Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program

As a highly visible part of the Aspen Institute—a global forum and cultural institution gathering leaders in reflection and dialogue to create enlightened policy and practices—the Business and Society Program seeks to develop business leaders for a sustainable global society. Since 1999, through its seminars, research, awards, and publications, the Program has sought to disseminate information, promote change, and develop leaders and networks in business and society.

The Program's Web sites provide sources of innovative curriculum, notably through http://www.caseplace.org and http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org. http://CasePlace.org is a free, online service for business school faculty, students, and businesses. It provides some of the best cases, references, and commentary published by and for business educators and business executives. Materials incorporate social impact management (the field of inquiry examining interdependency between business needs and societal concerns), corporate social responsibility, and business ethics.

Beyond Grey Pinstripes is a joint project between the Business and Society Program and The World Resources Institute (WRI), which in 1998 created Grey Pinstripes with Green Ties, a report that examined the inclusion of environmental management topics in 37 MBA programs. In 1999, WRI partnered with the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program to balance the report by examining MBA programs for the teaching of social impact management. Today, Beyond Grey Pinstripes has grown in influence and has been used by tens of thousands of students, academics, and major corporations. The current Web site contains detailed information on 130+ global MBA programs. It is the only global survey that evaluates MBA programs for their efforts to prepare graduates on social and environmental stewardship in business. This biennial publication accounts for the majority of articles and press releases about the Business and Society Program. The most recent edition was published in 2005 and notes that an increasing number of schools surveyed (54%, up from 34% in 2003) require one or more courses in ethics, sustainability, business and society, or corporate social responsibility.

In addition to rating leading MBA programs, Beyond Grey Pinstripes also identifies “Faculty Pioneers.” These are exceptional scholars and excellent teachers (one includes Encyclopedia editor Sandra Waddock) who are leading the way in incorporating social and environmental issues into their teaching and research both on and off campus. Faculty are nominated by their peers and selected from a pool of finalists by a panel of corporate judges.

As one of 15 policy programs supported by the Aspen Institute, the Business and Society Program periodically explores topics of current interest and importance, in service to the larger Institute's mission of lifting people out of their usual selves. Some critics of the Aspen Institute consider it more of a social club for the cultural and corporate elite. This charge comes from the Institute's heritage, as a “hobby” of wealthy Chicago businessman Walter Paepcke (1896–1960), who was influenced by the University of Chicago's Great Books program and the humanism inspired by [Page 118]the work of Professor Mortimer J. Adler. Paepcke was a believer in the necessity of business leaders to have time out from commerce to contemplate values and experience the broadening power of the arts. The Aspen Institute is currently managed by Walter Isaacson, noted author and former CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine, who exemplifies the Institute's continuing interest in harmonizing business and ethics. A mixture of political and corporate leaders continues to manage the Institute, including Madeleine Albright, Jack Valenti, Henry Kissinger, Micheal Eisner, and Brent Scowcroft. With values training seminars, 1-week in duration, costing almost $10,000, the Institute reaches top-tier business and political leaders but must contend with charges of elitism. By working with university faculty and graduate students, the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program seeks to provide practical services to balance the more esoteric gatherings at its Aspen and Wye River, Maryland, campuses.

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