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Gold is not all that glitters
MBA programs are producing more socially and environmentally aware graduates. Ross Geraghty looks at the expanding number of top business school graduates using their skills in developing countries and helping people out of poverty.
Stories of young business school graduates, perhaps more socially aware than in years past, taking their expertise out into the world’s developing countries, are emerging on an increasingly regular basis. It is helping diffuse the image that graduates are only interested in six-figure banking or typical consultancy MBA salaries.
“Business can do amazing things, at home and in developing countries,” says Tal Dehitar, (MBA DeGroote), co-founder of MBAs Without Borders, an organization that sends MBA graduates to projects in Asia, Latin America and Africa. “We bring MBA graduates from all over the world to work with SMEs and not-for-profit organizations in agriculture, health and regeneration. A lot of this is strongly involved with microfinance and innovative marketing strategies, exactly the kind of skills that an MBA has.”
MBAs Without Borders was set up by two top business school graduates with the aim of channelling top business talent into the regions of the world that most need it, though they recognize that working in international or sustainable development may not be for everyone. As Dehitar says, “We’re not trying to change the minds of those graduates who don’t want to do it, rather to provide opportunities for those that do.” The fact that in three years the organization has gone from sending one, to sending 22 MBAs, suggests that interest in such an experience is booming.
Such skills lend themselves to creating innovative solutions to often extremely complex business problems. There are some inspiring examples. In Columbia, Michael Grifka, (MBA Thunderbird), works with NGO Proyecto Titi (www.proyectotiti.com) creating a sustainable future for an amazing environmental innovation. Proyecto Titi helps locals who traditionally burn areas of rainforest to sell as charcoal to diversify their income and protect the home of the endangered cotton top Tamarin monkey. Locals collect a mountain of plastic bags from Barranquilla’s highways, cut them up and crochet them into vivid ‘mochila’ bags, wallets and purses. It’s an environmental double-whammy that is so effective (they’ve run out of plastic bags!) that the MBA’s help in sourcing, marketing and designing export strategies will be invaluable.
Juan Jose Ospina, currently on the Chicago GSB MBA program, won a QS Community Leadership Scholarship through the QS TopMBA World Tour. He used his business acumen to challenge the way conservative coffee farmers set up their businesses and has encouraged the learning of future markets, and the formulation of trading and hedging strategies to revolutionize the coffee industry in Columbia. Other examples are MBAs who used product placement in the Nigerian film industry (Nollywood) to promote the use of mosquito nets, a strangely stigmatized but essential commodity in an area with high incidence of malaria, and to set up finance strategies for hospitals in Swaziland.
So why would MBAs, who’ve invested a great deal of time and money in their careers, chose to eschew the ever-increasing salaries offered by the services sector, or to undertake the thrill of entrepreneurialism? “The real reason is that, yes, they’ve spent a lot of money on their education, but they realize there’s more to that than the cash,” says Dehitar. “There’s a lot of impact they can have in developing countries. Some won’t do this as a career for their entire lives but would like to do it for a few months. They want to give things back and to get experience that will change their lives.”
He also suggests that the general impression may be wrong. These MBAs have their airfares, vaccines, expenses, a laptop, accommodation – generally not extravagant – and US$1,000 per month on the ground. It’s not a fortune but, Dehitar explains, “There’s a false impression that international development is about stripping off your clothes, getting down and dirty and getting paid peanuts. It’s not that our MBAs are looking at these countries as places of exploitation: the ‘get in there before it starts’ mentality. But there are lots of ways to lift people out of poverty and to get to the heart of developing countries. What the MBAs also get out of it is the experience. There is lots of potential for getting into international development and this helps them with their resumé when applying for those future jobs in developing countries, for which they will not be being paid small amounts. Business can do amazing things. Our MBAs believe in it.”
For further information about MBAs Without Borders, visit www.mbaswithoutborders.org
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