Hi, Happy New Year, and Best Wishes to all the Round 2 applicants out there!
It's hard to believe it's been a year since hitting "submit" on my own application. One of my earlier posts talked about my journey toward Ross, and how I came to spend 2 transformative years in Ann Arbor. So it's been great to meet for Cafe Chats with prospective students in the DC area last week and, earlier today, in Los Angeles, to talk about their interests and goals, and explore how Ross might fit into their plans.
My own interests lie in understanding how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can drive profitability in consumer-focused companies. I remember writing in my career goals essay about an integrated vision of CSR, where responsible marketing and product development generate top line growth at the same time that responsible sourcing, operations and labor relations push down costs.
I was attracted to Ross because I believed the multidisciplinary approach not only would give me a solid base of knowledge across functional areas, but more importantly would help me put structure and process behind my ideas about holistic CSR.
* Two days of lively debate in Strategy 502, about whether a manager's overriding responsibility is to the firm's shareholders (owners), stakeholders (society) or self
* A team paper in MO 503, analyzing the factors of success in Starbucks' partnership with Conservation International to source shade-grown coffee, and how pressure from fair trade but non-organic coffee growers might affect the relationship going forward
* Numerous discussions in Finance 503 about how much using a high discount rate has enabled managers to ignore the long-term environmental and social impacts of present-day economic activity
RLI-Facilitated Conversations
* A presentation on Values-Based Leadership by Proctor & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald
* A lecture on finding balance, with Grupo Salinas' mogul Ricardo Salinas
* An intimate fireside chat with Richard Ward, CEO of Lloyd's of London, followed by a talk on responsible risk-taking, on the job and off
Action-Based Opportunities
* Using Shakespeare's tragedies to role play issues of business practice and ethics in an innovative Bard to Boardroom workshop with the Arts Enterprise Club.
* Managing a team of undergraduates from 6 different universities in a simulated consulting engagement sponsored by the National Retail Federation and American Express, where my team proposed entering the Chinese market with a line of moderately-priced furnishings made with sustainable materials
These are just a few of the ways Fall semester pushed me to explore new approaches in Corporate Social Responsibility, where I was challenged by other perspectives -- from professors, students and industry leaders. In some ways, it throws you off balance, as some deeply-held beliefs about fairness, morality and human nature, for example, are confronted with equally compelling arguments in favor of free will and against market distortion. But it's that intellectual debate that also is helping me to clarify, refine and strengthen my convictions about the role of business in society, and my own responsibility to be an agent of change within that structure.
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