Classroom-Ready Module Provides MBA Faculty with Tools to Teach About the Importance of Access in a Globalized World
Washington, DC, June 3, 2009 –Today, the Aspen Institute and FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) announce the release of a ready-made teaching module on the subject of access for the business school classroom. Written by academics and designed to be integrated with existing course curricula, the module from the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education examines how access to new markets, labor, information, communities, and ideas can support the creation and management of sustainable, successful, and ethical global businesses.
“Access is how we plug into the world. Today, businesses rely on the products, goods and transactions that shape our marketplace-all delivered through greater Access,” said Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx Corporation. “This curriculum will help business students understand how Access enables new possibilities and broadens the future in which they will be working.”
This teaching module emphasizes the importance of connectivity for today’s businesses, individuals, and their communities, demonstrating how access impacts reputation, supply chain, labor and pricing. The module asks students to consider how access changes the way businesses operate by looking at five related topics: outsourcing, new markets, the base of the pyramid, ideas and innovation, and business and society.
“Business schools increasingly orient their teaching around a real-world issue, drawing across disciplines for greater understanding. The new integrative concept of ‘access’ brings together a set of ideas around the topic of doing business globally, from logistics to livelihoods,” said Dr. Maureen Scully, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s College of Management and a co-author of the module with Dr. Jennifer Johnson. “It also serves as an important tool to facilitate economic opportunities across groups and locations. This multi-disciplinary and integrative teaching collection, available on CasePlace.org, meets future business leaders right at their learning edge.”
This teaching aid extends on the lessons from the Aspen Institute’s recent publication, A Closer Look at Business Education: Ethical Globalization. Its components can complement coursework in entrepreneurship, strategy, operations, ethics and corporate social responsibility, international management, marketing, and labor studies.
“More than ever before, MBA programs worldwide are being challenged to substantially address the intersection of business and society on their campuses. FedEx understands that the next generation of business executives will be expected to be just as knowledgeable in corporate social responsibility as they are finance. This important partnership has enabled us to create a useful and timely tool to professors who are searching for new, innovative material to insert into their classroom curriculum.” says Rich Leimsider, Director of the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education.
Available in a full-length or abridged version, the module provides faculty with a set of cases, articles, background reading, and other materials for classroom use. It is currently featured on the homepage of www.caseplace.org, an online repository of teaching materials that address social, environmental, and ethical issues, and is free to academic instructors.
FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenues of $38 billion, the company offers integrated business applications through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world’s most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 290,000 team members to remain “absolutely, positively” focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities. For more information, visit news.fedex.com.
The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education encourages future business leaders to innovate at the intersection of corporate profits and social impacts. Our goal is bold and long-term: to radically re-orient the MBA degree to embrace the principles of corporate citizenship and sustainability. For more information, visit www.aspencbe.org.
The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC, Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and has an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
For more information, please contact:
Linda Lehrer Communications Director, Business and Society Program Phone: 212-895-8002 Fax: 212-895-8012
Rich Leimsider Director, Center for Business Education Phone: 212-895-8010 Fax: 212-895-8012
Jim Spiegelman Director of Communications and Public Affairs Vice President, The Aspen Institute Phone: 202-736-3849 Fax: 202-833-1813