This New MBA Program Focuses On Social Good

70% of Americans believe it’s either “somewhat” or “very important” for companies to make the world a better place. Demand for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has only grown over the years, and business schools are working hard to meet that demand.

At MIP of Politecnico di Milano School of Management in Milan, Dean Federico Frattini has big plans of introducing a “new generation” MBA this September focusing on the social good that companies can bring. In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Frattini offers an inside look into what his New Generation MBA entails and how MIP will be training future business leaders.

A NEED FOR MORE RESPONSIBLE AND PURPOSEFUL BUSINESS LEADERS

Frattini believes there’s a gap between what business schools teach and what they preach. He says B-Schools need to update their framework to truly train more responsible and purposeful business leaders.

“There’s a lot of momentum around rethinking the foundations of private businesses so they can become actors for positive change,” Frattini tells Bloomberg. “We know this is what society needs from future business leaders. But business schools use a framework that hasn’t changed over the past 40 years. We’ve added sustainability, CSR, ESG, and impact courses—but only as elective modules around a program that remains exactly the same.”

At MIP, the New Generation MBA program will feature workshops and modules run by The Mind at Work, a London company that specializes in psychology applied to leadership and management.

“We want to lay the foundation needed for more responsible and purposeful business leaders,” Frattini tells Bloomberg. “Then when the hard skills and core courses start, every week or so there will be a half-day workshop where we’ll take what the students are learning and discuss how these skills can be applied to run organizations with a higher purpose than simply maximizing profits. It’s a continuous conversation that we want with our students, to discuss what they’re learning to generate purpose at the organizational level.”

ENCOURAGING STUDENTS TO SELF-REFLECT

Self-reflection is an integral component of MIP’s New Generation MBA. The program focuses more on critical thinking than on outcomes and numbers alone. Frattini says self-reflection is something both students and faculty should go through.

“I’ve learned that change requires time and effort,” Frattini tells Bloomberg. “As a faculty, we tend to follow patterns and ways of looking at our business that are very path-dependent and hard to change. We’re often bound to our previous conceptions and our previous way of looking at things. When I spoke to the finance professor, it wasn’t easy to explain that we want to challenge most of the points of view that we’ve taught for years.”

Sources: Bloomberg Businessweek, Harvard Business School