of operations research and business ethics and social responsibility, ethics has been a part of the Tepper School curriculum since the 1990s. “Our program was apparently the first to introduce the topic (1966), as part of a course on business law,” Hooker told us. “The ethics presence has gradually increased over the years, but we ethics faculty often have to fight for it. My view is that a required ethics course should be part of the picture.”
And Leanne Meyer, co-director of the Accelerate Leadership Center at the school, told the New York Times, “There’s a turning point in what’s expected from business leaders. Up until now, business leaders were largely responsible for delivering products. Now, shareholders are looking to corporate leaders to make statements on what would traditionally have been social justice or moral issues.”
As for ethics and MBA students, Tepper’s core offering in Ethics and Leadership is one of the only second-year courses it requires its students to take. The course teaches students how to foster their ability to reason and how to handle the ethical implications of managing organizations and people.
“The basic lesson for MBA students is that business ethics is not optional,” explained Hooker. “It is the basis for the social infrastructure that makes business possible, much as engineering is the basis for physical infrastructure. It requires careful analysis and training, no less than engineering or finance. This is why we need a stand-alone ethics course. Business ethics training teaches us to do ethics with our brains rather than rely on gut feelings. Otherwise, we have no way to reach consensus on the ground rules.”
In the end, there are many options for MBA students interested in ethics, though ultimately it up to the students themselves to raise topics that are pressing to them. “Ethics courses often focus on the hot topics. This stimulates discussion and raises course ratings, but it generates more heat than light,” said Hooker. “I focus on issues that students themselves raise. I also emphasize cross-cultural ethics, because business is global, and norms vary enormously around in the world. U.S. students typically have little awareness of this.”
Whether through case studies, guest speakers, simulations, competitions, or another initiative, the leading MBA programs dive into business ethics and corporate responsibility using a range of approaches. To learn more about Professor Hooker’s approach to ethics, you can check out his blog: Ethical Decisions.
This article has been edited and republished from our sister site, Clear Admit
What To Expect at Chicago Ideas Week 2017
From October 16-22, the world’s top thinkers, tastemakers, idea generators, and innovators descend upon Chicago for the seventh annual Chicago Ideas Week. Ideas Week is the largest affordable ideas festival on the planet, bringing a variety of talks, panels and hands-on labs to venues across the Windy City. Continue reading…
MBA Alumni Spotlight: HP CEO Meg Whitman
Meg Whitman has been slaying the business world one corporation at a time. She’s the true definition of a businesswoman who doesn’t play when it comes to her money—and success. She’s currently reigning over Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, but she’s been building her empire for more than 20 years.
And she’s not done.
The CEO of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise set her expectations high from the start. Raised in the wealthy suburbs of Oyster Bay, New York, on Long Island, Whitman has ties to Boston’s elite, reports Business Insider. She eventually left the nest to study at Princeton University. While she initially had interests in medicine, Whitman changed her major to economics, eventually going on to receive her MBA at Harvard Business School.
Her first major gig landed her in Cincinnati in the late ’70s when she joined P&G, a consumer goods corporation. That’s where her feminist leanings truly began to reveal themselves. Whitman learned that the company refused to give female employees company credit cards because it didn’t find it safe for women to travel alone, as Business Insider describes. The lady boss got the company to change that policy. She continues to influence the corporation through its board, on which she sits.
READ MORE: “Top MBA Recruiters: Hewlett-Packard”
From there, it was a wrap. Whitman went on to work for major toy company Hasbro, where she was in charge of the famous Mr. Potato Head, as well as bringing Teletubbies to U.S television. Where Whitman left one of her greatest marks, however, was online retailer eBay. In 10 years, she helped increase the company’s revenue from $4 million to $8 billion, and its employee numbers grew from 30 to 15,000, creating one of the most massive and quick corporate turnarounds in recent memory.
Her hard work there paid off. She moved on to become CEO of Hewlett-Packard in 2011, where she’s transformed the company and even separated it into two entities: Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. That’s where she plans to stay—even amid offers from places like like hyper-valued ride sharing startup Uber. The company was seeking a new CEO, preferably a woman, but she wasn’t interested.
Her time at Hewlett-Packard hasn’t been all sunshine though. She took her role as CEO during turbulent times and was forced to do massive layoffs to salvage the company. The layoffs began in 2012 and continued well into 2015. But making tough decisions is part of what makes Whitman a great leader—at least, in the business world.
Whitman ran for governor of California as a Republican in 2010. Though current politics might show that some people value a leader with a business background Whitman ultimately lost to current Governor Jerry Brown.
Politics may not be her game, but her place in business is abundantly secure. In 2015, she was named 7th overall on Fortune‘s list of highest paid women and 7th on its list of most powerful women. She kept the latter title last year too—and moved up the list when it came to her income. Whitman’s success highlights how far an MBA can take someone, especially women, who aren’t always as welcome in the business world as some of their male colleagues.
Haas Sharing Economy Study Explores How Manufacturers Can Adapt
New working research from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley suggests that the sharing economy might actually be more beneficial to manufacturers than previously thought.
Getting Paid: The Highest MBA Salaries in Philadelphia
Philadelphia: The City of Brotherly Love—or shove, depending on which out-of-town sports jersey you might be wearing out in public.
