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A growing number of MBA students say they want to make social impact, not just money. Photograph: PhotoDisc Photograph: PhotoDisc
A growing number of MBA students say they want to make social impact, not just money. Photograph: PhotoDisc Photograph: PhotoDisc

Postcards from MBAx: capitalism's summer camp

This article is more than 9 years old

MBAx pairs top business school students with social enterprises. Why are a growing number of business school grads interested in social impact?

When you think of successful MBAs, you might imagine men and women in suits, buying, selling, consulting and making decisions that can generate – or lose – millions of dollars in the blink of an eye. It’s not the same image that probably springs to mind when you think of social entrepreneurs working to change the world for the better.
A new internship program, MBAs Across America (MBAx), hopes to bring the two together, matching the best-trained business minds in the country with companies on the cutting edge of sustainable, ethical practices.

Now in its inaugural year, MBAx – an internship program developed by four Harvard Business School graduates, including CEO Casey Gerald – is sending 32 MBAs from six business schools to partner with 48 entrepreneurs in 26 cities. Over the course of the program, each participant will work with six different companies – in six different cities – for one week each.
Instead of pairing single students with individual company, MBAx sends students out in teams. That’s because the single innovator, Gerald claims, is no longer the driving force for change. “Change in this century cannot happen with individuals alone,” he says. “If we want to effect change, we have to work together.” And by working with six different companies in six different cities, MBAx interns are able to explore, develop and test business solutions in a variety of circumstances and locations. “We’re able to share the best ideas that we find in, say, Detroit with folks we meet in Mississippi, and vice versa,” Gerald says.

For the entrepreneurs, it’s a chance to benefit from the business strategies taught in America’s top MBA schools. For the students, it’s the chance to learn about what works – and what doesn’t – in an entrepreneurial laboratory that stretches across the country.

Millennial MBAs focusing on social impact

The idea of bringing MBA students to social enterprises is nothing new. Harvard Business School’s social enterprise initiative is over 20 years old, and several top schools – including Berkeley, Stanford and Columbia – have similar programs.

But the emergence of MBAx – and the growing popularity of similar programs – reflects a change in business students’ priorities, said Matt Segneri, director of the Harvard Business School’s social enterprise initiative. The school’s students, as well as the companies that are hoping to recruit them, are increasingly interested in the social impacts of their business decisions, he said.

“We’ve seen an evolution in the pitches that businesses and consulting firms are making to our students,” he said. “More and more, they’re emphasizing their commitment to social impact. Part of this is that they are discovering the business value of being good corporate citizens, but a big part is that they are responding to students. For students, social impact is becoming increasingly important.”

A new perspective on capitalism

Gerald thinks the cause is generational. “Every institution that my generation took for granted has been compromised,” he said. “As people - and as MBAs - we need to ask how do we solve the big questions troubling our country? There is a question of whether the American dream will survive our generation. And, if so, what do we have to do to help it along?”

That said, Gerald notes that many of MBAx’s students are on traditional business tracks. “The point of this is not to stop people from going to McKinsey or Goldman Sachs,” he said. “It’s to help them take on the responsibility to make a positive impact wherever they are.”

Postcards from the field

Over the next few weeks, Guardian Sustainable Business will feature “postcards” – short blogposts with a photo – from MBAx participants. We’ll look at some of the lessons that the interns are learning and some of the techniques that they’re teaching. Most of all, we’ll consider the lessons that this program has to offer for social ventures across industries – and around the world.

Read the first two postcards:

The values-led business hub is funded by SC Johnson. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here

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