Fordham ROTC at Commencement 2013.

Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) Dean David Gautschi was on-site on Nov. 13 at McMahon Hall for the first info-session for the upcoming US/UK Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, in conjunction with the School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

Gripping a copy of the Financial Times with the headline “Fordham Lends US and UK Military Veterans an Entrepreneurial Hand,” Gautschi, himself a military veteran, said the concept for the certificate program was hatched this past June over dinner with several military veterans, several Fordham alumni, and a representative faction from Britain. He added that the program is already creating a bit of buzz in the UK, where it will no doubt rally support in the form of a wintertime fundraiser before the official launch in spring 2014.

With cohorts attending courses in New York and London, Gautschi explained that though the veterans will be indoctrinated into the contemporary context of business, they’ll also explore critical thinking through the reading of literature and plays.

“The whole program is very motivated by the Jesuit approach,” he said.

After four weeks of the basics, students begin a social immersion project where they work with a disadvantaged population through a non profit or NGO.

Gautschi said that while the social immersion aspect also exemplifies the Jesuit mission, it also holds practical implications for vets adjusting to civilian life, particularly for those who saw combat and witnessed human suffering.

“Coming back to the comfort of the UK or the U.S., vets have got to understand that the kinds of problems [they saw in battle]persist even here in our own society,” he said. “Vets can apply a lot of their experiences, perspectives and even they’re training to a disadvantaged population.”

Finally, students get to what Gautschi called the “enterprise builder” part of the program.

“That’s the guts of it,” he said. “For about five months they work with their ideas to see if they can commercialize them and build a business around it.”

Students will be coached by mentors through the GBA network, and GBA students will be drafted to take part. The vets will also get subject matter experts to help them “bone up areas they need help with.”

Finally they get to stage four, which he called the forum, where vets practice presenting their business ideas to a forum of critics who challenge them. There they learn how to articulate elevator pitches. The last component allows students to pitch to an audience of prospective investors seeking to invest in veteran-related startups.

“The whole concept of the university is that we want to learn from each other,” said Gautschi. “Those veterans who are coming into this exercise are going to teach us as much as we teach them.”

–Tom Stoelker

In its annual ranking of MBA programs, the magazine, which is published in London by the Callender Media Group, ranked the Graduate School of Business Administration in its tier one category for both its MBA and EMBA.

The big change from last year was that Fordham’s Executive MBA program was included in Tier I in the global category, something that Francis Petit, Ed.D. Associate Dean for Executive MBA Programs said reflected especially well on the school.

The MBA program, which had been unranked previously, was included in the North American regional category, putting it in the company of universities such as Columbia, Duke, Harvard and Stanford.

“This is, of course, positive news for our program and it continues the momentum we are building,” he said. “What is nice to see is that last year Fordhams’ EMBA program was ranked tier one within the North America region, and now we have made it to tier one within the global rankings.”

Both Petit and David Gautschi, Ph.D., Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration, were interviewed in a Q&A article for the magazine, “Take a Swing at This: The World’s Jazziest Institution, The Fordham MBA.”

In it, Dean Gautschi emphasized four themes the college has embraced as part of its commitment to its Jesuit heritage:

—Advancing understanding of business in the global economy.

—Advancing the understanding of business in a money center such as New York City.

—Advancing understanding of business in a media center; an element with a technological spin.

—An explicit drive to increase the societal understanding of business.

“These elements align together and all are anchored on the fourth and follow certain practice guidelines that in so doing reveal our Jesuit stripes,” Dean Gautschi said.

He also touted the creation of the Fordham Consortium, a gathering of 45 people from different walks of life, who come together to form discernment and to discuss ‘what is the purpose of business’, regardless of one’s global position.

“This organization is neatly reflected in the vision and construction of the MBA program where we are keen to bring different ideas and people together, not to drive unilateral thought but, to cover a range of different contexts. We need to understand these differences and celebrate them,” he said.

Fordham’s EMBA program is designed for business professionals and managers on the fast track toward challenging managerial and global assignments. The program focuses on building each student’s personal portfolio in management development with tools that can be implemented immediately in the workplace.

Some of the students were first dipping their toes into the sustainability movement, while others were immersing themselves more deeply in an issue they already felt was extremely important. By the end of the study trip, what was clear was that the participants went from almost strangers to a tightly knit group of friends in the short period of 10 days. Each emerged more enlightened on the environmental and social challenges facing the planet and all with a new understanding of the true nature of community.

Community Links International, a non-profit organization run by Jim Petkiewicz and Arturo Ortega Vela, was the host of our trip. Community Links assembled an array of diverse experiences, each individually designed to teach serious issues facing local Mexican communities, and by extension, our own. CLI operates in five countries, and focuses on four main areas of work – environment, community-based education, fair trade, and social justice.

Community Links International co-founder Arturo Ortega Vela entertains students and friends in Oaxaca City
Our lectures and on site visits covered three major aspects of sustainable development – environmental, social, and preservation of environment natural development. Over the 10 days of immersion study, students learned about local sustainable development, indigenous cultures, and Mexican’s love toward Mother Earth.

Patricia de la Palma leads a ceremony acknowledging Mother Earth

We are very touched by on site presenters, especially environmental activist, bamboo architect, anti-human-trafficking activist, and founders of the non-profit Visual Disability School. They believe everyone has the power to change the world, and with hope and love, we can make our communities a better place for our future generations.

Fordham GBA students visiting the Visual Disability School

We also visited two Nastakah families in Cholula, who utilized a simple energy-saving clay stove to cut burning waste and water-conservative technology to renew water for daily use. It was an amazing experience to see what sustainability means for indigenous people – a lifestyle of independence and survival. Our Mexico trip not only gives us lots of humble learning experiences, but also opens our minds to different perspectives of community engagements.

In Oaxaca, the students had a rare opportunity visiting Yeni Navan Michiza Coffee Cooperative headquarters. The co-op, a self-help organization founded in 1985, supports 40 local regions and five indigenous groups. Michiza’s mission is to improve its members’ production in organic agriculture, overall coffee quality and yield, and fair price for coffee producers.

As we learned more about the benefits and shortfalls of fair trade, fair trade may not be so “fair” to coffee growers after all. Fairtrade Labeling Organization International can only ensure Michiza being paid at minimum of $1.25 per pound payment for organic beans, and coffee producers then become the victims of receiving less than 30 cents per pound for their hardship and labors.

Fordham GBA students visiting Nastakah indigenous families

“As people have come to recognize some of the paradoxes and dilemmas affecting (especially small producers or cooperatives), the notion of “direct” trade that cuts out middlemen profit taking has begun to take hold,” said Livesey, associate professor of communication and media management. “There is also a movement in some parts of the world to “buy local” in order to support local economies.”

Since returning, Fordham GBA students have begun working in smaller groups on projects that can bring the trip home and create a lasting impression on the Fordham community. Students are hard at work developing marketing plans for sustainably grown coffee, Mezcal (an indigenous Oaxacan liquor) along with multimedia presentations and articles. In fact, there is even a group of students, doing an independent student in the summer, will work with Michiza coffee cooperative to better market and sell organic fair trade coffee across multiple US industries.

Fordham GBA student Natalia Saldarriga experiencing different types of raw beans

To learn more about MBA Global Sustainability (GS) Designation, please visit http://www.bnet.fordham.edu/academics/mba_program/index.asp.

— Scott Lasky and Michelle Wu, with photos by Abhilash Pillai