Today’s university students are living and studying at a time in which awareness of social responsibility is significantly heightened. Memorial University of Newfoundland not only recognizes this — it embraces it.
The multi-campus, multi-disciplinary, public, teaching/research university is in line with the times, and has launched the first master of business administration (MBA) degree of its kind in Canada. The MBA-SEE (master of business administration in social enterprise and entrepreneurship), launched by the Faculty of Business Administration, puts Memorial on the leading edge of an important emerging sector of both the provincial and national economies. The program is designed to enable graduates to navigate the current challenges that have arisen in business, culture and the environment, according to Dr. Isabelle Dostaler, dean, Faculty of Business Administration.
“There is a growing awareness of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship throughout the business world,” says Dr. Dostaler. “With the MBA-SEE program, specifically designed to focus on the three pillars of sustainability — people, planet and profits — we aim to develop graduates who will be agents of change.”
The MBA-SEE program not only blazes a significant trail for future business graduates, but it sets Memorial apart from other educational institutions and solidifies it as a leader in business management education.
Memorial is clearly engaged in the social constructs that make up this new era of doing business. In the past 10 years, undergraduate student teams from business and other faculties at Memorial have been crowned Canadian champions 10 times in annual competitions of Enactus — the international, non-profit organization that promotes student entrepreneurship for social good. And last year, Memorial placed second in the global Enactus competition after taking the top prize in 2016 and again in 2008.
At the graduate level, the MBA-SEE program sets out “to enable students to change the way the world works by training a new kind of leader for a new way of doing business,” Dr. Dostaler says. The 12-month program is focused on developing change agents, committed to sustainable and social business practices in public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
While traditional MBA programs have focused primarily on profit as the ultimate goal of a business venture, the new MBA-SEE program looks beyond this. Although generating profits will always be key to any successful business, social enterprises and social entrepreneurs are committed to achieving social, cultural or environmental missions. With this in mind, leaders of ventures and organizations of the future will seek and create opportunities to achieve these missions through commercial, market-based activities.
This new business focus will be especially important to Newfoundland and Labrador, which is facing significant challenges in the 21st century, according to Nicole Helwig, manager, Memorial’s Centre for Social Enterprise, a partnership between Memorials’ Faculty of Business Administration, School of Social Work and the School of Music that seeks to enhance the quality of the human experience through social enterprise and social innovation.
“We see social enterprise as a pathway to social innovation, aiming to create sustainable social and economic value,” says Helwig. “We believe in the power of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and we are building on our province’s spirit of resilience to prepare our future leaders to tackle the many challenges ahead. Our vision is to catalyze social innovation in Newfoundland and Labrador, helping Canada become a leader in finding innovative ways to address economic, social and environmental challenges.”
Students in the MBA-SEE program will gain specific skills to help them manage social enterprises and ultimately create profitable and social business opportunities. Graduates of the 17-course program will be fully equipped to develop fresh and unique business venture ideas, and will be able to apply their new skillset to existing traditional and social enterprises while effectively and efficiently measuring triple bottom lines for any organization. In short, the program will prepare these students to succeed in today’s business world, which is continually evolving and expanding as our focus on social sustainability develops not only now, but in the future.
To ensure students are fully engaged and have real-world experience in what it takes to succeed in a social enterprise and/or as a social entrepreneur, they will take part in a four-month internship, either in an existing social enterprise or by creating their own social venture. Students will return to campus for a post-internship follow-up, during which they will reflect on and share their experiences with peers and professors.
“In today’s business environment, it’s critical that organizations are sustainable and offer value to the communities in which they operate. In order to do that, we need leaders who are able to think creatively, look for innovative solutions and operate with a social conscience,” says Dr. Dostaler, adding that the new MBA-SEE program aims to do just that.
For more information, visit www.mun.ca/mba-see.
