Each spring, every freshman at the NYU Stern Undergraduate College enrolls in Business and Its Publics (BIP). This course combines small group discussions on business, politics, markets, art and culture with a distinguished lecture series featuring trailblazers from a variety of industries. Its aim is to challenge students to think about the impact, both good and bad, that the business organization can have on our global society.
 
Recently, Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, discussed the global economic climate, Bitcoin and other alternative currencies, and monetary policy during an engaging lecture in NYU’s Skirball Center. 
 
Throughout Forbes’s remarks, he emphasized the importance of human ingenuity and technological advances. Free markets, Forbes says, are a driver of innovation, and governments must create and maintain laws that help facilitate innovation. He also encouraged students to take risks and push the envelope.
 
“Knowledge comes through experimentation,” said Forbes, who served as an adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. “Failure isn’t bad.”
 
Forbes’s lecture was followed by a Q&A session with students, who asked questions about the influence of technology and social media on publishing and journalism, the economic challenges faced by countries around the world, and the role students can play as future business leaders.
 
BIP is an integral part of Stern’s Social Impact curriculum; it is one of four core classes students take throughout their undergraduate experience at Stern. The Social Impact Core helps students understand the ways business and society’s most important institutions are connected. In BIP, students experience a variety of perspectives regarding the role of business in society.
 
In addition to Forbes, past BIP speakers include journalist and television host Maria Bartiromo, Senator Corey Booker, and Dan Doctoroff, CEO and President of Bloomberg, L.P.