Business, Anyone?

In the spring 2017 issue of Virginia, the University of Virginia’s alumni magazine, Whitelaw Reid provided an inside look at the new seminar offered by Dean Scott Beardsley and UVA men’s tennis coach Brian Boland to Darden School of Business and UVA undergraduate students.

The feature explores how the seminar, set in Dean Beardsley’s Pavilion I home on the Lawn, mixes a casual atmosphere with deep explorations into leadership and personal motivation.

Nestled among the brick and history of one of the University’s original buildings, the students partake of pizza and Belgium microbrews. But don’t let the cozy setting fool you. They also chew on tough concepts of leadership and personal motivation, and with class participation counting for more than half the grade, they know better than to get too comfortable.

Then comes this question: What should the purpose of business be?

One student says it’s to make as much money as possible. Another says it’s to serve the customer. A third says it depends on how you define value. That’s when Darden School of Business Dean Scott Beardsley jumps in: “Which of the value levers do you think are the relevant ones?”

Welcome to “Maximizing Leadership Potential in Sports and Business,” a seminar for second-year M.B.A. students and select third- and fourth-year undergraduates that Beardsley and Virginia men’s tennis coach Brian Boland taught in the fall semester.

How did a business guru and a tennis coach wind up teaching together? Each was interested in the other’s field. An avid tennis player, Beardsley saw the game’s concepts transferable to business. Boland saw aspects of global strategy—Beardsley’s specialty during 26 years with McKinsey & Company in Belgium—applicable to the tennis court.

“Business and sports are very bottom-line driven,” Beardsley tells the 16 students who have convened at his Pavilion I residence.

Read the rest of the article in the online edition of Virginia magazine.