It’s that time again. Summer vacation is over, the sunscreen and swimsuits have been stashed, and a new school year at business school is under way. But what sort of welcome can the eager new entrants to top MBA programs expect in such interesting economic times?
Throughout the boom years, when a stint at a major business school was more or less a guarantee of a high-paying job in banking or consulting, most new students kicked off the year with an inaugural address from one of the great and good of the business world. These addresses, which tended to focus on “how I did it and how much I made in the process,” were usually delivered by an alum of the school and served both as an inspiration and a confirmation that the tuition fees they had just paid were well worth the money.
This year, however, an altogether different type of person has started to replace the senior bankers and corporate CEOs of the past. Now we’re seeing speakers who are there to deliver a much softer, more socially friendly message to the potential business leaders of the future. New students at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business (McDonough Full-Time MBA Profile), for example, have heard from Michael Dupee of the fair-trade pioneers, Green Mountain Coffee, while their counterparts at Boston University (Boston Full-Time MBA Profile) got the head of marketing from Stonyfield Farm, a company that gives as much as 10 percent of its profits to environmental projects. At one of Europe’s leading schools, HEC Paris (HEC Paris Full-Time MBA Profile), the MBA program went even further by commissioning the environmental campaigner Yann Arthus Bertrand to deliver an address that had less to say about business per se and more about how responsible leadership could allow the class to play their…