The Talent to Make a Difference

Each year, an increasing number of HBS students are coming directly from jobs in the nonprofit or public sector. While the HBS experience helps these students prepare for a variety of future roles, their backgrounds also allow them to enrich their classmates' education. Three such members of the MBA Class of 2006 recently shared their experience with Social Enterprise.

Sarah Sommer

I started to think about business school several years ago while I was working in development at Outdoor Explorations, a nonprofit in Boston that provides adventure outdoor programs for people with disabilities. Two different managers with MBAs came to work for our organization, and I really appreciated what they were able to contribute in terms of creative vision.

At the same time, I was becoming familiar with the strong social enterprise presence at the School, which I experienced through the annual student-run Social Enterprise Conference and the second-year MBA field study program.

I started to think about business school several years ago while I was working in development at Outdoor Explorations, a nonprofit in Boston that provides adventure outdoor programs for people with disabilities.

-Sarah Sommer (HBS '06)

When Outdoor Explorations required assistance with its strategic planning process, we hosted a team of HBS student consultants, who conducted internal economic analysis and external benchmarking to guide our planning. Our team provided extremely valuable and insightful deliverables. Working with this HBS team confirmed for me that I wanted to gain some experience on the other side of the table, learning how to help nonprofits improve their management practices. I chose HBS because I wanted to build my general management skills in the first year and then delve into more courses related to social enterprise and marketing in the second year.

In the near future, I'd be interested in working for a company that makes medical devices; I've been a beneficiary of cochlear implant technology, so that would be an extremely rewarding field. Ultimately, my husband and I would like to create a social enterprise to help countries develop newborn screening programs to identify hearing loss in children as early as possible, when their key language skills are just beginning to develop and they can receive optimal benefit from early intervention initiatives.

Chris Osgood

Urban planning has always been an interest of mine; I went to Haverford College in part because of its Growth and Structure of Cities program. After graduation I worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. One of the great things about the agency is that it offers the opportunity to really see and experience all of New York-as the assistant to the commissioner I went to ribbon cuttings in Queens, community meetings in the Bronx, and historic house events on Staten Island.

City government provides such a wide spectrum of services that it requires leaders with an exceptional command of the issues, an ability to process an immense amount of information, and a comfort with managing thousands of people. Understanding that made me see the value of business school. I also want to understand the private sector better-that's what drives a city's livelihood. And if you're trying to manage a city agency, you need a basic understanding of what makes a city attractive to a business.

HBS has fulfilled all my expectations and changed my way of thinking and approaching problems. Since coming here, I find myself asking very different questions about organizations and issues. While there's so much here that it's impossible to grab everything in two years, I know that HBS will shape me and my way of thinking for years to come.

Fabrice Ndjodo

My father was a diplomat; we moved to Europe from Cameroon, Africa, when I was nine years old. I think that's where my interest in development and finance came from-an early awareness of the social inequalities that exist in the world. After I studied business administration in Paris, I was an investment analyst at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the largest multilateral source of loan and equity financing for private-sector projects in de- veloping countries. I worked on projects all over the world, from Romania to Mexico to Senegal.

After three years at the IFC, I was very pleased with my experience but felt that the impact I could have in a developing country would be greater if I could learn more about how to directly involve the private sector in funding development projects. In the meantime, I had read some papers by Professor Jim Austin that made me aware of the social enterprise effort at the School. That interested me, as did the case method and the access to professors working in the area of emerging markets and Africa.

Since coming to HBS, I've been extremely satisfied with the rigor and intensity of the MBA Program. And the learning doesn't stop in the classroom. I hope to be involved with other Harvard students to promote the global contributions that microentrepreneurs make in creating economic sustainability for their communities. We've just started holding meetings for the HBS students who are interested in becoming involved; I hope to help out with an initiative for one of the sub-Saharan African countries.