This year’s class of January-term (“J-term”) students was recently introduced to Columbia Business School through the week of fun we all know as “orientation.” Among the festivities, ice-breakers and happy hours, the School also managed to convey the importance of corporate ethics and values-based leadership, and the important role these play in a Columbia MBA education. Through the Individual, Business and Society (IBS) curriculum, most every class in the core will dedicate at least one lecture to the importance of responsible business and the role values play in leaders’ and managers’ ability to make decisions that ensure a corporation maintains high ethical standards. This year’s J-term orientation was likewise no stranger to discussions on these sticky but crucial issues. There was a panel discussion on the importance of IBS, and case discussions conducted by Professors Michael Feiner and Geoff Heal. Professor Geoffrey Heal The IBS segment of the orientation agenda was kicked off by Dean Hubbard himself, who introduced the initiative addressing the “conflicts between a firm’s best interests and those of society.” The Dean went on to enumerate the specific issues that the IBS was created to promote, namely how companies can look for opportunities to benefit from responsible business, the role corporate governance plays in such business, and the meaning of values-based leadership at Columbia. With regard to the latter, Hubbard described the Sanford C. Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics, and its student board members and faculty advisors who are charged with promoting “principled leadership throughout the Columbia Business School community.” Following Dean Hubbard’s remarks was a panel of faculty and administrative staff. Senior Vice Dean Paul Glasserman, Director of the Bernstein Center, spoke about values-based leadership in the curriculum, “which isn’t meant to teach students the ‘right answers’ that will serve in any situation of questionable ethics, but rather to teach students to think through and talk about these difficult situations themselves, and to develop a set of internal values and strategies to act on those values when they are challenged.” But are business people to know when their actions are potentially on the slippery slope to becoming ‘questionable’? Dean Glasserman suggests using the “Wall Street Journal Test” as a proxy – if you can’t imagine a description of your actions being presented on the front page of a major newspaper in a positive light, think harder about the decisions you’re making. Professor Ray Horton, Director of the Social Enterprise Program, spoke on Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR – a topic that recently evolved beyond the idea of mere corporate philanthropy and empty marketing campaigns. These days, noted Professor Horton, “the simple idea that business shouldn’t do harm to the environment or society is appearing as a new strategic imperative to business managers: CSR pays!” Horton went on to encourage students to think strategically about the possibilities responsible business actions present to managers, noting a recent survey by McKinsey & Co. that lists such possibilities as a topic very much on the minds of today’s most influential business people. Learning how to merge the idea that society respects and rewards companies that conduct their business in responsible ways, with Milton Friedman’s famous maxim that “the business of business is business”, is the new paradigm of business management, says Horton. Also during the panel, Michael Keehner, Adjunct Professor of Finance and instructor of the perennially-popular class “Entrepreneurial Finance,” presented a summary of the role corporate governance plays in ensuring a corporation’s integrity remains intact as it goes about conducting the affairs of its business. Sandra Navalli, Associate Director of the Bernstein Center, encouraged students to be proactive in taking charge of developing their personal values while in the safe space of Columbia. Later in the week, Professor Michael Feiner led a discussion on a case where an employee has to find a way to act on his values when faced with an ethical dilemma. Also, Professor Geoff Heal conducted a case workshop on the Equator Principles and project finance, which provided a forum for students to express their views on an actual example of responsible business in action, complete with a rebuttal from the then-Citigroup manager who helped to implement the idea within his firm and in the industry. In all, the many hours of attention paid to corporate ethics and values-based leadership this J-term orientation was substantial, highlighting the focus the School has to preparing MBA students for the most difficult issues they are likely to face in their professional futures. As Professor Horton said, “good business is about doing more than just following the law. Company stakeholders expect more and more out of companies, and more and more out of their leaders.” As Columbia MBA graduates move on from the school and become those leaders, sessions like these will present them a wealth of good advice to draw on.