Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56535
Over the course of the next decade, we need nothing less than a funda- mental turnaround in our attitudes about business. Many of these are individuals who wouldn't have consid- geared toward action research. In other words, researchers need to become part of the phenomenon they're studying. For instance, with my graduate students Erik Simanis and Duncan Duke and other colleagues, I have written about new protocols of doing business at the base of the pyramid. This BoP Protocol does not involve large multinational cor- porations coming into urban slums or rural areas and simply marketing products they believe the indigenous population needs. Many examples have proved that this approach will fail. Nike's inexpensively priced "World Shoe" and Procter & Gamble's water purification system were created by the corporations without the input of the communities they were intended to serve, and they were not embraced by their intended consumers. Instead, we advocate an approach of "business co-ven- turing," in which corporations work in partnership with the population at the base of the pyramid. By engaging in actual dialogue with this population, and by sharing a commitment to business co-creation, corporations can design products that create value for themselves and their customers. Erik and Duncan are at the dissertation stage, but they've also been field leads for applying the BoP Protocol. They're not only studying co-creation at the base of the pyramid, they're put- ting it into play. For example, with companies like S.C. Johnson, DuPont, and Ascension Health, we have been working to co-create new sustainable businesses in Kenya, India, and American inner cities in communities such as Flint, Michigan. We are also engaged in the launch of a startup company, the Water Initiative, aimed at co-creating distributed potable water solutions in Mexico. If we're going to make rapid headway in sustainability, more business school faculty members need to get out into the world, make things happen, and write about their experi- ences, instead of staying in their offices, spinning data tapes, and looking for significant correlations. One Bright Spot What I find most reassuring and hopeful about business education is the volume of students who come to business schools with sustainability as their primary aim. At Cornell, 40 percent of the applicants say that sustainable enterprise is the main reason or a major reason they applied to the Johnson School. There's been a similar uptick in interest at Michigan's Erb Institute. 28 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2009 ered business school in the past. They would have chosen law or public policy or social work. More and more people see that business can be a positive force, and they are motivated to attend business school for that reason. I don't think busi- ness schools will take the lead in reinventing business, but I think students will. At the same time, there are increasing numbers of compa- nies that are looking for graduates with this mindset. In fact, at Cornell we've gathered data about the job and internship opportunities available to students in the Sustainable Global Enterprise (SGE) immersion program compared to the rest of the MBA students at the Johnson School. Last September, 100 percent of the second-year students in the SGE program had already accepted job offers, com- pared to 93 percent of Johnson's other MBA students. First- year students in the SGE program also finalized internship opportunities more quickly than the rest of the MBA pool. I think it's clear that businesses want—and need—workers who understand sustainability and who can lead corporations into the new economy. What Lies Ahead Over the course of the next decade, we need nothing less than a fundamental turnaround in our attitudes about business. To use architect William McDonough's line, we're sailing rapidly in the wrong direction. We have to figure out very quickly how to tack and change the sail alignment, so we can not just slow the rate of movement in the wrong direction, but actu- ally change course. We're not even close to doing this yet. If the current economic crisis has taught us anything, it's that the age of mercenary capitalism is over. We're entering a new era. It's time to hit the reset button, because we're play- ing an entirely new game. At this point in time, there are two questions I think busi- ness schools should be asking. How do we refocus to think less about financial manipulation and more about strategy? And how do we enable radical leapfrog innovation around inherently clean and sustainable technology that serves the base of the pyramid? Those are our two biggest challeng- es and opportunities if we're going to get to a sustainable world—and if we're going to do it rapidly. There really isn't that much time left. ■ z Stuart L. Hart is professor of management and Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University's Johnson School in Ithaca, New York. He also has an appointment at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.