Convenings and Events

POWERFUL IDEAS FOR A BETTER WORLD

Business+Impact regularly hosts and sponsors innovative guest speakers and conferences at the Ross School of Business. Top impact leaders regularly come to campus for events that cut across boundaries and advance innovative, practical solutions to society’s toughest social challenges. It’s all part of our mission to promote powerful ideas for a better world.

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IMPACT ARTICLES IN MAJOR MEDIA BY MICHIGAN ROSS FACULTY LAST YEAR

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MEMBER OF COMMUNITY OF SOCIAL INNOVATION

TOP10

RRBM LEADERSHIP

RECOGNIZED ROSS AS A PIONEERING SCHOOL

Payday Lending Design Jam

In partnership with the School of Information and the Mass Mutual Foundation, Business+Impact brought a Design Jam — an action-packed high-energy brainstorming event — to Michigan Ross and allowed students from across campus to consider alternatives to payday lending. Ideas pulled from the best that banks, credit unions, and lending circles can offer, and resulted in a complete report on lending alternatives for the benefit of stakeholders.

The Choice II

In 2019, Business+Impact and U-M’s Center for the Study of Complex Systems brought together scholars from across disciplinary boundaries at Michigan, MIT, and Stanford. They pondered big questions about how society should best select the institutions/ methodologies to make choices that help shape society’s ability to flourish. These include markets, organizations, democracy, community, and algorithms. “The Choice II” subjects included society’s intellectual, financial, social, and ecological resources to determine new laws and policies.

Igniting Impact

In early March 2020, B+I sponsored a conference on business research for social impact. “Igniting Impact: Enhancing

Business Practice and Research

through Greater Collaboration” was co-sponsored by Aspen Business & Society and Responsible Research in Business and Management. Focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, this conference drew top thinkers from business and academia to discuss how business and other disciplines can take greater responsibility for acheiving these goals.

Igniting Impact Conference

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SOCIAL IMPACT BUSINESS SCHOOL — TOUCH MBA

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ROSS MBAS CHOSEN FOR “REAL HUMAN” AWARDS BY CLEAR ADMIT

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ROSS MBAS CHOSEN FOR “BEST AND BRIGHTEST OF 2021” IN POETS & QUANTS

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RATING IN FINDMBA FOR BEST SOCIAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT SCHOOLS

Fireside Chats Event Partnerships

Through the Fireside Chats series, top impact leaders are brought to campus who cut across boundaries to advance innovative practical solutions to society’s toughest social challenges. Below are examples:

Mar. 18, 2019 - Designing for Impact: A Conversation with Cyn-

thia Koenig (founder of Wello Water; Ross MBA ‘11)

Sept. 23, 2019 - The Importance of Design for Business: A

Conversation with Juan-Carlos Morales (Chameleon Collective)

Feb. 12, 2020 - Financial Inclusion in the Age of FinTech: A

Conversation with Adrienne Harris (former special assistant to President Obama; professor at the Ford School of Public Policy)

Mar. 11, 2020 - Creating Cultural Contagion: A Conversation with

Marcus Collins (professor of marketing at Michigan Ross)

Business+Impact serves as a partner on impact events across campus during each academic year. We collaborated with U-M Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs to bring in voting advocate LaTosha Brown, partnered with U-M Poverty Solutions to host and sponsor a conversation with Urban Revitalization Strategist Majora Carter and the conference “WORK/FORCE: Solving for Jobs, Mobility and Equity in an Era of Rapid Change.” Additionally, we are a sponsor of the Michigan Impact Investing Symposium, the Detroit Revitalization & Business Conference, and the Ford School of Public Policy’s Central Bank of the Future Conference.