COMMENT: What do Harvard Business School, the leading UK public school Wellington College and the Kingdom of Bhutan all have in common? All are aspirational places and this may be the commmon thread - HBS is the world's premier business school by reputation and to be an HBS alumnus is in itself a mark of distinction. Wellington College was created in 1859 by the Earl of Derby in honour of the great British general and statesman Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, and continues as a school attended by the children of military parents and other establishment families - it is not the premier public school in the UK, that is Eton College's prize, but it is nonetheless prestigious. The Kingdom of Bhutan has been around for many centuries but until recently has been a "closed society". This has allowed it to cultivate a culture distinct from the rest of the world's - and today it is famous for measuring it success not in terms of GNP but GNH, Gross National Happiness.
Happiness is the connection between these three very different yet oddly similar institutions. The exclusive nature of each has allowed it to foster people with high-levels of individuality and self-esteem (not everyone who passes through admittedly but one suspects a high majority). Exclusivity and high self-esteem enable a powerful culture to evolve - and allow a different perspective on the world.
Last month the HBS graduating MBA's, the Class of 2010, had their Commencement Day speech from HBS professor Clayton Christensen. His
theme was not to measure your success by deals or dollars but more individually. How many lives you manage to touch and improve. His message was to live your life so that you have a fulfilling home life, particularly regarding your spouse and children in preference to a "hollow business career".
Anthony Seldon, the Master (headmaster) of Wellington College as well as acknowledged political biographer of Tony Blair and others, introduced a class to teach pupils "happiness" some years ago at Wellington. Last year Seldon 
published a book on Trust. The core idea being that we should be striving for quality in our lives over quantity - and that the world has failed to realise this over the last few decades. The benefits and rewards of community, self-knoweldge and family are far more rewarding than uber-wealth and fame.
The previous King of Bhutan asked the question of a journalist while on a tour of India in the 1970's "Why not Gross National Happiness?" (in response to what is the GNP of Bhutan) and then returned to Thimpu, his capital, and created a Gross National Happiness Commission to measure it.
The interesting one, to me, is the Bhuddist Bhutanese example. Harvard and Wellington deal with successful people (in global terms) or their children and enable them to access other successful people. With these props to your life behind you success of one sort or another should be readily achieveable - starvation, destitution and disease are not primary worries - so seeking happiness over yet 
more dollars is a reasonable thing to do. In Bhutan where GNP (when it is measured) is around $1000 these comforts and choices are not so readily achieveable.
Of course, Bhutan has been chasing happiness as a policy for nearly 40 years while Wellington and Harvard have only just begun to catch-up (or catch-on). Increasingly though management and leadership thinking is developing around the idea that a more holistic approach to success in these areas is required and the Bhutanese policy is finally being viewed as an idea that's time may have arrived.
Read Professor Clayton Christensen's HBS Commencement Address.
View HBS IEDP Profile
