OccupyMBA was created in November 2011 as a business educator’s response to the criticism leveled by the Occupy Wall Street movement at corporate power, the enormous concentration of wealth in the USA and elsewhere, corruption of government, and related issues.  Its purpose is to host a debate about how the institution of the MBA (and management education in general) reflects, drives, and might offer solutions to the immoral, ruthless, and unsustainable culture that appears to steer the global economic and political order.

When he started OccupyMBA, Lost Arrow (let us call him this) was the founding director of a small, innovative, “socially responsible,” sustainability-oriented MBA program.  He ran this program for nearly six years.

Then, in June 2012, he was abruptly laid off – not enough students, hard times, austerity budgets, need to be leaner and meaner, etc. – and found himself outside of established academia.  So much for sustainability…

Being the idealistic knucklehead he is, he labored for his host institution without so much as a contract, much less tenure or other forms of academic governance and job security.  A gentleperson’s handshake!  A “social contract”!  His corporate employer – yes, non-profit colleges and universities are corporations, too – was more than happy with this “at-will” arrangement, since it afforded them maximum flexibility and minimum commitment.  This is of course the modern Republican ideal of job slavery.

He has now embarked upon a search, using among his tools this blog, for ways to foster management, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills that reject greed, hierarchy, domination, elitism, exclusion, irrelevant ideological debates, and the heartless objectification and commodification of pretty much every living thing, system, and community on our precious planet.  He sees little of any redeeming value in the established institutions of business education, and the size and severity of the ecological and economic dysfunction rising around us dictates that they be replaced as quickly as possible.

With what will we replace them?  Speak up!

Some credentials

Lost Arrow’s education comprises a B.S. from a top engineering school; an MBA from a prestigious business school; and a Ph.D. from a highly ranked European university.  He has authored books and articles and consulted on environmental management and policy, and business sustainability. Other academic interests include simulation, experiential education, futurism, and renewable energy, and he has served on several non-profit boards in Europe and the US. He began his career as an IT industry engineer.