The term ‘impostor syndrome’ has been tossed around a bit since we started this program a little over five months ago. In a program that is as committed to sustainability and making the world a better place as The Sustainable Innovation MBA, it is natural to wonder if one is ‘green-enough’ or has the right type of professional experience to merit being in such a lauded, innovative program.
Class of ’20 planting trees during orientation.
I am speaking here from personal experience. I came to this program after five years of working in the energy industry – and not the renewable kind, mind you. An internship recommended by my accounting professor senior year of college brought me to the energy industry and, though I knew it was not something I was passionate about, great bosses, lovely coworkers, and personal success in what I was doing got me stuck in a rut I could not figure out how to get out of. Also, though I have always been passionate about sustainability, I was never sure how to contribute in a meaningful way professionally. When I came across the SI-MBA program, I viewed it as an opportunity to point me in a new direction and help me combine my personal and professional goals and passions.
Coming into this program, after reading the bios of my fellow classmates and meeting them during orientation week, I was extremely intimidated by the 29 people I was surrounded by. I was in awe of their numerous, amazing accomplishments and how many of their backgrounds reflected a strong commitment to sustainability. It felt as though they were so much more deserving than I of being in a program that integrates innovation and sustainability into every facet of its curriculum.
But the problem of sustainability is too big to be solved by any one person. The more people joining the conversation, taking action, and looking to solve the problem the better. Impostor syndrome does not serve anyone in the sustainability space. Regardless of what is on your resume, no one is too inadequate or undeserving to contribute to the cause. Every person here matters.
Therefore, while I am indeed in remarkable company, I have come to accept that I do deserve my place here. Making the choice to be part of this truly special program was the first step on the path of many towards using my professional toolkit to ensure a more sustainable future. I bring my own unique perspective to this group, which is something I have come to find so valuable in this program. Each of us 30 individuals have wildly different backgrounds and experiences, which enriches our joint learning experience immensely. In a program like this – one that is preparing us to address the most pressing problems of today in sustainable and innovative ways – it is the bringing together of people with diverse voices, backgrounds, and perspectives that we need most.
Understandably, this word has been vilified as it becomes more and more apparent how its mismanagement may define our generation. It is painfully clear how damaging this resource can be in the natural ecosystem. As such, I won’t spend much time on that discussion. Instead, I would like to offer up a different take – one that embraces the word. These synthetic materials boast a tremendously impressive and valuable quality; they all are plastic in nature because they are easily shaped or molded. From a manufacturing standpoint, they are highly adaptive and can be purposed and repurposed to serve different needs under different conditions. Although some promising programs are beginning to emerge, on the whole, the industry’s management of recapturing the value of their product has not looked for inspiration in the product’s defining adaptable nature, and has instead practiced the status quo for far too long.
As I reflect on the first few months in The Sustainable Innovation MBA program, it is hard for me to shake the word. Initially, I felt like I shouldn’t acknowledge my work history that I shouldn’t talk about plastic production in a sustainability program unless I had to. I quickly realized this was the wrong approach. My work background includes project development, management and sales of plastic packaging. My job was to develop and create products that don’t have adequate or appropriate disposal methods. Many single-use medical device packages inevitably would end up thrown away and/or incinerated. The “Take, Make, Waste” model was, and still is, being practiced. Movement away from this model is on the rise and conversations centered on a circular economy are materializing. When I think of the greatest take away of this program so far, I can’t help but think to the adaptability I have been forced to hone, how essential it is for my own career and how this level of adaptability will need to be utilized for a successful transition within the plastics industry.
These past few months have been truly transformative. Like
many, I decided to pursue an MBA for a variety of reasons. I was looking to
outfit myself with a “toolkit” comprised of a variety of skills that would help
bolster my career while simultaneously setting a foundation for using business
as a vehicle for substantive social change. Ultimately, I was seeking to better
understand financial statements, canvass business strategy and evaluate the
feasibility of my own crazy business ideas. For the purpose of strengthening my
resume and making myself more marketable, I understood these skills to be most
critical. It has become apparent, however that my ability to adapt, to be
reshaped according to new conditions and embrace plasticity in my career
approach and personal development has been my greatest take away of the program
thus far.
My education in adaptation started the first day of orientation. Transitioning back to life as a full-time student after a five-year academic reprieve did not occur overnight. It was difficult and it was exhausting, but innate in the program’s structure were lessons I can reflect on as defining moments which have made me a more adaptable student, employee and citizen.
Prior to starting in the program, I would have incorrectly identified myself as being adaptable. I would have cited some lesson learned on the mini-tour golf circuit about how important it is to approach novel problems (like sitting 40 yards off the fairway with the pin nowhere in sight) with calm, optimism and creativity. The primary distinction between this example and the adaptability required in SI-MBA and moving forward toward a more sustainable future is the notion of playing with others.
Within an intimately sized cohort of 30, we are assigned to module
learning teams. Groups of 3-4 students are hand selected to build diverse
groups in an effort to reflect real world working environments and prove that
highly diverse groups are more likely to solve increasingly complex problems
than their more uniform counterparts. We then tackle assignments in every class
together. This team experience inevitably differs for everyone but illustrated
to me areas where I should improve, be more flexible and help encourage others
development.
Without a thorough understanding and appreciation of this
soft skill, hope for a more sustainable future seems bleak. Across every
industry and profession, a need for highly adaptable individuals will exist and
SI-MBA has uniquely outfitted myself and my fellow cohort members with a
distinct ability to roll up our sleeves and roll with the punches. I am
confident this lesson in adaptability will serve us well as we venture beyond
the classroom and face many of the same problems that drew us to the program a
few short months ago.
Than Moore ’20 (kneeling, third from right) is well-known among The Sustainable Innovation MBA Class of 2020 for his preference for wearing vests — a lot. In honor of his birthday (January 30), the entire cohort clad themselves in, well, vests. Happy Birthday, Than!
Before matriculating to business school, I worked full time as
an emergency medicine physician assistant at the University of Vermont Medical
Center. I, along with my colleagues, was solely focused on maximizing patient
care. My responsibilities included diagnosing and treating patients of all ages
and acuity levels. The clinical world became my home. Putting on scrubs every
day to go into the hospital, I join the hundreds of other employees working
towards a similar mission of delivering the highest level of patient care. The ability
to practice and treat members in my community is a privilege. It is one of the
greatest accomplishments with which I can relate. However, it can also
monopolize your life, and is forever demanding. It becomes nearly impossible to
pause and observe the system in which we operate. The pursuit of my MBA
disrupted the traditional linear trajectory of my medical career and provided
the time and space to refocus the lens in which I viewed the world.
Medicine is a vortex. To become a doctor, one must dedicate
years of commitment to the craft. You must first complete prerequisite
coursework before donating countless years toward schooling, residency, and
fellowship. By demonstrating academic and clinical excellence and passing more
tests than one could imagine, it then becomes time to start your clinical
practice. The journey is arduous, but the reward to grant another breath to a
gasping loved one is worth all the effort. Medicine becomes an addiction. We
are slaves to the system to glean all the knowledge we can to optimize our
performance. It monopolizes our lives with long days, demanding call schedules,
and tragic cases that keep us up at night. However, I was granted the
opportunity to take a sabbatical from my clinical responsibilities and observe
the field from the outside.
I first learned of The Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) program at UVM from a friend who knew of my love of academia and solving problems. Sustainable business became the perfect blend of my undergraduate analytical mathematical degree, my medical background, and my passion for the environment and society as a whole. Embedded in the curriculum are quantitative business skills such as finance, accounting, and economics, but there are also fundamental organizational skills taught through courses on corporate social responsibility, sustainable leadership, and teamwork. The focus of the coursework is to optimize a sustainable enterprise by maximizing the triple bottom line: people, profit and the planet.
The beauty of the SI-MBA program is that one can personalize their education to incorporate individual interests. For example, I am fortunate to tailor my business research and projects towards medicine. Subsequently, I wish to highlight ways in which the triple bottom line educational model has broadened my perspective to incorporate sustainability into fundamental daily operations in both the medical community and greater society.
People:
To begin, people are at the core of all operating systems.
Our world revolves around successful human interactions. The ability to
collaborate with one another stems from leadership and teamwork skills. Group
work is a fundamental component in the SI-MBA curriculum. During each of the
module terms, every student is designated a team. The team is responsible to
execute all projects, presentations, and assignments together. Rarely, do you
see employees working alone, so why should academics reflect that?
Medicine, in particular, revolves around team
collaboration. With the blending of specialties and skills to navigate
different disease processes, we are constantly reliant on our colleagues for
their expertise. If a trauma victim presents requiring extensive resources,
multiple hands are needed to gain IV access, deliver medications, perform
diagnostic studies, and make life altering decisions. One could not operate
alone in such a high stress environment. By maximizing team collaboration,
executing impeccable leadership qualities, and maximizing the potential of all
skilled team members, a team can perform at its highest capability. Medical
schools are paying more attention to these traits by focusing efforts on team
based learning; however, the ability to acquire these skills outside of
medicine through my coursework and integrate them back into the clinic will
become a critical asset in my performance as a provider.
Whether
I was working in field research for a local conservation group or serving as a
legislative representative for a national environmental organization, I loved
my time in the nonprofit sector. No matter where I was, I was surrounded by
mission-driven people, my work gave me a sense of purpose, and I was always
proud to answer the standard icebreaker “so what do you do?”
Nonprofit technician in the field: Taran Catania ’20 flags a Semipalmated Sandpiper as part of ongoing endangered shorebird research for New Jersey Audubon.
But then I left the nonprofit world – and not for the reasons you might think. The assumption when people leave the nonprofit sector to go to business school is that person wants to make more money. Now, don’t get me wrong: there are extremely good reasons the nonprofit sector should stop undervaluing and underinvesting in staff. But the short answer is no, I did not leave for that reason.
The
real reason is: I was tired of fighting for change, but not seeing an obvious
plan for its impact or scalability. I was tired of “doing good” by rules that
limited how much good we could do. I wanted the chance to take risks for
something I believed in.
During
Dr. Erik Monsen’sCrafting the
Entrepreneurial Business Model class, I was introduced to a TED Talk by
activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta called “The way we think about charity is
dead wrong.”
As Pallotta points out, nonprofits are rewarded more for not acting like
businesses (such as severely restricting overhead spending – “For
every dollar donated, 83 cents go to the cause!”) than for what impact they have.
From inherent rules limiting nonprofits’ ability to competitively compensate
staff, market and advertise to generate revenue, or access capital markets to
spur growth, the nonprofit sector is at a disadvantage to the business world in
almost every way.
To
add further limitation, nonprofits are systematically discouraged from taking
risks. Risk, which always carries some chance of failure, is a generally
unacceptable use of charitable dollars. And as Pallotta puts simply: “When you
prohibit failure, you kill innovation.”
In
other words, there is a reason there is no “venture capital” of the nonprofit
world. No one is looking to make large donations to a nonprofit that wants to
take chances, invest in its own growth, and pursue unexplored, better ways to
make and scale change.
So
until we can foster a nonprofit sector that operates under fewer limitations, fighting
for social and environmental change from a business angle may offer greater
opportunities to create positive, scalable impacts. (That is, as long as
businesses commit to doing so meaningfully.)
In
the meantime, I’ll be here reading anything written by Vu Le at Nonprofit
AF,
bicycle commuting in my Allbirds sneakers, and pursuing a Sustainable
Innovation MBA to be a part of this business evolution.
Where should I start? The university? The classmates? The program? The weather? The town? As an international student, the things I have experienced at the University of Vermont Sustainable Innovation MBA have been completely new. A couple of years ago, while working at a machine dealer for the mining and construction industry in Colombia I felt my life needed a change and a new purpose. I needed to have a positive impact in this world in crisis. Therefore, my search for a better future began and an instant match with The Sustainable Innovation MBA core values happened.
After the decision was made, I had to start a lot of paperwork and countless errands to be here: first, preparing for the TOEFL (The Test of English as a Foreign Language), taking it; approving it; preparing for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), taking it, approving it; applying for the University; getting the visa, packing my life into two suitcases; and getting the right state of mind to adapt to this new birth. This last part, the “new birth,” has been surprisingly “not abnormal”. After all, it is easy to get used to new things when you are surrounded by an entire community of kind, accepting and lovable people. For me, a person with high score on the personality trait of introversion, speaking of how nice people are around here is quite a big challenge. But I must recognize that the value that I have found in my cohort and the faculty members is incommensurable.
What can I say about the town and consequently about the weather? Burlington, Vermont is…Burlington, Vermont. A quiet and calm environment for people seeking for a quiet and calm environment. The weather has been quite a subject for me. In my couple (or more) decades of life, I have been living in Barranquilla, a city located in the north coast of Colombia, where a word such as “seasons” does not exist. We only have hot, hot with wind, hot and rain, and “hot like hell” weather. Hence, the introduction to this magical experience of having seasons has been kind of unique. About my first encounter with the snow and the “extreme” cold I have to say we are getting to know each other, and so far, I do not hate them. The key is, as someone said at the beginning of my experience, to wear layers. A couple or millions of layers.
Finally, I must talk about the program and my experience. After my first two modules in the program, I am convinced that it is possible to implement business as a source for good. The goal then, is to use the power of business to make a positive impact on the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. With courses such as World Challenges, marketing, finance, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Leading for Sustainable Innovation, a-not-so-small-bag of tools have been added to my knowledge and development kit.
Currently, the
second half of the experience is waiting for me, but I am completely sure it is
going to be as great and rewarding as the first one. So far, I just have to
thank the wonderful people that have been part of this experience and my
personal journey.
As the only mother in the Class of 2020, I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on a key skill needed to achieve holistic success throughout the program —”Balance.” I came to The Sustainable Innovation MBA program after some 20 years in the work force, where I have worn many hats, from catering to property damage repair and managing a business. But, my most important job is that of Mom. What is it like to be a single mother and dedicate myself to earning my MBA? It’s about Balance.
Sara Farnsworth ’20 (Photo by John Turner)
The program has taught me that balance is about setting healthy boundaries and managing time effectively. A challenge that arose for me was making choices between desiring to be out socializing and networking with classmates vs. spending time with my two boys. While, instinctively, the choice is easy for me — Momduties always come first — I have come to learn that it is also important to build rapport and develop relationships with teammates as a way to cultivate team cohesion.
One of the important skills I’ve practiced in the program is simply being present. When I am at school, I am in MBA work mode; when I am home, I am in Mama mode — and, so forth. After riding the bus into town with my kids and dropping them off at their campus, I make my way to Kalkin Hall. These moments of walking up College Street are full of reflection, peace and planning. These “quiet” moments are scarce so I really cherish the morning light and walking to the Grossman School at UVM. I arrive to school a few hours before class to work while my mind is fresh. I find my time in the morning prior to the start of classes, getting assignments completed and focusing on readings, has been incredibly helpful in achieving balance.
Furthermore, I generally work through the 90-minute lunch break we are allotted each day, and sometimes stay until 5:30 or 6pm, to ensure I am getting my schoolwork done. My goal has been to ensure that when I leave the building for the day and scoop my children from their afterschool activities, I’m ready to be Mom –- fully. I find that through my life experiences, I can contribute meaningfully to others’ learning, while I also am learning from others. Through all of this, I find time to be at home to make dinner with my kids each day, to help them with their homework and reflect on their day. When I am at home, my job is Mom.
When it comes to social activities among the cohort, I pick and choose wisely, generally participating in group potlucks that enable me to bring my kids. My kids have also been learning through this program and have watched me to ensure I am maintaining our life and home, while pursuing my dream of achieving an MBA. My children have met my fellow classmates and have learned and grown through their interactions. This program is positively affecting our lives.
I won’t say that it’s easy to create balance, but it is so important to my mental health and well-being to recognize when things are not in balance and making changes so that I am able to feel at ease with the pace. This program has been wonderful for my two sons and I, and I have the utmost confidence that I have made the right decision in joining this program, and it will positively affect their lives in addition to my own. They see me working hard and dedicating myself to my studies, while enjoying the benefits of the Mom they have always counted on. The balance is what will get me to the day of graduation and will propel me toward all the goals and dreams I have following the completion of this program. I hope that my sharing of my experience of being a part of The Sustainable Innovation MBA program may influence people of all walks of life, from all circumstances, to consider the program, as with diligent balance and a positive “can-do” attitude, one can be successful in the SI-MBA program.
I’m so happy to be a part of the SI-MBA class of 2020, and I look
forward to what is to come, with a full heart and hands ready to change the
world.
As long as
you are making lasting sustainable change, should motives matter?
This past semester, we’ve taken a deep dive into the world of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and thought about the different motives companies may have to invest in CSR practices. Some companies have economic motives.[i] Others want to build relationships with various stakeholders, called relational motives. Finally, some companies have moral motives, wanting to make the world, or their piece of it, run a little better.[ii] Consumers tend to digest CSR information better when there is at least a hint of a moral motive. But is this the right way to truly encourage CSR across the board?
Volkswagen stock prices before and after Dieselgate
Let’s use Volkswagen (VW) as an example. In 2015, news broke that VW had created technology that faked emissions levels in about 580,000 vehicles between 2006 and 2015.[iii] Defeat devices were created to register when a vehicle’s emissions were being tested, and modify performance to achieve a particular emissions level. By March 2019, VW had paid more than $30 billion in fines, penalties, resolutions and settlements towards Dieselgate.[iv] The company agreed to invest in electric vehicle (EV) technology and infrastructure to offset some of the damage caused by their deceptive technology.[v]
VW was able to survive this scandal and continue to thrive as a company, but not without a cost. The company had a turnover in high-level leadership after the scandal. The brand’s reputation was tarnished and stock prices dropped 23%[vi]. Enter Herbert Diess, a new CEO with a plan to completely reinvent Volkswagen as a sustainable leader in the industry. Diess and his team created Together 2025, a vision for how VW would grow between 2015 and 2025.[vii] The main goal of Together 2025 is to transform VW into a leader in the EV market. The company hopes that by 2025, 25% of VWs on the road will be EVs, a lofty goal that will help transform the makeup of the worldwide auto landscape.[viii]
Concept photo for Volkswagen’s new I.D. Buzz, an electric bus
The company has promised to launch a fleet of seven new electric vehicles, including four for VW, two for Audi and one for Seat.[ix] VW is also investing in new EV factory space and charging infrastructure, and the company hopes to establish and implement a carbon neutral supply chain by 2050.[x],[xi]
Critics of
VW argue that the company should not be viewed as a leader in sustainable
innovation because they were forced to implement aspects of this radical
transformation to make up for Dieselgate. Others believe Diess is a
transformational leader with strong moral motives, and is using this colossal
environmental mess up to inspire change and create an automotive industry that
he truly believes in. Consumers may never know the exact motives behind VW’s
together 2025 campaign, although the truth likely lies somewhere between the
suspicion of the cynics and the hope of the optimists. Almost all human behavior and corporate action is
driven by varying degrees of multiple motives.
But should
Volkswagen’s motives matter if the company is able to advance renewable
technology? What matters is that Volkswagen is on the road to becoming a leader
in EV technology, and is investing not only in vehicle design, but factories
and infrastructure that will help support growing demand into the future. It
would be best for the industry if Volkswagen’s transformation is wildly
successful, because it will build momentum to advance critical EV technology at
VW and may inspire other companies to make similar commitments.
Of course, I’d prefer if all companies had
strong moral motives to back their CSR work. But it’s important for us to
recognize that people come from different experiences, and companies have
different priorities. At this stage, the change we’re making matters more than
the reason we started on the path. And if companies can profit from solving a
problem for someone, hopefully it will encourage others to follow in their
lead, and help sustain more change.
Endnotes
[i] Aguilera, Ruth V.,
Rupp, Deborah E., Williams, Cynthia A., Ganapathi, Jyoti. “Putting the S back
in corporate social responsibility: A multilevel theory of social change in
organizations.” Academy of Management
Review. 3 Nov. 2007.
[ii] Aguilera, Ruth V.,
Rupp, Deborah E., Williams, Cynthia A., Ganapathi, Jyoti. “Putting the S back
in corporate social responsibility: A multilevel theory of social change in
organizations.” Academy of Management
Review. 3 Nov. 2007.
[iii] “Exhausted by
scandal: ‘Dieselgate’ continues to haunt Volkswagen.” Knowledge at Wharton. 21 Mar. 2019,
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/volkswagen-diesel-scandal/
[iv] “Exhausted by
scandal: ‘Dieselgate’ continues to haunt Volkswagen.” Knowledge at Wharton. 21 Mar. 2019,
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/volkswagen-diesel-scandal/
[v] Voelcker, John.
“VW Electrify America plan for electric-car charging across the US released.” Green Car Reports. 18, Apr. 2017,https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1109971_vw-electrify-america-plan-for-electric-car-charging-across-u-s-released.
[vi] “Exhausted by
scandal: ‘Dieselgate’ continues to haunt Volkswagen.” Knowledge at Wharton. 21 Mar. 2019,
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/volkswagen-diesel-scandal/
[vii] “2018
Sustainability Report.” The Volkswagen
Group, Mar. 2019,
https://www.volkswagenag.com/presence/nachhaltigkeit/documents/sustainability-report/2018/Nonfinancial_Report_2018_e.pdf
[viii] Keith, Travis.
“Volkswagen stock price plunges after emissions scandal.” Column Five Media. https://www.columnfivemedia.com/volkswagen-stock-price-plunges-after-emissions-scandal
[ix] Rauwald,
Christoph. “Volkswagen’s road to riches or ruin starts in this factory.” Bloomberg, 6 Sept. 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-06/volkswagen-s-road-to-riches-or-ruin-starts-in-this-factory
[xi] Rauwald,
Christoph. “Volkswagen’s road to riches or ruin starts in this factory.” Bloomberg, 6 Sept. 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-06/volkswagen-s-road-to-riches-or-ruin-starts-in-this-factory
Greta Thunberg. The face of climate resilience. Notice how I didn’t say change? Because that’s what Greta is trying to stop. Change means an ending, resilience is the ability to recover. Words are important. Greta recently released a preview for the film Nature Now in coalition with several climate organizations, such as Conservation International, exposing the solution to climate breakdown. The proposed solution from the Queen of climate resilience? Trees.
Her partner in the film, writer and climate activist George Monbiot, further elaborated that trees are “natural climate solutions,” saying, “nature is a tool we can use to repair our broken climate.” This type of language, framing nature as a “tool,” has been an influential concept in my time as a MBA candidate in The Sustainable Innovation MBA program. In our first week of classes, Taylor Ricketts, the Director of the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont, presented on Ecosystem Services.
Through
the business lens, the concept of value is important. The value of ecosystem
services is that they provide benefits to society. There are several ways in
which to classify these services as well as how they can be applied. In framing
ecosystem services as valuable natural capital for business opportunities,
ecosystems and biodiversity is then quantified. This allows ecological
economies to be emphasized.
This ideology, similar to biomimicry — in looking to how mimic natural processes in design and production — was new territory to me just like the University of Vermont this past August. Taking these concepts I learned in class, with the access to the campus experience, I was able to further my curiosity by beginning work under a Gund Faculty Fellow and Doctoral Candidate researching the non-material relationships and benefits from cultural ecosystem services in the face of scientific uncertainty.
I am grateful and excited by the expansion of opportunities learning fosters and the rabbit holes they can lead you to. Greta has exemplified this notion of expansion in spreading the message of climate activism. Nature is a tool, and with the right language applied —such as ecosystem services and ecological economies— its value can be communicated to transform and create sustainable business ventures while supporting the environment.
Dr. Vanden Bergh came to UVM in the fall of 2000 after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Business and Public Policy and an MBA. Prior to academia, he worked in banking in Colorado, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Dr. Vanden Bergh’s areas of research include: firm strategy in the political environment and the effects of political institutions on business investment. For the past several years Dr. Vanden Bergh has been exploring issues in the energy sector including an exploration of how the political environment affects investment in renewable energy. Dr. Vanden Bergh was instrumental in designing the new Sustainable Innovation MBA curriculum. He teaches two courses for the Sustainable Innovation MBA program including a course on Business Sustainability & Public Policy.
What do you enjoy about teaching in The Sustainable Innovation MBA program?
The diversity of backgrounds of the students really contributes to engaging conversations in class.
What surprises you the most about the students?
Each year, I am surprised again by the student’s level of passion for solving super challenging problems. I think this level passion helps students to manage the intensity of the SI-MBA program and to maintain energy throughout the year.
While there’s a great deal to learn in your course, what’s the single biggest idea or concept you hope students take away to use in their business careers?
Think deeply about choices. Important business and/or public policy decisions involve both benefits and costs, and to fully understand these requires careful analysis.
What’s your media diet like lately? What are you reading, listening to, streaming, or watching?
I just finished reading Becoming Nicole by Amy Nutt and am reading two other books, Deep Work by Cal Newport and The Third Pillar by Raghuram Rajan. These days, two of my favorite podcasts are “Stay Tuned” with Preet Bharara and “After Hours” with Youngme Moon, Mihir Desai and Felix Oberholzer-Gee.
What do you do for fun when you’re not in the classroom?
When the snow flies, I ski (nordic and alpine) and snow shoe. Other times of the year, I like hiking, mountain biking and gravel-road biking. For passive viewing entertainment, I love to watch premier league and champions league soccer.
Anything else?
Be humble about your views/opinions and be open to hearing and understanding alternative perspectives. I find my own thinking is not well developed unless I can explain the argument of a person with a different perspective.
