Going from Macquarie University Anthropology school to Usyd Business School is like being dropped off with some strange new tribe were the language is new and the culture is strange. And as someone with an anthropological background I could not help but make a few observations of this new tribe of mine.
1. It’s not all about money
I expected a room full of money loving crazy right wing nutjobs but instead found real people who were there for a variety of reason. One evening after class, a young woman told me how she planned to change how fashion magazines use marketing to portray a more positive image of beauty while making magazines money, and herself rich in the process of course!
2. There was Much More Compassion
In one of the foundational units the lecture told the class that the financial elite (us) had screwed up. He told us that it was our disregard for others and our greed that caused the 2008 crash. If we wanted to fix it into the future we have to consider compassion a key part of our strategic development.
3. Dreams were Encouraged
In my humanities subject dreams were to be analysis for their hidden meaning. In the business school your dreams are meant to be lived. They encouraged you to go and do something important with your life. In one class our teacher asked us what we wished to do for the rest of our lives. One guy answered that he wished to go back home and become an account for the rest of his life. My teacher jaw dropped and then she encouraged him to dream a little bigger because we live in a fast and dynamic world where things are always changing. In the future it may not be possible just to become an accountant but it is sure possible to make the world a better place.
Wayne Marshall 