This year five members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made the prestigious Thinkers50 list. All are graduates of Brigham Young University. BYU is clearly “punching above its weight,” as the saying goes. How did this happen? Dave Ulrich, number 27 on the list, gives much of the credit to Church missions.
"Five LDS people on the list is amazing," he said. "I credit the LDS learning system. BYU, I think, through the missions served by so many of its students, gets that benefit. I don't think the world understands how great missions are for learning. Gospel and theology learning, of course, but also social learning, organizational learning, personal management learning. An 18-month or two-year mission is like five years working at one of the world's best consulting firms."
Lee Perry, Dean of BYU's Marriott School of management, added, "I think the experiences we have in church help us become more sensitive to leadership and organizational issues.”
Thinkers50, founded by British business journalists and commentators Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer, publishes its definitive ranking of the fifty most influential management thinkers every two years. The list is based on relevance of ideas, rigour of research, presentation of ideas, accessibility, international outlook, originality, impact, practicality, business sense, and the power to inspire.
More information on this story, including profiles of the five BYU graduates on the list, two of whom are women, can be found here.