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Classroom Links Former Adversaries
“Some of my fellow students don’t exactly have a warm spot in their hearts for activist groups,” wrote executive education participant Mark Powell, vice president for fish conservation at Ocean Conservancy, in his blog at blogfishx.blogspot.com.
Powell’s fellow students in last year’s Business Strategies for Environmental Sustainability executive program included other managers of environmental organizations as well as executives from Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and ConocoPhillips. Over six days in September Powell, and presumably others, gained understanding.
“I heard specific case studies of people building alignment where there was once no alignment, to real advantage,” Powell wrote. “I heard business leaders in the class groping for solutions, just like me. What do ya know?! As they say where I come from: ‘Well, shut my mouth.’ And maybe, once or twice, I did.”
The program was full of surprises for Powell: “I can tell you that supply chains are sexy,” he wrote. It changed his attitude toward business: “It comes as a welcome surprise to me to find out that smart people have been studying and thinking about the dynamics of business/environmental nongovernmental organization relations for some time.” And he found he had something to learn from a business school perspective: “The study of business strategies is just the study of change, and I’m in the business of promoting change.”
Powell’s bottom line: “Kudos to organizer Professor ‘Wild’ Bill Barnett and his team for a truly great learning experience. This very strong program is in its first year and deserves to continue.”