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A Tale of Two Programs Two business schools have revised their curricula to emphasize sustainability and integrate topics across disciplines. 1 A"stakeholder-based approach" underpins a new MBA curriculum at the College of Business at Washington State Uni- versity at Vancouver. The revamped curriculum was spearheaded by faculty from the accounting, mar- keting, and management disciplines who wanted to do a better job of prepar- ing business leaders for a sustainable world. The new curriculum has four tenets: • It places a focus on long-term performance, where profit is often a necessary goal. • It blends business theory and an experiential, hands-on approach. • It recognizes that human, financial, and natu- ral resources are provided by stakeholders, who must 2 be valued and rewarded. • It integrates stakehold- er theory, organizational justice, and ethics into the core curriculum. The faculty team modi- fied existing core courses and added new ones, including value chain man- agement; business ethics; negotiations; and resourc- es, stakeholders, and competitive advantage. The resulting curriculum consists of eleven required courses and eliminates electives and specializations. School faculty and administrators believe that the revamped curriculum not only brings sustainability issues to the forefront, it prepares stu- dents to understand orga- nizations in a more holistic way—both internally and within society. As part of a goal to rethink assumptions in the business curriculum, the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver in Colorado recently over- hauled its curriculum to focus on new technologies, shifting demographics, and the evolving needs of society. The curriculum underscores the idea that corporate social respon- sibility and sustainability should not be treated as separate topics, but woven into core disciplines and framed as integral parts of doing business. To design the new cur- riculum, a task force drawn from all departments of the college developed a set of interdisciplinary courses that would complement and enhance the core. They used the metaphor of a compass whose four points were defined as nature, enterprise, self, and world—four spheres that affect business decisions but often come in conflict with one other. Integral to the new curriculum was the notion of sustainable development, seen as an ongoing process to accom- modate current and future needs. Ultimately the team developed six courses, called the "Compass" cur- riculum, that are required for all MBA students. Content builds progres- sively, and students take the courses in sequence. They're divided into teams for courses that cover leadership, team building, self-awareness, and ethics, and some choose to stay together for the remainder of the Compass classes. As a way to emphasize Dan- iels' integrative approach, two of the Compass courses are team-taught by professors from different disciplines and practitio- ners from a range of fields. In this way, students learn that business itself must be team-based, interdisciplin- ary—and sustainable. today—and the power of the Web offers business schools an easy way to connect with alumni. Our second suggestion revolves around viewing business as a profession, one that includes the notions of service, common knowledge, and common values. Harvard pro- fessors Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria have proposed a written code for business, much like the codes that exist for doctors and lawyers. With these scholars and others— including Ángel Cabrera, dean of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, which already has a code in place for its graduates—we have begun to explore the idea of a "Hippocratic oath" for business. We think the time is right for a moral touchstone, a credo that helps managers sus- tain their commitment to practicing business as if the wider world matters. Much to Do Despite encouraging signs of progress, there is plenty of work ahead for business schools. At Aspen, we will con- tinue to shine a spotlight on pioneering faculty and institu- tions so we can help schools prepare students for a world in which the soft sciences matter. We will continue to encourage fundamental questions: What is the purpose of business? How does it define success and over what time frame? Who is most affected by a decision or an investment, and who needs to be consulted to make sure that decision will stand the test of time? We have arrived at a remarkable moment, a time when opportunity is ripe and potential is boundless. If schools build the tenets of sustainability into their curricula, their efforts will bear fruit in future generations of business leaders who will be worthy of society's high esteem. ■ z Judith Samuelson is the executive director of the Business and Society Program at The Aspen Institute, home of the Center for Business Education, which is headquartered in New York City. BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2009 35