August 3, 2016
BB&T Center team members Jim Otteson and Matthew Phillips explained the ways Capitalism and professional identity work together to offer answers for the business world as it grapples with social criticism and a growing millennial workforce.
The essay is published in the Summer 2016 issue of Wake Forest Business, the magazine of the Wake Forest University School of Business.
“[The challenges to the business world] can be addressed by recapturing and reclaiming two truths: businesses are led by professionals, and the primary function of business is to create value in society,” they write. “When our students are asked why they study or will dedicate their lives to business, we want to equip them to explain what it means to be a true business professional and how they themselves will, in whatever walk of business life they occupy, play their part in creating genuine value for others and contributing honorably to a flourishing and prospering society. In so doing, we want them to be able to answer the question “Why business?” with justified confidence—even pride.”