Nov 5, 2025 · 25 min · 10 segments
This week on \[If/Then or View From The Top] we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100, a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100…
Arthel ColemanGuestMarlon WellsGuest
Barbara BuellGuestSusan ElliottGuestDiane LeeGuestNancy GrossGuest
My name is Barbara Buell, and I was director of communications at Stanford GSB for a number of years, from the mid-'90s to 2015.
Around 2002, the director of admissions and the senior associate dean for operations and others really wanted to try to capture what was special about the GSB and what would it mean to come here and get a degree.
The first thing I did was to consult with the admissions director, then Derek Bolton, who suggested that I talk with Jim Coulter.
Jim Coulter, an alum, MBA class of 1986, was a member of the Dean's Advisory Council.
That's a group of leaders who provide strategic guidance, perspective, and support to the dean, who at that time was Robert Joss.
And, you know, he gave me a lot of different sort of phrases and ideas about that, but really it honed in on change and impact.
We threw it around for a while, and then I brought together a group of staff who represented all areas of the school, executive education, development, that's fundraising, admissions, some of the centers where programs are held, of course, people from marketing and news and publications.
And it was around 2002, and so basically I got everyone in a room together, basically locked them in with some donuts and said, we're not leaving until we come out of here with a tagline.
And we finally came out with this kind of three-sentence imperative, which was change lives, change organizations, change the world.
It implied that there was a lot of thought at GSB that actually translated into action in the real world.
So Change Lives was about changing the lives of our students and changing the organizations they go into and then making change in the world, whether you were in a large organization, a bank, say, or whether you were in an entrepreneurial startup or whether you were in a nonprofit.
So it was just felt that this was an emotional call to action that kind of brought the GSB to life.
My name is Barbara Buell, and I was director of communications at Stanford GSB for a number of years, from the mid-'90s to 2015.
Around 2002, the director of admissions and the senior associate dean for operations and others really wanted to try to capture what was special about the GSB and what would it mean to come here and get a degree.
The first thing I did was to consult with the admissions director, then Derek Bolton, who suggested that I talk with Jim Coulter.
Jim Coulter, an alum, MBA class of 1986, was a member of the Dean's Advisory Council.
That's a group of leaders who provide strategic guidance, perspective, and support to the dean, who at that time was Robert Joss.
And, you know, he gave me a lot of different sort of phrases and ideas about that, but really it honed in on change and impact.
We threw it around for a while, and then I brought together a group of staff who represented all areas of the school, executive education, development, that's fundraising, admissions, some of the centers where programs are held, of course, people from marketing and news and publications.
And it was around 2002, and so basically I got everyone in a room together, basically locked them in with some donuts and said, we're not leaving until we come out of here with a tagline.
And we finally came out with this kind of three-sentence imperative, which was change lives, change organizations, change the world.
It implied that there was a lot of thought at GSB that actually translated into action in the real world.
So Change Lives was about changing the lives of our students and changing the organizations they go into and then making change in the world, whether you were in a large organization, a bank, say, or whether you were in an entrepreneurial startup or whether you were in a nonprofit.
So it was just felt that this was an emotional call to action that kind of brought the GSB to life.
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