Approximately 150 students, professionals and alumni were in attendance at the first annual Social Enterprise Conference at CBS, held on October 11. Entitled "Beyond the Bottom Line: Creating More Value with Your MBA," the goal of the conference was to illustrate how students could employ various facets of their business degrees to "make a living while making a difference." To this end, the conference featured panels on using finance, marketing, general management, and entrepreneurship skills in social enterprises, nonprofits, and the public sector. Another panel tackled the subject of corporate social responsibility, while the evening cocktail reception featured a presentation by Merck, the conference’s chief sponsor, on the company’s programs to fight HIV/AIDS and river blindness in Africa. The conference also featured the awarding of the Botwinick Prize for Business Ethics, given this year to Russell Carson, '67.
Calling the conference a "trailblazing" event, Goldman, Sachs Foundation president Stephanie Bell-Rose kicked off the day’s proceedings. Her remarks focused on the similarities between for-profit and non-profit enterprises, including the need for revenue streams, effective management, and strong governance. According to Ms. Bell-Rose, this growing recognition has resulted in a blurring of boundaries between the two sectors, which can present business opportunities for enterprising MBAs. As she pointed out, "doing well by doing good" need not provide less economic benefit than "doing well by doing ill."
Following Ms. Bell-Rose’s remarks, four distinguished Columbia alumni shared insights from careers that have bridged those sector boundaries, as part of a plenary panel moderated by Professor Ray Horton. Among their secrets were persistence, openness, and a refusal to admit defeat in the face of the unknown. "When they ask you to do something new in a job, don’t ever say you don’t know how – say yes and then figure it out!" advised Shari Berenbach, CBS '90, executive director of the Calvert Foundation. This kind of willingness to explore uncharted professional territory helped Steven Lydenberg, CC '68, pioneer the entirely new field of socially responsible investing by co-founding KLD Analytics and Domini Social Investments. They also enabled Daniel Sedlis, CC '78, CBS '83, use technical and consulting skills honed in the private sector to improve government efficiency as the Associate Commissioner for MIS in the NYC Administration for Children’s Services. Michele Kahane, CBS '86, underlined the need for more people with cross-sector experience, since government alone cannot address all social needs. "We must harness the power of business to combat poverty," said Ms. Kahane, who joined the Ford Foundation’s Economic Development Unit after a seven-year stint in commercial banking.
Like their fellow speakers on the other conference panels, these four alumni are living proof of the satisfying, challenging careers that MBAs can craft for themselves across the public, for-profit, and nonprofit sectors. In sharing the last of five touchstones that have guided her career development, Ms. Berenbach may have summed up the panel’s message best. "To me," she said, "an MBA is a license to change the world."