Max S. Dunn

Blog: Presidio Reputation

Posted by: Max Dunn on December 30, 2008 10:20:02

A friend was asking me about the reputation of the Presidio Sustainable MBA program in the greater business community, and this is what I replied:

First off, inside the community Presidio does have a very good reputation. One reason is that Hunter Lovins is a professor there and is famous for co-writing "Natural Capitalism". Also, Presidio seems to be the top sustainability MBA program, maybe even a little more respected than Bainbridge and Dominican. Outside of these three that were designed with sustainability woven throughout the entire curricula, the other programs seem to be more traditional MBAs with some sustainability thrown in.

Secondly, since the Presidio program is new - only starting its first Sustainable MBA class in 2004 - it will be years before they have been around long enough to build up a strong reputation in the greater business community. Certainly schools that have been around for a long time like Stanford, Harvard and Berkeley will always have higher reputations and the big, traditional firms will focus on recruiting graduates from there. So if you want a job with Citibank, Lehman Bros, AIG, or another top-notch firm, then the traditional business schools are the way to go. ;-) But if a company is looking for someone that can help with sustainability issues to reduce costs while also helping the environment, they will likely recruit at Presidio rather than Harvard. So while Presidio might not be as well known now, as sustainable issues become more and more important, their reputation will grow.

Lastly, it is true that if you say that you have an MBA from Stanford, people go "Ahh" but if you say you have an MBA from Presidio, they ask "What's that?". But in the end, I decided that reputation didn't matter that much to me. I didn't want to spend 2 years engulfed by people that just wanted to make as much money as they could, but instead wanted to be immersed with people that were passionate about being involved with businesses that would make the world a better place. I also didn't want to spend 2 years learning about classic business theory which got us into this financial mess in the first place, but instead wanted to learn the next generation of sustainable business theory that will produce a businesses that are resilient to turbulent times and that our grandkids would be proud of.

So it is a good question on whether to opt for a traditional MBA program that has strong credibility or to take a chance on a "startup" sustainable MBA program that isn't as well known. However for me, the credibility of the program wasn't as important as what I would learn and who I would be around.