Who needs an MBA to become an “administrator”?

While the letter “A” has historically stood for “administration”, at Exeter we’ve redefined the meaning of the MBA, where “A” stands for Action. It is that ability to implement and manage change that makes our MBA students stand out. At Exeter, our One Planet MBA embeds action in all aspects of the programme. By the end of the programme, our MBA graduates go and contribute to running successful, profitable ventures while making an impact in the world we live in.

Profits With a Purpose

Over the years, our MBA has produced successful entrepreneurs capable of running profitable businesses with a purpose. And it is that emphasis on ‘purpose‘ that has given our MBA the credentials it deserves, from international rankings to special awards for innovation by some of the leading observant organisations. Recent events affecting the world economy, such as the financial crisis and its aftermath have reinforced the need to go back to the drawing board by placing “purpose” at the heart of any business. This is an issue our MBA colleague and contributor Dr Morgen Witzel emphasised in his recent blog post.

Embedding Business Action

In our One Planet MBA we don’t deal with issues of business purpose and business ethics as an “add-on”, unlike most other MBAs. And it is that emphasis on business purpose that what enables us to partner with so many leading organisations, from IBM to South West Water, Coca Cola to Syngenta. The values of responsible management and transformative leadership are embedded in all aspects of our MBA experience. Our 2014/15 programme will see even greater emphasis on entrepreneurship, enabling our students to create successful and profitable ventures – with a difference: they will have a purpose.

Empowering our MBA Students

Last year, our One Planet MBA student-developed WaterWell venture was the winning entry to the MBA Sustainability Challenge 2013, sponsored by our partners Coca Cola and SAB Miller. Our annual Sustainability Challenge is an international MBA competition proudly organised and hosted by our very own MBA programme, here at Exeter. Created by our most entrepreneurial students, WaterWell is a radical vision for the world’s first digital governance platform for water stewardship.

Following their success, the WaterWell team have recently returned from Rajasthan, India, a study trip funded by our partner SABMiller in order to assess water stewardship in the local context of a region suffering extreme water stress. They met with a variety of stakeholders from local industry to farmers, and from local government officials to NGOs. The visit underlined the importance of solutions being both contextual and entirely dependent on trust between stakeholders. The lessons learned in India have since informed the conceptual design of WaterWell’s business model, leading to the inclusion of a social franchise model alongside the digital governance platform.

The next step for the WaterWell team lies in conducting a thorough feasibility study, for which they have attracted co-funding from SABMiller, the world’s largest brewer (and user of water!), the World Economic Forum and the University. This will produce a fully costed business plan alongside a detailed functional specification for the digital governance platform in preparation for an investment round to take the concept to market.

Action is embedded in our MBA experience, and 2014 will see another competition organised and hosted by our One Planet MBA at Exeter. Our MBA students are discussing the theme for the 2014 edition of the annual competition with our corporate partners, and in particular L’Oreal and Coca Cola Enterprises.

Stay tuned and follow their progress on this blog.