A Message From The Dean

SOM Nationally Ranked (twice!) for Work in Principled Leadership

For three years, the SOM has been strengthening its teaching, research, and convening on Principled Leadership and the strategic alignment of profitability and social responsibility. Through our focus on Principled Leadership, we seek to integrate a commitment to ethical decision-making, environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, inclusive organizations, and accountability to multiple stakeholders as critical components of effective leadership and organizational performance.

I am proud to announce that our accomplishments have been recognized in two national rankings in the past month.

Yesterday, our Simmons MBA program was recognized as a leader in integrating social and environmental issues into its MBA program according to the prestigious Aspen Institute's 2007-2008 edition of Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial survey and alternative ranking of business schools. Simmons was ranked 32 on a list of the Global Top 100 Schools. The SOM is ranked next to top business schools such as Stanford, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, and Yale, all of which were in the top 10 on the list.

"In the Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey, success is measured by how well prepared [MBA graduates] are to guide a company through the complex relationship of business and society, where issues relating to the environment or the well-being of a community can impact a company's performance and reputation," said Judith Samuelson, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program. Visit www.BeyondGreyPinstripes.org to learn more about this rigorous ranking and what business schools are doing to explicitly address the role business can play in improving social and environmental conditions. Click here to view the rankings, and here to read in more detail about what these rankings mean for the SOM.

A second external ranking in this area is the annual guide for students published by the national organization Net Impact. Net Impact's mission is to "make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of new leaders who use business to improve the world." Net Impact has more than 150 chapters in graduate business schools, including top business schools such as Harvard, MIT, Dartmouth, and Yale. Simmons SOM has had an active Net Impact chapter for several years.

Annually, Net Impact surveys its chapters to get students' opinions on how well their schools integrate a commitment to corporate social responsibility. In September, the "Business as Unusual: 2007 Net Impact Student Guide to Graduate Business Programs" was released. I am delighted that the SOM MBA program was ranked among the top 10 schools in 15 out of the 20 categories assessed and in the top 5 in 8 of the categories. The full report, profiling all 60 ranked schools, is available at netimpact.org.

I am very proud of these rankings. I am proud of: how innovative our faculty have been in addressing this priority; how much our students have valued our emphasis on principled leadership; and how our small school can compete effectively to offer thought and practice leadership in an area that I believe will define business strategy and performance in the next decade.

These rankings provide great visibility for our school and inspire us to keep developing our work and reputation in this area. Our research shows that women, in particular, care about the issues embodied in principled leadership. As a management school specifically designed for women, we need to remain on the cutting-edge in this field. These recent rankings confirm that indeed we are!