People, Planet & Profit

People, Planet & Profit...That is the guiding principle at Presidio School Of Management. One of the few business schools offering a complete MBA in sustainable development. I attended one of their open houses recently. An ongoing effort on my part to get my feet wet (or green) and make a career out of tree hugging.

This open house was unlike the usual ones. The audience/probable students were a diverse group. Teachers, IT professionals, city officials, artists, real estate professionals, lawyers, park service rangers, professors etc etc. All of us were treated to a great presentation about the college and best of all a wonderful presentation on Sustainability by Hunter Lovins, one of the authors of Natural Capitalism.

The college is based in San Francisco. They offer a 2 year full time and a 4 year part time program. A majority of the course work can be done online but one has to be attend four day weekend classrooms every month in San Francisco.

I found the course structure and direction interesting and impressive. Like their motto, the program has three dimensions to it. The Human Capital, Financial Capital & Natural Capital.
The emphasis is on guiding and developing students to become entrepreneurs and start up green businesses. The MBA program is designed to lead upto the final course... "Integrative Capstone Venture Plan. To start or build an ethical, sustainable and profitable venture for an existing or new business, NGO or governmental organization"

I would have signed up in a heartbeat, except for one thing...The commute to San Francisco every month. There is no way I can keep my job and commute to SFO. The only way I can really complete the course is if I move there!!!

The open house ended on a good note. Hunter Lovins was kind enough to sign my copy of the book. And finally a teacher in the audience stood up and said, "Now I can finally have my MBA and not be embarrassed about it". There was a loud applause.