data and support in working with that data, as well as people to help you with case writing and that type of research support is something we’ve created greater endowments for. In addition, we received a $50 million gift that provides research support on the topic of AI and its ethical implications for management, for example.” The case of the case study Fundamentally, the school recognises how research fuels innovation in business. “Thought leadership matters a lot because you need new ideas to advance business practice,” Beardsley surmises. One outlet through which the school’s thought leadership can impact industry practice is its business case studies’ arm Darden Business Publishing (DBP). Established in 2003, use of its faculty-authored content has since spread to more than 130 countries. This is noteworthy because, historically, the protagonists that feature in the case studies used day in and day out at the world’s leading business schools haven’t always represented a fair slice of the modern business world’s realities, let alone taken advantage of the format’s opportunity to normalise the presence of underrepresented groups in management among cohorts of high-potential future leaders. “We have worked on protagonists in the case and have intentionally gone through having them be from different geographies, genders and backgrounds. It’s always a work in process, but diverse protagonists represent the reality on the ground,” Beardsley observes. One recent case from DBP concerns last year’s biggest-selling recording artist and woman of the zeitgeist, Taylor Swift. However, the case’s true protagonist is an analyst named Inez Reynolds who is tasked with advising her company on a point of financial valuation in relation to Swift’s set of master recordings. Authored by an alumna of Darden’s MBA class of 2023, with the support of faculty member Michael Schill, it illustrates the type of setting in which students can be introduced to key business topics. There is, of course, still a long way to go in achieving genuine gender equality in business. At Darden, one initiative designed to boost its pipeline of talented women and achieve a greater classroom gender balance allows candidates to secure a place on the Darden MBA right after completing their undergraduate studies.
“Business has a role to play in whatever it is that you want to highlight as an important societal issue”
Inspired by Beardsley’s participation in a presidential task force on women in business during Barack Obama’s administration, the idea behind the Future Year Scholars Programme is to get undergraduates thinking about pursuing postgraduate business education earlier. Once accepted, scholars then defer their admission to the programme for two to five years while they gain the necessary work experience. “One of the things we learned from the task force is that while you can’t generalise, women are less likely than men to want to wait until they are between, say, 28 and 31 years old to go to business school,” he reveals. Among the 92 Future Year Scholars enrolled last year, women represented 53 per cent, according to the school’s class profile. “Business has to find a way, in general, to promote more women into executive ranks, the senior management ranks and the CEO ranks. As a society, it’s in our own enlightened self-interest to do that,” Beardsley concludes.
20 Business Impact • ISSUE 2 • 2024
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