Monday, November 16, 2009
Merging social and economic concerns at Darden
UVa's business school hopes to help Danville discover its entrepreneurial potential by connecting individual small businesses with larger management and financial know-how.
With America’s local food movement perhaps the obvious example, the not-so-subtle signs of the economy “re-localizing” — like micro-lending and community financing — are backed by some towns worldwide that are today printing their own currencies.
“People are becoming reacquainted with the important themes in Frank Capra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ one of our treasured films,” said Gregory Fairchild, a strategy professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business who was recently named a Faculty Pioneer by the Aspen Institute for his practical research and teaching in socially responsible community finance.
“George Bailey’s notions of finance are replacing those of Gordon Gekko,” said the 45-year-old Fairchild, who graduated from Campbell County’s Brookville High School in 1982.
Fairchild, who also was named the executive director of Darden’s $20 million Tayloe Murphy Center in July, is bringing George Bailey’s philosophy — and the Center’s support — to Danville, where he’d like to adapt lessons learned from inner-city economic survival and prosperity to small-town Virginia.
Fairchild hopes to help Danville discover its entrepreneurial potential by connecting individual small businesses with larger management and financial know-how. He spoke with 80 community leaders in September on almost the same day that the Aspen Institute honored him and fellow Darden professor Mike Lenox for the socially responsible nature of their research.
“My work is to spread the word about business organizations that are engaged in simultaneously building the social and economic structure of communities,” Fairchild said. “So we’ve begun working with [Danville] community leaders on developing a comprehensive approach to entrepreneurship.”
Last year, Fairchild won an $850,000 MacArthur Foundation grant to address community development financial institutions in rural and other economically disadvantaged areas, and one item that he intends to produce is a handbook for emerging CFDIs and attracting investment dollars to small towns.
Similar to Fairchild’s ideas for the Danville test market, Lenox has long studied questions at the intersection of public policy and business strategy, including work into the public and private drivers of the so-called “greentech” revolution.
“One of the things that the international financial crisis illustrates is that you can no longer consider business in a vacuum,” Lenox said. “It doesn’t matter what your political leanings are, even if you think global warming is bunk, from a manager’s perspective you’ve got to be aware of these corporate responsibility issues.”
The Aspen Institute wants this kind of thinking in every business school classroom.
“Now, more than ever before, we are witnessing the substantial influence of business on society,” Aspen Director Rich Leimsider said. “It’s the trailblazing research and teaching of these Faculty Pioneers that will prepare future business leaders to make the most of this influence, by leveraging successful businesses to create positive social impacts.”
“People are becoming reacquainted with the important themes in Frank Capra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ one of our treasured films,” said Gregory Fairchild, a strategy professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business who was recently named a Faculty Pioneer by the Aspen Institute for his practical research and teaching in socially responsible community finance.
“George Bailey’s notions of finance are replacing those of Gordon Gekko,” said the 45-year-old Fairchild, who graduated from Campbell County’s Brookville High School in 1982.
Fairchild, who also was named the executive director of Darden’s $20 million Tayloe Murphy Center in July, is bringing George Bailey’s philosophy — and the Center’s support — to Danville, where he’d like to adapt lessons learned from inner-city economic survival and prosperity to small-town Virginia.
Fairchild hopes to help Danville discover its entrepreneurial potential by connecting individual small businesses with larger management and financial know-how. He spoke with 80 community leaders in September on almost the same day that the Aspen Institute honored him and fellow Darden professor Mike Lenox for the socially responsible nature of their research.
“My work is to spread the word about business organizations that are engaged in simultaneously building the social and economic structure of communities,” Fairchild said. “So we’ve begun working with [Danville] community leaders on developing a comprehensive approach to entrepreneurship.”
Last year, Fairchild won an $850,000 MacArthur Foundation grant to address community development financial institutions in rural and other economically disadvantaged areas, and one item that he intends to produce is a handbook for emerging CFDIs and attracting investment dollars to small towns.
Similar to Fairchild’s ideas for the Danville test market, Lenox has long studied questions at the intersection of public policy and business strategy, including work into the public and private drivers of the so-called “greentech” revolution.
“One of the things that the international financial crisis illustrates is that you can no longer consider business in a vacuum,” Lenox said. “It doesn’t matter what your political leanings are, even if you think global warming is bunk, from a manager’s perspective you’ve got to be aware of these corporate responsibility issues.”
The Aspen Institute wants this kind of thinking in every business school classroom.
“Now, more than ever before, we are witnessing the substantial influence of business on society,” Aspen Director Rich Leimsider said. “It’s the trailblazing research and teaching of these Faculty Pioneers that will prepare future business leaders to make the most of this influence, by leveraging successful businesses to create positive social impacts.”
