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FT Article on MBA and Social Enterprise
Do you have an MBA? Do you want to get one? What do you think business schools need to teach to prepare graduates to build social enterprises? Do they really need new classes, or do students just need guidance on which courses offer the best preparation. This article has some great perspectives from veterans of the sector like Greg Dees and Pamela Hartigan from the Skoll Foundation, and I'm in there, talking about how valuable it is just to spend time with SEs trying to understand their experiences and lessons learned. What's your take on how business schools can prepare professionals to serve as leaders of social enterprises.
Tags: Enterprise, MBA, Social, article
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Meher Jaffri on -
Hey Yasmina, either my eyesight is failing me or I don't see a link to the article. Help!
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Permalink Reply by Yasmina Zaidman on -
Links sometimes don't come through here. Try this: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ec284fae-c704-11de-bb6f-00144feab49a.html
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Permalink Reply by Ndenge Godden Zama on -
yes i would really be interested in getting an MBA in social enterprises. the issue is i am in cameroon and dont know were and how. You have any ideas.
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Permalink Reply by Aisling Quirke on -
Yasmina,
Great article in the FT today - fantastic that SE is getting more and more attention in business and business school circles.
I am an MBA myself and can testify to the growing interest of MBA in joining this space. Many of my classmates at London Business School were interested in doing so. Some already have (but few for reasons given below), and other will in the future, I'm quite sure.
In my opinion, What is still needed though is the following:
1) A paradigm shift in the thinking, marketing and selection of students which reflects a real belief that "success" in not only defined in monetary terms and reflected in a "big job" with a very select number of investment banks or consulting companies upon gradudation. The financial crisis has helped tremendously with this but let's hope this progress is not lost when companies start hiring again.
2) Get students exposed to social entrepreneurship: seeing is really believing - and inspiring. Not just during Social Entrepreneurship classes, but why not integrate social entrepreneurship modules into Corporate Finance, Accounting, Strategy...and have projects in each of these areas which allow students to gain corporate finance experience whilst working with a young entrepreneur launching his business in South Africa. MBAs are curious and love to travel and give their time, so why not take advantage of this.
3) Try to find a way to pay better competitive salaries in the social entrepreneurship field. The reality is that most MBAs graduate with huge loan obligations and taking a job which pays less than a consulting company is not an option for many. Worse still is when you come across fantastic opportunities in the SE space but you're expected to work for free. SE needs to become "competitive". I fundamentally believe that most people, MBAs included, if given the choice of making money only, or making money and doing good, would chose the later. So let's make that a possibility.
Aisling
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Permalink Reply by Yasmina Zaidman on
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Aisling, I think you raise really important points here. We've seen several programs that are great at getting MBAs practical experience while they are still students, like the William Davidson Institute at Ross Business School in Michigan, and a program called Capstone at Columbia. We also have a Fellows program that MBAs are eligible to apply for that offers leadership development and hands-on experience supporting social enterprises in the developing world. Applications are open through November 12th!
There is an interesting challenge in finding a middle ground between your first comment and your last. The sector does need to be competitive, but offers such profound intangible benefits, from psychological/spiritual rewards, to unparalleled challenges and learning, to a peerless community of passionate people, that opportunities in the social enterprise sector are often more competitive than more lucrative jobs that do not offer these benefits. It is my hope that as the social enterprise sector matures, that there will be opportunities in parallel to other entrepreneurial sectors, and that early risk takers will find long-term rewards, both personal, and potentially financial. At the end of the day, the most successful professionals and entrepreneurs do what they do for the love of it, and I see more and more people stepping up to be a part of this exciting field. Thanks so much for your comments!
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Permalink Reply by Jan Schultink on -
A correct analysis, my 2 additional cents:
a) Find ways to accommodate "bridge jobs": land your regular position, but start 1 year later, delayed repayment of student loan etc. Some big companies in the west probably even appreciate if you managed to spend one year on the ground in an emerging market such as India.
b) Equity upside in for-profit entrepreneurial ventures instead of bigger salaries
c) Give people big roles for their age: managing huge budgets, managing a lot of people, so when you come back you can stand out from the "average MBA" crowd in terms of the practical leadership experience or investment track record you accumulated
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Permalink Reply by Jan Schultink on
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@Kevin,
Yes, I do agree that an MBA program is harder to get into for some people than others. Some of the participants are members of "old boys clubs", but I can assure you, some are not.
That's the question about equality in education, I am not touching that one.
The other question is what type of people will advance the cause of social entrepreneurship in the realities of today's society. That one talented individual, who got in to an MBA (maybe through hard work, maybe through an old boys network), who gets the best possible education (far beyond reading and basic math), who decides not to pursue the standard "old boys" career but give all her/his talents to a good cause (at least for a while). If we can just find a few of those, the impact they can have on the world is enormous.
I would start at the end of the funnel, trying to recruit people coming out of the best educational institutions for the cause of social entrepreneurship, rather than trying to begin at the start of the funnel and 1) change the educational system, and 2) start thinking about social entrepreneurship. We might never get to number 2).
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Permalink Reply by Yasmina Zaidman on
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I love the lively debate here. What I think is most exciting about social entrepreneurs is that we don't tell them what they should do - what to sell, how to sell it, even if they should sell it directly to customers or seek other creative revenue models. We invest in the best ideas we find that serve the needs of the poor in water, health, energy, agriculture and housing. To make it even tougher, we limit our investing to India, Pakistan and East Africa, but we know this approach can work anywhere in the world. We listen to entrepreneurs, who, if they're smart, listen to their customers.
Entrepreneurs in their best version (without corruption and monopolies) are subservient to their customers, and what we know is that given better choices, better prices and adequate information, low-income customers can make great decisions about which products and services make sense for them. An MBA is just a set of skills, and it can be used in ways that have a positive or negative social impact. I'd love to see more MBA programs encouraging students to take greater risks, and to find ways to use their skills to build institutions with a lasting positive impact, whatever that means to them. Fortunately, it's not for us to decide.
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Permalink Reply by Peter Zipp on -
Yasmina, you have posed some important questions. Of course not all MBA courses are utterly materialistic, and not all MBA graduates are Investment Bankers. There are some glimmers of hope in some Business Schools, nevertheless they still have a long way to go.
For an example of a credible and well established alternative form of entrepreneurial education (with a high proportion of social enterprise), have a look at: http://www.kaospilot.dk/
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Permalink Reply by Ravi Gupta on
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Here is a similar article that might be of interest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/education/03iht-riedentre.html?_r=1
Ravi
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Permalink Reply by Yasmina Zaidman on
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This is indeed a great article that highlights the way that social entrepreneurs and MBAs can work together in ways that brings insights and skills to both. Also recognizes the great work of Greg Dees and the Skoll Foundation.
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Permalink Reply by Stefano Barazzetta on -
Hi Yasmina,
I read the article over the weekend and I was wondering more or less the same..
I don't have an MBA, I have been thinking about taking it but for the moment (or forever... I am 34...) I decided not to apply for it, so actually I don't have any real contribution to offer to the discussion, if not form a very general perspective.
Apart from all the usual issues (cost, time, value for money, etc...), I was wondering if that kind of preparation is really that needed if we are talking about social entrepreneurship.
I basically share what is said somewhere in the article: you can't really teach entrepreneurship, but you can provide all the tools that are needed to support the entrepreneurs. (well this is real for any kind of entrepreneurs, not only for social entrepreneurs).
Anyway, to understand, support and effectively help entrepreneurs is not that easy, even if you have the right tools ((I am basically working for a private equity, so I know the subject).
It's probably a mix of competencies, what you (we) really need.
I'd be glad to know more from your first hand experience at Acumen, as well as from other users' experiences.
Ciao,
Stefano
p.s. for some reason, before posting I wasn't able to see the previous comments. very interesting debate.
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