First Day of School

I am officially an MBA candidate . . . today was my first day of b-school. I was in class for about eight hours, and I'm definitely a little bit wiped out from the experience (hey, I'm not used to being a student–it's been a while!), but I'm going to try to pass along something RELEVANT, APPLICABLE, and DIGESTIBLE.

So, here goes . . .

I know I'm completely exposing my naivete here, but I was surprised to learn about something called a triple bottom line. Actually, I shouldn't say I was surprised to learn that companies make a practice of this concept, just surprised to learn that it had an official name. Anyway, a triple bottom line considers not just PROFIT, but PEOPLE and PLANET. These values take into account capital gains, as well as social and ecological factors.

We all think about how to make more money, but how can we include people and planet in our bottom line? Experts argue that our traditional bottom line can be strengthened by tapping into the power of these other two elements. A good rundown of the concept can be found here.