Building the Mulat Diwa Culture

Brief Background:

Fourteen years ago, when Dr. Alran Bengzon had just come in as the Dean of the Ateneo graduate School of Business, he posed the question:  What is so Ateneo about the Ateneo Graduate School of Business?.

The question was propelled by the need to get to the core of what mattered most to the school.  After all, a few years before Dr. Bengzon came on board, the  University had decided to shut down the AGSB because, aside from it being strapped down by organizational squabbles, it was also not clear if it was—or could be—a reflection of the Ateneo de Manila University’s values.  Although the decision was overturned and the school remained open, it took a new era to fully address and invest energy into discerning the school’s Jesuit DNA.

 

After twelve years, 9 faculty conferences and workshops, plus hundreds of consultation meetings on the school’s understanding of the Jesuit brand and it’s expression of the Jesuit ideal, the search found its full expression in the Mulat Diwa Program.

What is Mulat Diwa?

Mulat Diwa is a program that attempts to install a culture that connects business to a higher purpose, thereby giving life into our value proposition:“The purpose of business is not only for profits but also for nation building.”

The process of creating this culture begins with opening the hearts and minds of the AGSB community to the socio-economic situation that is the context of doing business in the Philippines.  With this awareness is the challenge to respond to our external and internal situations, and become instruments for nation building, using the Ignatian ideals of Magis (Excellence), Cura Personalis (Personal Care and Attention) and Simul In Actione Contemplativus (Contemplative even in Action).

Mulat Diwa is operationalized in the framework that focuses on the need for business to balance shareholder interest with societal value, in working towards sustainable growth.  This is represented in the following building blocks: awareness of socio-economic conditions, legal compliance, performing business economic responsibility, community investment and global competitiveness.

The principal staging area for developing this culture is the classroom.   The main influencing factor in shaping this culture is the teacher, Mulat Diwa's primary culture bearer: who she/he is, what she/he believes in, how she/he behaves. The tool the teacher uses in proceeding is the curriculum:  its content, the teaching methodologies employed, the projects undertaken, the cases and examples used.   The object of these efforts are students who are equipped to think, feel and act in ways that reflect and are aligned with our school’s commitment to nation building, thereby themselves becoming culture bearers, within the school and in their own spheres of influence.

  

Various support structures are also being reconfigured to shape and sustain such a culture.  This includes the following:

• The development of institutional projetcs that will allow the various members of the AGSB community with a concerted effort at responding to realities and challenges our country faces. 
• The design and implementation of socialization, development and evaluation programs that harness our Ignatian tradition.
• The alignment of organizational systems, procedures with our vision and mission.
• The creation and sustenance of school services that will complement these programs among others.