This course explores the following:
- Principles and practices of creativity
- Individual and group creativity
- Generating and screening ideas
- Translating personal values into career and vocation.
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Beyond Grey Pinstripes
Bainbridge Graduate Institute
All Participating Schools
Bainbridge Graduate Institute
284 Madrona Way NE
Suite 124
Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110
United States
#N/A
Suite 124
Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110
United States
Demographic Information
Total duration of full-time MBA program:
18 months
MBA faculty (Fall 2010):
65
Females as percent of student body:
50%
Private Sector (60%)
Non-profit (30%)
Government (10%)
Description of MBA Program:
The hallmark of the BGI program is the infusion of sustainability principles emphasizing social and environmental responsibility into every single course, including the traditional MBA core. Our goal is to produce graduates who will lead their organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, to a more sustainable future. Toward that end, we emphasize systems thinking, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, management and leadership, sustainability and social justice, as well as the traditional functional business disciplines.
As an institution, we operate as a self-organizing, self-governing learning community, giving students practical experience in working together in new ways. We place a strong emphasis on applied practice, pairing academics with practitioners in all our team-taught classes and requiring students to do multiple "real world" action learning projects.
Our academic faculty are all experts in their functional disciplines with a particular interest in sustainability. They are drawn from schools around the country and take what they learn at BGI back to their home institutions. Practitioner faculty bring experience in leading sustainability efforts in their organizations into the BGI classroom.
Our MBA program is offered in two different formats, both designed for working adults. Our hybrid program, which confers an MBA in Sustainable Systems, meets one four-day weekend per month, supplemented by distance learning, and draws students from across the country. Our evening program, which confers an MBA in Sustainable Business, meets weeknights in Seattle and is designed for students in the Puget Sound region. Hybrid students may complete their program in either two or three years; evening students typically finish in 2 1/4 years, including summer school. Most of the work is done in teams, including virtual teams, thereby developing the skills students will need in the work world of the future.
Finally, our MBA program is just the beginning of our students' long-term connection to the school and the network of sustainability resources to which it is a portal. We maintain close contact with and work with our graduates throughout their careers to bolster their skills as agents for sustainable change.
How does the MBA program 'walk the talk' of social and environmental impact?:
Our orientation program is conducted at Channel Rock, a 140-acre off-the-grid eco-resort, which gives our students a direct experience of living in sustainable community. Monthly residencies are held at IslandWood, a 250-acre LEED gold environmental education center on Bainbridge Island, WA. BGI tracks the carbon footprint of its operations, including student and faculty travel, and offsets them annually.
Course Name: Creativity & Right Livelihood
Instructor: Taj Johns, PhD, Simon Goland, MA, Brian Weller, MS
Instructor: Rasmir Balasubramaniam, MBA
This was one section of our annual Dal LaMagna Series on Responsible Capitalism. During this course students will explore the role of business and markets in addressing poverty at scale through a variety of conceptual frameworks, case studies and exercises. Students will develop/expand their analytical and strategic skills, and will have ample opportunity to apply these skills against the problems of global poverty.
Course Name: Economics I: Neoclassical & Ecological Economics
Instructor: Quentin Dombro, John MacLean
This course explores:
- History of economic systems
- Basic micro- and ecological economics
- Market dynamics
- The effect and management of externalities
- Economic thinking and business decisions
Course Name: Economics II: Capitalism & Political Economy
Instructor: Norm Becker, PhD, Robert Gough Jr., PhD
This course explores:
- Macroeconomics, with a focus on issues at both the firm and societal levels
- Market dynamics and externalities
- GNP and alternative measures of well-being
- Globalization and structural inequality
Course Name: Entrepreneurship & Intrapreneurship I
Instructor: Don Piper, MBA, Jim Castle, MBA, Ted Ladd, MBA
This course deals with:
- Introduction to entrepreneuring and intrapreneuring
- The character, personality and role of the entrepreneur
- Exploration of entrepreneurial opportunities in the shift to sustainability
- Generating and screening ideas and business models
- Business plan development
- Lessons applied to real/mock business ventures
Course Name: Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship II
Instructor: Don Piper, MS, John Castle, ScD, Ted Ladd, MBA, MA
Key startup and growth issues, focused on the first 3-5 years of venture. Creating an organizational climate conducive to entrepreneurship and innovation. Creating a sound operational infrastructure. Continued business plan development. Selection of market entry point. Presentation of students? plans to investors with feedback.
Course Name: Feasibility Analysis
Instructor: Don Piper, MS
This is a prequel to MGT 569-570, Sustainable Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship. Students will learn how to assess the viability of new ventures considering ten different aspects:
1. Problem
2. Customer
3. Solution
4. Business Model
5. Industry
6. Competitive Advantage
7. Team
8. Social Impact
9. Environmental Impact
10. Community Impact
Course Name: Finance, Accounting & the Triple Bottom Line I
Instructor: Kate Lancaster, PhD, Toni Smith, PhD, Brian Setzler, CPA
This course explores the following topics:
- Classical financial and managerial accounting
- Preparing and using financial information in the decision-making process
- Triple bottom line accounting and the inherent challenges of environmental/social accounting
Course Name: Finance, Accounting and the Triple Bottom Line II
Instructor: Kate Lancaster, PhD, Toni Smith, PhD, Brian Setzler, CPA, Don Piper, MBA
This course explores:
- Completion of managerial accounting and introduction to entrepreneurial finance
- Pro forma financial statements, cost-benefit analysis, capital budgeting
- Sustainability and investor expectations
Course Name: Foundations of Sustainable Business
Instructor: Marsha Willard, PhD, Darcy Hitchcock, Expert Practitioner
This course explores:
- The business case for sustainability
- Current conceptual frameworks, sustainability assessments and reporting initiatives
- Sustainability as a driver of strategy, innovation and profit
- Beginning of a year-long action learning project
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Date: 2011
During each intensive, three change agents are invited to share professional/personal stories giving students direct access to leaders with in-the-trenches experience leading sustainable organizations and social impact initiatives. Entrepreneurs-in-Residence successfully built businesses embodying environmental management and social values. Executives-in-Residence from larger firms have integrated sustainability into operations. Activists are thought leaders/social advocates making a difference in communities. CAIRS contributes during classes, meetings, individual and community conversations, and during our Fireside Chat, where they share stories and answer questions. CAIRS invited from The North Face, Nature’s Path, New Belgium Brewing Company, Green for All, VillageReach, Hewlett Packard, REI, Starbucks, Holland America Line, and more. In 2011, we added a Seattle Speaker Series to give our evening students a monthly CAIR experience.
Supporting students to define and achieve their career aspirations is an integral dimension of BGI educational experience. Achieving our mission of "preparing students from diverse backgrounds to contribute to enterprises that are financially successful, socially responsible, and environmentally sustainable" requires more than knowledge, skills, and competencies. It requires that each student find that unique place where his or her talents and passions fit the world’s needs. Our career services, orientation activities, and coursework like Creativity and Right Livelihood and Leadership and Personal Development are designed to support students in exploring and applying for their ideal career position.
Our goal of transforming business practice will be achieved to the extent that our students are employed and contributing to organizations and to building new ventures. To advance placement, in addition to the career services outlined here, BGI combines
- a heavy focus on action learning and applied projects to build student experience base and relationships within industry
- a strong database of job and internship opportunities
- industry concentrations to deepen competence and personal relationships within the industry
- a supportive community to actively support students’ job search
- a growing network of industry and government leaders convinced of the importance of sustainable business.
This is an ad hoc group of students who plan the Friday night Kaizen event in which the community gets together to manage its affairs. Kaizen features many topics and formats, including institutional governance issues, diversity and social justice training, graduation planning and execution, study abroad planning, Open Space discussions, and World Cafe convenings around a single question.
This is one element of BGI's sustainability strategic initiative and intention. BGI is committed to lowering our carbon footprint, achieving carbon neutral status, and establishing required institutional structure and plans for managing this. BGI achieved net zero or restorative climate impact through reduction of non-renewable energy use and purchase of carbon offsets for BGI facilities, off-site offices, events, and transportation. Student teams develop systems, infrastructure, policies, review and reporting processes, and stakeholder engagement required to institutionalize and improve climate neutrality. Students document processes for achieving minimal climate impact, neutrality and restoration, positioning BGI to take a leadership position with other organizations.
Net Impact’s mission is to improve the world by growing and strengthening a network of new leaders who are using the power of business to make a positive net social, environmental, and economic impact. BGI has recently switched from voluntary membership to a 100% participation policy in which membership is included in tuition. BGI students have begun to attend the annual Net Impact conference and are regular entrants in Net Impact business competitions.
The mission of the Diversity and Social Justice Committee is to assist BGI in becoming a more welcoming community to diverse populations and to ensure that the school is meeting its mission and vision of a curriculum that infuses social justice into every course. Our vision is that BGI becomes a leading example of a racially mixed and economically integrated community that joins together to solve the business challenges of our time.
In recent years, we have been produced an annual community-wide workshop on issues of diversity and inclusivity, making the business case for diversity, developing a long-term strategic plan for diversity and social justice at BGI, bringing student projects that have a diversity and social justice focus, and insuring the inclusion of diversity and social justice issues in all courses in the BGI curriculum.
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