San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
From switching careers to starting a new business, MBAs open up possibilities
“Now, if we look at our graduates, they’re disrupting industries, they’re solving complex global problems very early in their career.”
“I think with today’s problems, technology and political forces and even social forces have changed what it looks like to create impact in the world,” Moss said. “It’s much more about disruption. I would hope that how they teach will actually give students the skills and confidence to step out of the program and begin making a difference immediately because the opportunity is out there.”
The curriculum of many classes has also changed with the times.
“Stanford has done a great job of not just teaching what used to happen in business schools, those core courses, but also adding on a component of how to become a stronger leader and a component of how to actually build organizations,” Moss said.
One of Stanford’s most popular courses is about leadership development. 95% of students take it.
“It’s really getting hands-on feedback about your individual leadership style, how you’re landing on others, what risks could you be taking. That’s a very different MBA than you would have seen 20 years ago,”
Moss said.
Julian Dickenson, who will earn his Stanford MBA this year, said the Interpersonal Dynamics course students call “Touchy Feely” will benefit him in both work and personal relationships.
“‘Touchy Feely’ gave me an increased vocabulary for seeing the world and relationships,” Dickenson said. “And the confidence to go into a tough conversation and recognize what someone is trying to say.”
Moss’ third lens of criteria is to look at the community as a whole and consider whether it can offer you resources for the future.
“No matter what you care about, are there resources to help you be successful? Whether it’s the alumni who are willing to help you, the faculty or even students,” Moss said. “At the end of the day, the most important reason for someone who wants to get an MBA, at least from where I sit, is they have a passion for creating a positive impact in the world around them, whatever problem that they’re interested in. The MBA is going to give them the learning that they need to do that.”