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At 42 years old, with 20 years
of business experience ranging from the Fortune 500 to a successful entrepreneurial
solar company and as the recent founder of my own firm, I was not
thinking about an MBA. Then I heard Gifford Pinchot speak at a
conference about sustainable business and the Bainbridge Graduate
Institute (BGI), a school he and his wife, Elizabeth Pinchot, helped found.
They wanted to build a sustainable business curriculum
and teach how to achieve the lasting competitive advantage that
would make companies more successful financially, environmentally and socially.
I was enrolled for an MBA in Sustainable Business
within weeks.
The program fits my values, my lifestyle and my business goals.
Environmental and social responsibility is built into every part of a rigorous
MBA. Students use real-life circumstances as part of class work, which is
not only more relevant, it helps share rich experience and real-life situations.
Students are mostly mid-career professionals from a wide
variety of businesses as well as non-profit and social ventures.
For me, the mix of experience and perspective has been an unexpected benefit,
an element that is fostered by the cooperative learning style of the program.
I’m only half-way through the 21-month program, but the MBA in sustainable
business has already improved my
company and opened new personal opportunities. Although I’m working
harder than I have in a long time, I’m working through my values to
make a positive impact and achieve a goal in which I really believe—in
my business, at school and in my life. |
