Susan Athey interacting with students

Our Approach

We believe that organizations, markets, and democratic institutions are powerful engines of societal progress. They are also imperfect.

Business has a critical role to play — not only to generate opportunity but also to take greater responsibility to mitigate harm to society. This is where Stanford Graduate School of Business can lead the way.

New Initiative for Greater Impact

At Stanford GSB, creativity flourishes and bold ideas are born, whether through pioneering faculty research or the creation of new companies. This initiative builds on our legacy to increase our impact on the transformative issues facing the world.

We will bring together academics, practitioners, and policymakers from many disciplines across Stanford’s campus and beyond to focus on the rapidly-changing issues at the intersection of business, government, and society — starting with technology, free markets, and sustainability.

 

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Breakthrough Ideas

We’ll advance new ideas through cutting-edge research to inform, inspire, and shape decisions that impact our collective future.

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Real-World Solutions

We’ll bring together cross-sector changemakers to place new solutions into the hands of the people who can have the greatest impact.

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Leaders for a Changing World

We’ll enhance our curriculum with insights into these priority issues to help the next generation of leaders think, debate, navigate, and lead in a changing world.

Project Highlights

To kickstart our initiative, we have granted more than 45 competitive proposals to fund new issue-focused research. Many of these projects are cross-disciplinary in nature, drawing expertise from across Stanford.

We are bringing topical areas such as sustainability and AI into our curriculum with new classes and content. We are also supporting faculty and students in understanding and respecting the range of opinions about these matters to promote better management decision-making.

We have begun inviting superstar practitioners and policymakers to campus to collaborate with faculty and students. These experts will augment and enrich the scholarly initiatives in our focus areas, beginning with sustainability.

The Latest

More from Stanford GSB

Brian Lowery, The Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Credit: Elena Zhukova

The Leadership for Society Program provides students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of the most pressing societal issues of today and to grow the cultural intelligence necessary to foster open and productive dialog across wide-ranging world views.