Finding a Purpose in Business School

Why develop an expertise in the areas of sustainability, impact and social innovation today, when attending business school? Because it may very well be the best way to reconcile the need to find a job with the wish to find a purpose – a wish that so many participants at HEC Paris and in other business schools express increasingly. I meet a lot of them in the Sustainability and Social Innovation Master’s in the HEC Paris pre-experience program and in the HEC Paris MBA specialization track in Sustainable and Disruptive Innovation Track. But there are more people out there asking the very same question. On February 13, I was honored to give the opening remarks for the Impact Career Day at HEC Paris. In these remarks, I tried to outline how to square a seemingly complex circle for so many people of the new generation.

Opening Remarks, Impact Career Day, February 13, 2020

It’s my pleasure and honor to welcome to the second Impact Career Day at HEC Paris – an event that was designed over a year ago by participants of the Sustainability and Social Innovation Master’s program at HEC Paris. I’m Jeremy Ghez, the Scientific Director of that very program at HEC Paris. I also coordinate the Sustainable and Disruptive Innovation track in the MBA program.

This is an important day in the story of your year, of your experience at HEC Paris. It is not rare anymore for me to interact with a lot of you, only to find out about how frustrated you are about how the world is going, about the limited opportunities available to you to have an impact. Today is a day dedicated to those opportunities, designed to help you address this critical question: how do we do business in a hotter, increasingly crowded and ever-moving world? This is not just a survival question, but a question about striving for success, striving for impact and having a transformational role, be it locally or globally.

How do we do business in a hotter, increasingly crowded and ever-moving world? This is not just a survival question, but a question about striving for success, striving for impact and having a transformational role, be it locally or globally.

Because here’s the thing: I don’t doubt anyone in this room will ever have difficulties finding a job. That is not what is at stake here. The real difficulty you may experience may be about finding a purpose, having an impact in what you do. And my hunch is that an ever-growing proportion of you are looking for exactly that.

And here’s another thing: my intuition is that this generation may have a little more leeway in making the rules up than its predecessor – more leeway in fact than what it believes, not only as consumers, but also as talents. In fact, one unique reason: this generation is a human resource that businesses need more than ever, and therefore a resource that businesses must listen to, must appreciate. So – believe it or not – you may have far more influence than you think in this whole process.

So now is the time to listen to what businesses and actors (whom I all salute and thank for being here today) have to say about these topics; but it is also the time to question them, to challenge them, and to look for the opportunities that you see as the best fit for you and for what you’re looking to achieve. In fact, this event has brought together a wide range of businesses from a wide range of sectors, who show different levels of achievement when it comes to sustainability standards. But each of them is part of the solution when it comes to social and ecological transition, each has a role to play in this transition, whether we’re talking about the big bank, the non-governmental organization or the impact start-up.

This event has brought together a wide range of businesses from a wide range of sectors, who show different levels of achievement when it comes to sustainability standards. But each of them is part of the solution when it comes to social and ecological transition, each has a role to play in this transition, whether we’re talking about the big bank, the non-governmental organization or the impact start-up.

So I certainly hope you will listen, exchange, question and challenge today. And I hope you will be able to start thinking about your own roadmap, your own path to change and to impact, perhaps by transforming those companies from within. And in any case, throughout the day and beyond, please do remember all the training opportunities you also have to get geared up to have more impact in your professional life. More and more core courses and including these issues. There are multiple electives offered in the pre-experience program and in the MBA.

The Society and Organization Center (S&O Center) that promotes sustainability also offers plenty of opportunities for those enrolled in a program at HEC Paris to explore these topics through learning, through acting and through research. For instance, the Purposeful Leadership seminar designed by the S&O Center offers the opportunity to newly enrolled students of the pre-experience program to think about purpose and impact in a business environment that does not lead them to do so naturally.

And remember, of course, the SASI program and the MBA specialization, the places where you can get the tools you need to seize these opportunities. We’re here to give you options, to enable you to have more impact and to empower you ultimately. Don’t forget that. This is not only important for the future of the planet, it’s also important for you, for your sense of purpose and for your role in the broader scheme of things.

I would like to thank them very much for accepting to come and to have these interactions with our participants. I would also like to thank the organizers, students and the company-relationship department here at HEC Paris for doing this. We’re all part of the puzzle. It’s time we find out how we make this all work. I really hope you enjoy your day!

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