“Wisdom encompasses the essential aptitudes of confident humility,” reads the introduction to the new mission statement for Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, defining a new vision for the future of the New Hampshire business school.
Speaking to the Tuck community, Dean Matthew J. Slaughter broke down the school’s newly refined outlook into a concise ten-word statement: “Tuck educates wise leaders to better the world of business.”
“It has been an invigorating and affirming process,” Slaughter said in a letter released last week, “the results of which I am excited to share with you today.”
“It is my hope that these words will not only shape our actions and our impact on the world,” he continued, “but will also remind us of the broadest aspirations that led to Tuck’s founding more than a century ago—and the responsibility that comes with it.”
The heart of the school’s new mission statement rests on the ever-important attitude of collaboration. Included in the “Mission, Vision, & Strategy” guide released by the school are “Five Strategic Pillars:”
- Exceptional rigor and relevance of curricula;
- A distinctly immersive and highly personal learning environment that fosters aspirational growth;
- A modern learning environment that is both globally connected and technologically advanced;
- An extraordinarily loyal and generous network of alumni; and,
- A rich quality of life.
“Tuck has long cultivated a collaborative learning community distinguished by the core values of being personal, connected, and transformative. Greater success in cultivating these core values will enhance the development of the confident humility, empathy, and judgment central to wisdom,” reads the mission. The strategic pillars, meanwhile, are designed to ground these core values and the community “in ways that make Tuck unique among top business schools.”
Not the First School to Undergo a Rebranding Initiative
Of course, revamping mission statements and reordering strategic pillars is nothing new among the world’s top business schools. The world is ever-changing, and the goals of the world’s leading business schools should likewise keep pace.
In 2010, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business debuted its own four Defining Principles; in 2012, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School undertook a rebranding initiative as well, encapsulating its resources and assets within the themes of “Knowledge for Action,” “Knowledge for Impact” and “Knowledge for Life.” Knowledge@Wharton, that school’s enduring online journal, was an outgrowth of this initiative. And not to be left out, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management launched a new brand strategy in 2014 focused on inspiring growth dubbed “Envision Kellogg.”
Today Tuck becomes the latest school to reevaluate what it wants its legacy to be and its students to leave having learned. Now all that remains to be seen is how its students and alumni go about living this new mission.
