If you could solve one of the world’s grandest challenges, which one would it be? Would you end world hunger? Deliver affordable and clean energy? Restore balance to our climate? 

While these goals may sound incredibly lofty, progress is made every day by small businesses, entrepreneurs, and leaders like you. Consumers and prospective employees are eager to connect with likeminded leaders who are passionate about making a difference, whilst creating positive societal impact.

When the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs created the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the goal was for all countries to form a global partnership for the overall betterment of society. The key word in that call to action is "partnership,” which acknowledges that everyone has a role to play in achieving those goals, from individuals to organizations—no matter the size, resources, or responsibilities.

Building a new business or sustaining an existing one comes with unique challenges. Organisations large and small are facing new pressures resulting from shifts in workforce talent, emerging societal demands, and growing individual needs. For entrepreneurs and small businesses, the last two years created many unexpected hardships, and fostering a more societally impactful business model became secondary to making payroll. However, this challenging time also gave many people an opportunity to slow down and rethink what mattered most. Business leaders emerged with an increased ability to empathize with their stakeholders and an increased drive to create positive change on any scale. 

More and more, those in Gen Z and millennial generations want the companies they work for to have a purpose beyond profit. As they begin exploring career paths, they’re prioritising their personal drive to be changemakers over their financial prospects. They’re placing greater importance on a company’s values and mission and are calling for more flexibility and mobility in the workplace.

Consumers in these generations are also becoming more intentional about which companies they’ll do business with. How well are your company values aligned with those of your target consumers? If they are aligned, how well are you communicating those values to customers? Whether or not you are personally passionate about the systemic issues facing society, your customers are — and their decision to support your business will likely depend on how you address, or disregard, those issues.

Prospective business school students are evaluating their options much the same way and expecting business schools to articulate how they’re creating positive societal impact. Even though business education originally focused on how to maximise profits, the renaissance of the last few years has driven business schools to embrace a people-first philosophy. As a result, many schools are beginning to think more like entrepreneurs when it comes to fully integrating philosophies and values associated with creating positive societal impact.

While some schools have made great strides in this space, there’s much more work to be done. Higher education leaders are being called on to create programs that promote and foster innovation, offer experiential learning opportunities with socially responsible companies, and integrate societal impact into all business curricula. AACSB’s most recent report, Five Forces Driving the Future of Business Education, offers recommendations for how schools can innovate in this space, like developing specialised courses built around the SDGs or creating experiences where students can solve community issues using business principles. 

But it’s also important to note that many business schools are already integrating societal impact into their core strategies, starting with their mission statements. Many have included U.N. SDG topics as part of their missions, signalling to faculty, staff, students, and stakeholders that everything the business school does—from curriculum to research—is informed by the school’s commitment to creating a positive societal impact.  

Why should that matter to you? Students want to attend business schools that will prepare them to be societal impact leaders, and in turn, those business schools will partner with companies that can co-create that knowledge. You play a vital role in collaborating with business schools to develop leaders with the essential skills needed to lead purpose-driven companies—like effective communication, creative problem-solving, critical thinking, and resiliency. 

Business school graduates have the power and potential to be effective societal impact leaders with specialised knowledge, emotional intelligence, and a sustainable approach to success. As you build talent on your team, the conversation with recent graduates may quickly turn to how your business is operating with a societal impact mindset, or how it’s contributing to positive change in your community. They may have already put a great deal of into what kind of world they want to live in, or, at the end of their careers, where they want to have the most impact. Is your business ready? 

Solving the world’s challenges isn’t easy—but starting and sustaining a business isn’t either. Leaders like you approach challenges with passion, creativity, and a commitment to success, because what’s driving you is the inspiration to change the world. So, I say to you: Start somewhere. Start anywhere. And if you’ve started, keep going. Your customers and your employees are relying on you.