Illustration by Dana Smith

In preparation for the official launch of HBS’s new Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS) in October, the School drew upon the findings of the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer survey to understand how people viewed the institutions shaping their world. “The early results show that trust in most major institutions is declining. People trust the government less, they trust the media less, they trust religion less,” says Debora Spar, the Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean for Business and Global Society. “But overwhelmingly, people trust business more, and they want business to play a bigger role in societal issues.”

Spar leads BiGS’s wide-ranging effort to understand what role business can—and should—play in our rapidly changing world. BiGS’s research will reach across the School, Harvard University, and the worldwide business community, an undertaking that is ambitious, but with some historical precedent at HBS, Spar says. “When the United States was in World War II, the School played a major role in educating many who were leading the war effort. We’re not in a world war now, but it does feel like we’re living through a very fraught time, and HBS can again be part of contributing to a better future.” In this conversation, Spar outlines the vision for BiGS.

Why is the study of business in society so important right now?

The world needs this. We are in what feels like a fairly traumatic time in world history as a result of the pandemic, increasing vectors of inequality, and the looming threat of climate change. And at this moment, business is playing a strangely two-headed role. On the one hand, there are people who blame business and corporations for having created these problems, but at the same time, and often from the same people, we’re hearing demands that business has to play a much greater role in addressing these issues.

BiGS’s task is not to take a stand on a particular topic, but to do what HBS does best, which is conduct research to understand what business is and can be doing, and then get that research out into the community of practitioners.

Over the next few years, the Institute will focus on the role of business in addressing key challenges, beginning with climate change and building a more inclusive economy. How did you select these two issues?

To be sure, the world doesn’t lack for great challenges. But climate change and inclusive prosperity both feel urgent right now, and we have an excellent core of faculty around the Business and Environment Initiative and the Race, Gender, and Equity Initiative who are already engaged in this work. So BiGS will build from strength, amplifying what faculty members are already doing and providing them with greater resources to continue this work. We know that capitalism over the past century has brought billions of people out of poverty, but it’s also created inequalities and contributed to the progression of climate change. And so, the process of thinking about how business can consciously help create a cleaner and more inclusive economy seems like work that should have a natural home at HBS.

How is BiGS already shaping education at the School?

It’s very early, but already we’re seeing some really interesting pieces of the program come together, one of which is bringing in visiting faculty. This fall, we welcomed to campus four BiGS Visiting Fellows whose research on racial equity issues will help grow the community of scholars working on this topic, and another fellow will join us in the spring. Next year, we plan to bring in fellows whose work addresses climate change.

We’re also introducing a new series of cases in the first-year Required Curriculum that focus our students’ attention on the role that business can, and perhaps should, play in addressing societal challenges. Some of this material is already in the MBA Program—and in the Elective Curriculum and Executive Education, too—but we’re going to make it more explicit. This focus, we believe, will then help shape how students approach the rest of their education. Our students want to know what it means to make a difference in the world and how they should start thinking about it early in their careers.

How will the Institute interact with the broader business community?

We want to engage our alumni and other business leaders in these conversations, to learn from them about how they see their roles shifting, how they are dealing with these expectations, and how they’re responding to societal demands that have not been part of their portfolio in the past. We’ve hosted a number of convenings, including an event in October in Detroit that marked the official launch of BiGS. It brought together alumni and other business executives, primarily from the Midwest region, along with leaders from civil society and government, for an in-depth conversation about the challenges and opportunities of this new divided world we’re facing.

What impact can BiGS have on society at large?

We want to help drive the process of rethinking the role that business can and should play. We want to reimagine capitalism, not throw it out. And we want to play an active role in determining what great business leadership looks like in the 21st century.

Post a Comment