During Impact Week (April 9–13, 2018), whose theme is Purpose + Profit, UCLA Anderson is highlighting stories of mission-driven careers, companies and projects that fulfill unmet needs in sectors from entertainment to real estate. On April 16, Anderson presents the annual Energy Innovation Conference, which focuses on companies striving for energy resiliency through new technologies, robust policy and inventive business models.
By Elizabeth Heredia (’19)
Bright-eyed and optimistic, college degree in hand, I was called by “the toughest job I’d ever love”: an environmental conservation assignment with the Peace Corps in a rural village in the mountains of Panama.
When I first arrived in Ojo de Agua, my job was to do nothing but pasear, which is to “walk around unhurried, stopping and chatting with townspeople.” I would often strike up a conversation right on neighbors’ porches, or perhaps at a grocery kiosk or even in the middle of the street. Niceties were exchanged, and town gossip, too.
In time, my community began to trust me and our conversations evolved. They began to share their stories and opinions. The porch visits were my favorite. As we swung back and forth on hammocks, I listened and absorbed, asked question after question, and slowly began to understand locals’ values as well as their aspirations.
Over my two years in Ojo de Agua, I taught environmental education to grade schoolers and helped the town implement a suitable waste management and recycling system. I trained community members to build masonry eco-stoves that burn less wood and emit less smoke than traditional cooking fires. Yet, pasear-ing was easily the most important activity I engaged in.
Visits and chats with my community fostered understanding, and taught me that such understanding — which necessitates humility and an open mind — is the key to shaping and driving the process of change. I later moved on to a job in the corporate world and, as an associate in BMW of North America’s leadership development program, rotated through different functions, including sales and marketing and customer experience. I found that keeping an open mind could drive change in that environment the same way it did in an unpretentious little village in Panama.
So, why all the reminiscing?
I recently attended Impact@Anderson’s Impact Spotlight on Poverty and Income Inequality. Anuradha and Dhimant Parekh, founders of The Better India, engaged in a public conversation with Max Schorr, co-founder and chairman of Los Angeles-based social impact consultancy and media platform GOOD. Founded in 2014, The Better India showcases heroes and change-makers, ideas and innovations, highlighting the people and forces that are quietly inspiring communities in India. The platform leverages technology and social media to tell uniquely positive human stories, allowing people around the world to see, hear, learn and participate.
During my Peace Corps service, I experienced someone else’s world; I experienced the world differently and I am the better for it. Organizations like The Better India offer a virtual pasear, enabling us to arrive at that essential understanding while inspiring us in the process.
Perhaps more profoundly, the founders, both MBAs themselves, reminded me that with the power of a business education comes the responsibility to shape and lead initiatives to bring about necessary change. MBA students tend to be preoccupied with ideas of strategy and effective business operations, investments and finance. It is easy to lose sight of the obligation of business leaders to consider the purpose and impact of their efforts. Anuradha and Dhimant have embraced the opportunity, effectively employing business principles to deliver meaningful results that go beyond a P&L statement.
This is why I am looking forward to Anderson’s 2018 Impact Week. We will approach business with a holistic lens, hearing success stories as well as learning about ongoing possibilities for social and environmental impact in everything from retail to technology, real estate to finance.
If we, like Anuradha, Dhimant and Max, operate with the mentality that “good always wins,” then everyone wins.
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