How Yale SOM’s Mission Plays Out In The Real World

The Yale School of Management consistently ranks as one of the top b-schools in the US.

But what exactly makes the program stand out?

One differentiator may be in how its mission plays beyond graduation.

In a recent blog post, Yale SOM alumni shared how the school’s mission has made a difference in their lives.

MISSION-DRIVEN

Yale SOM’s mission is to educate leaders for business and society. And while that mission is broad, it has certainly had an impact on many alumni’s lives post-grad.

“My career has gone from private to public to another public to private to nonprofit and so on,” Maud Daudon, an ‘83 SOM alum, says. “I’ve seen first-hand that the sectors have preconceptions about one another and that bridging between them is a vital part of coming to solutions to our toughest challenges.”

For Daudon, who is the executive leader of Career Connect for the State of Washington, the relationship between public, private, and nonprofit is something she balances in her daily job.

“There are different languages used in different sectors that can be confusing to the others, and yet they so desperately need one another,” Daudon says. “Businesses are struggling in our state to find talent. Educators want students to have experiences with business. But finding each other and building those partnerships is really challenging. People who can do that translational work can forge really interesting solutions.”

ROLE OF BUSINESS

For other SOM alumni, the b-school’s mission comes to life when businesses focus not only on their bottom-line but also on improving society.

Arthur Mizne, a ‘95 SOM alum, says the b-school’s mission carries an emphasis on giving back to society.

“I work with investments,” Mizne, CEO of M Square Investimentos, says, “Now it’s very much in vogue to talk about impact investing or responsible investing. That is something I’ve always thought you cannot separate. Every investment you make has to be good for returns, good for our clients in the long term, and that cannot happen if it is bad for society.”

Scott Davidson, a class of 1993 SOM alum, says businesses need to consider both their bottom-line and societal impact – something he says Yale SOM’s mission embodies.

“The role of business, in my view, is to make the lives of everyone it touches better: its employees, its customers, and its shareholders,” Davidson, CEO and Manager, SSD, LLC, says. “Of course, it doesn’t work if the business isn’t successful, but it is key to focus on improving the lives and touchpoints of everyone involved in the business, as opposed to simply focusing on bottom-line results.”

Check out the full blog post here.

Sources: Yale SOM, Yale SOM, Poets & Quants