ABSTRACT
The sustainability mindset can be applied to all functional areas of business, such as Human Resources, Finance, Operations, Accounting, Entrepreneurship, etc. When the overall strategy of a business is imbued with a sustainability mindset, it ends up influencing all of the functional areas of management (Gupta & Kumar, 2013). This chapter will focus on applying the sustainability mindset to the field of entrepreneurship. It will discuss how this mindset can be transmitted through various experiential teaching methods. It will also highlight the benefits that accrue from intentionally seeking to use business as a tool for social transformation. The realisation that a social impact is compatible with business profitability is a divergence from the traditional dichotomy between profit-seeking businesses and socially sensitive ones. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly recognised that businesses that intentionally focus on making a social impact can be more profitable than those that do not (Savitz, 2012). The chapter presents experiences from MBA student projects that involve building profitable business models around social problems. This chapter combines head, heart and hands, as students who go through this class exercise end up understanding that doing good is compatible with doing well (head), develop greater sensitivity to the social needs in their environment (heart) and understand that they can actually contribute to solving social problems using profitable business models that allow them to meet their financial goals while creating a more sustainable society (hands).
