presented in collaboration with
Tony Wagner on needs and profit
The greatest innovations of the 21st century will be those that have helped to address human needs more than those that had created the most profit. (6)
Haniel Program on Entrepreneurship and the Humanities
Building on the record and cumulative experiences of this co-operation, the Haniel Foundation is aiming to focus and re-align the strengths of its engagement in higher education. The European Haniel…
Reich on Philosophy
[This introductory Philosophy course] was part of a broader Harvard intellectual training that provided my most important training for subsequent careers in risk arbitrage investment on Wall Street and in…
Butterfield on Backgrounds
The message [i]s that entrepreneurism is a good avenue for exercising the kinds of things you learn with a humanities degree… I think if you have a good background in…
Fiorina on Valuable Courses
The most valuable class I took at Stanford was not Econ 51. It was a graduate seminar called, believe it or not, “Christian, Islamic and Jewish Political Philosophies of the…
Eisner on English Majors
I think maybe the best education, or the best foundation for business is probably reading Shakespeare, rather than reading some MBA program out of some great business school. I think…
Intellectual entrepreneurship
Intellectual entrepreneurship seeks to reclaim for the contemporary world the oldest strain in our common intellectual tradition: the need for thought and reflection in the midst of the world of action. As the experiment of the original Greek…
Art and Design Critical to Science
The move to include art and design in the push to advance science, engineering, and math is not just a “feel-good” move. It’s critical to the future economy and families’ standard of living. Researchers are finding that although…
Can the Liberal Arts and Entrepreneurship Work Together?
Entrepreneurship is a tangible, practical manifestation of a liberal arts sensibility; it has economic ramifications that extend the ability of the entrepreneur to engage with social discourse—to develop and express…
language strategy
Studies show that companies that had a language strategy were able to increase their business by 25%. And at the other end of the scale, those who didn’t pay any…
The Heart of the Matter
Business leaders today are looking for a diversity of skills, and not just technical knowledge. Pivotal right now in financial services—a relationship business—is trust built around empathy, understanding, listening skills,…
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Literature and the Arts
On December 2, a ballerina, a surgeon, a music professor, a robotics scientist and an entrepreneur sat down together at Stanford to discuss what they had in common. In What Can Scientists Learn from Ballet?, a panel discussion…
Humanity in the Marketplace
Adam Smith was not an economist (the field did not exist in the 1700s), he was a moral philosopher. From 1752 to 1764 he held the Chair in Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. One of Smith’s…
Do Small Businesses Need to be Multilingual?
“Research from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages concludes that “globalization is driving the demand for a U.S. workforce that possesses knowledge of other countries and cultures…
“Activating” Science, Technology or Engineering through the Humanities
A marketing executive turned venture capitalist, prolific author and frequent public speaker, Geoffrey Moore has fully leveraged the communication and analytical skills he learned as a humanities student. Moore’s academic…
America is Raising a Generation of Kids Who Can’t Think or Write Clearly
A 2010 study from Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa found that students majoring in liberal arts fields see “significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over…
Book: Humanism in Business
What is the purpose of our economic system? What would a more life-serving economy look like? There are many books about business and society, yet very few of them question…
Thinking Through the Humanities
When my Humanities students tell me they are business majors, I advocate for adding The Humanities as a minor. Why would that be of any use to them, you may ask. Are these two disciplines not totally unrelated?…
Economic Truths
A global citizen will work to create value for all parties involved in a business transaction, rather than seeking to exploit one party for short-term gain. For example, he or…
The Leaders of Silicon Valley
It’s commonly believed that engineers dominate Silicon Valley and that there is a correlation between the capacity for innovation and an education in mathematics and the sciences. Both assumptions are…
To Make You Feel the Love
Calling all Confused Students!
The Art World the Millennial Way
Food for Thought: What Does “Service” and “Leadership” Mean to You?
Pursuing a New Perspective in Medicine