In conversations with the program's advisors and faculty, the question inevitably comes-up "How is this program different from all of the other MBA programs out there?"
The short answer is that we're building a unique program with a focus on design and innovation principles core to every class. In addition, sustainable business is a focus of the program since it represents the future of business, both for-profit and non-profit (more on that later).
As a new program, it's obviously not going to compete with Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, or any other well-known program. To begin with, we don't yet have as established a reputation or alumni network as focused on business. However, with this small, new program we have the opportunity to focus on specific themes, work more closely with students and industry, and experiment boldly. Well-established, traditional MBA programs will always have their focus split among several goals. Last year, Stanford graduated over 350 MBAs, for example. While that's impressive, we're not aiming for quantity.
While other programs may include classes on design, innovation, or sustainability, these are themes that permeate every class and every project in our program. They aren’t options and they're not "added" ad-hoc. Our curriculum has been developed, from the ground up, to blend these processes and principles in both strategic and tactical ways and have them support the same values throughout the program and in every class. We're rethinking every topics and course and encouraging our students to do the same. Yes, even for accounting, operations, and economics.
This is because we see business changing dramatically in the next decade. The signs are already showing throughout all sectors of business and society. The most successful organizations are responding to ever-more-aware customers with ever-increasing expectations of relationships with their products and services and the organizations that provide them. Customers today are aching to be engaged at deeper levels than merely price and performance. They already respond enthusiastically and profitably to emotions, values, and meaning.
Smart organizations are addressing a wider range of stakeholders than merely their shareholders and a few of their biggest customers. As companies realize that they really can't get an edge anymore in layoffs, sell-offs, acquisitions, and the other traditional ways of triggering growth, they're seeing their competitors forge new markets, remake themselves, and capture new customers by truly innovating. Most companies don’t know where to start, figuring it's just another "business function" they can hire. But innovation requires support of a different type. It's done best when the whole company is engaged appropriately and nobody knows how to do this best better than designers.
So, the long answer to the question that started this post is that our aim is to build the best MBA program in the world by building a new program that teaches and practices innovation, design, and sustainability principles throughout. Students won't just learn these principles, they'll live them, along with the faculty. They'll differentiate themselves in the working world from other MBAs in the same way that this program differentiates itself and in the same way that organizations desperately need to differentiate themselves and their offerings.