Ten winners of the “2019 Ideas Worth Teaching Award” demonstrate transformative business education, changing how tomorrow’s leaders will think about their decisions and the role they play in society’s future.
Contact: Keith Schumann
Communications Manager
The Aspen Institute Business & Society Program
(212) 895-8039│Keith.Schumann@aspeninstitute.org
New York, NY, December 9 —The Aspen Institute’s Business & Society Program recognizes 10 exceptional courses and the faculty who teach them with the 2019 Ideas Worth Teaching Award. This award honors faculty who are redefining business education – providing learning experiences that equip managers of tomorrow with the context, skills and decision-making capabilities needed to lead in an increasingly complex business environment – and world.
This year’s announcement comes at a time when capitalism is being questioned by wider society and business is coming to terms with its immense agency to impact societal health and well-being. Through everyday decisions, business leaders have the power to collectively re-imagine and construct a future that produces better outcomes for all. That future depends on a new set of frameworks, on a new understanding of the purpose of business.
“Since the 1980s, the prevailing ideas in management education have bolstered a version of capitalism that externalizes costs and discounts the future,” said Judy Samuelson, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program. “The teachers and scholars we celebrate here are challenging conventional thinking and testing new approaches to issues that divide us: deep distrust in institutions, fractured public debates, and crises like climate and economic inequality. Our ten 2019 Ideas Worth Teaching Award-winning courses offer a strong signal about the future of management education.”
What unites these courses? Their breadth and their courage in reimagining the future. Their methodologies run the gamut from reading historical fiction to modeling the impact of a melting glacier in financial terms. And that’s the point: Their breadth adds up to a picture of business school, reinvented.
The 2019 Ideas Worth Teaching Award Winners:
Assessing the Broader Impact of Business
Diane-Laure Arjaliès
Western University; Ivey Business School
Bridging the American Divides: Work Community and Culture (USA LAB)
Barbara Dyer, Chris Kelly, Tom Kochan, Leigh Hafrey
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Sloan School of Management
Business and Global Climate Change
John Byrd
University of Colorado – Denver; Business School
Global Challenges for Business
Sarah Birrell Ivory
University of Edinburgh; Business School
Global Issues in Accounting
Nick McGuigan, Alessandro Ghio
Monash University; Monash Business School
Leadership in the Global Economy
Matthew J. Slaughter
Dartmouth College; Tuck School of Business
Life-Cycle Assessment, Life-Cycle Thinking, and Business Strategy
Joshua Skov
University of Oregon; Lundquist College of Business
Market Manipulations: Crises, Bubbles, Robber Barons, and Corporate Saints
Barry M. Mitnick
University of Pittsburgh; College of Business Administration
Marketing and Society
Kalyani Menon
Wilfrid Laurier University; Lazaridis School of Business
People Analytics and Strategy
Bo Cowgill
Columbia University; Columbia Business School
Additional details about each of these award-winning courses and faculty, including their syllabi, are available online at www.ideasworthteachingawards.org.
The Aspen Institute’s Business & Society Program recognizes the power of business school teaching to influence the culture embedded within capitalism and, as a result, has been honoring innovative faculty since 1999. These 2019 Award winners join an esteemed fellowship of previous winners who are courageously rethinking the path forward for business and society.
Award winners were selected from a highly competitive pool of nominations by Aspen Institute staff in consultation with academic advisors:
- Bruce Buchanan – C.W. Nichols Professor of Business Ethics; New York University Stern School of Business
- Andrew Hoffman – Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise; University of Michigan Ross School of Business
- Maureen Scully – Associate Professor of Management; University of Massachusetts Boston College of Management
- Peter Tufano – Peter Moores Dean and Professor of Finance; University of Oxford Saïd Business School
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The Aspen Institute Business and Society Program (Aspen BSP), founded in 1998, works with business executives and scholars to align business decisions and investments with the long-term health of society—and the planet. Through carefully designed networks, working groups and focused dialogue, the Program identifies and inspires thought leaders and “intrapreneurs” to challenge conventional ideas about capitalism and markets, to test new measures of business success and to connect classroom theory and business practice. The Business and Society Program is most known for the First Movers Fellowship, for dialogue on curbing short-termism in business and capital markets, and for fresh thinking about the Purpose of the corporation. For more information, visit www.aspenbsp.org.
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.