Len Schlesinger – College President, Professor, Educator, COO, Author and Entrepreneurship Advocate – to Speak in Wayland
“Entrepreneurship is the Most Powerful Force for Economic and Social Value Creation – Why Action Trumps Everything.”

Join the Walden Forum for a discussion with Len Schlesinger, President Emeritus of Babson College and Harvard Business School Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration. This Walden Forum will be held at 7:30 p.m. on September 10 at Wayland High School, 264 Old Connecticut Path, Wayland, MA.

Schlesinger notes: “We’re seeing more businesses moving from a model that’s focused exclusively on economic outcomes to one that embraces a more holistic view of the ability of business to contribute economically, sustainably and socially.” Not only is this a better way to run a business, it has also become an expectation for our corporations, according to Schlesinger. A younger generation is increasingly dictating their employment and consumption patterns with organizations that are demonstrating the capacity to be good and to do good at the same time.

“We see these pressures for greater accountability for the second- and third-order effects of corporate behavior throughout the U.S. as well as in other regions of the world. While we don’t underestimate the difficulty of reconciling the issues of profitability and sustainability, we need to move more quickly to a model that enables us to develop strategies to achieve them simultaneously, rather than sequentially. At Babson we have prepared entrepreneurial leaders who embed social as well as economic goals into their ventures from the outset,” Schlesinger explained.

Schlesinger adds: “Although there have been some recent media reports that entrepreneurship in the U.S. is waning, the findings of the latest Babson-led entrepreneurship survey – the most extensive on the subject in the world – paint a different picture. According to these survey results, last year U.S. entrepreneurship rates climbed to the highest level in more than a decade.”

Leonard A. Schlesinger returned to Harvard Business School as a Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration this summer after concluding a five-year term as the 12th president of Babson College. At Babson he successfully managed the challenges of improving academic, reputational and financial outcomes for a uniquely positioned college. The school has been ranked as the number one institution for entrepreneurship by BusinessWeek, U.S. News and World Report, and the Financial Times. Prior to Babson, Schlesinger was at Limited Brands, based in Columbus, Ohio, where he served in executive positions from 1999-2007, most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. From 1985-1988, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Au Bon Pain.

His earlier academic career includes twenty years at Harvard Business School. After that he served as a Professor of Sociology and Public Policy and Senior Vice President and Counselor to the President at Brown University from 1998-1999. Schlesinger has lectured and consulted on service quality, customer satisfaction, entrepreneurship and organizational change for over 200 major corporations, non-profit organizations, governments and international leadership organizations around the world.

His writings have been widely published. He is the author or co-author of eleven books, including his most recent Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future. He has written over 40 articles for academic audiences as well as for The New York Times, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review. He has served on the editorial boards of five major academic journals and has published numerous management case studies that have sold well over one million copies. He also has completed three video series on service management and now serves on many boards as well.

About the Walden Forum – The Walden Forum is a free public series that brings people together to talk, listen and learn from one another in a civil environment. It fosters discussion about important ethical, religious, political, scientific, social and other topics in a live-forum setting. Dynamic speakers challenge and expand our views about the world around us and offer the opportunity for an open discussion of these issues in a convenient, local setting. Featuring world-class speakers on great topics throughout the year, the Walden Forum is a non-religious community program supported by First Parish in Wayland and others. For more information go to www.waldenforum.org or write to info@waldenforum.org.