Wharton@Work

March 2025 | 

The AMP Approach to Social Entrepreneurship

The AMP Approach to Social Entrepreneurship

When Ira Agarwal arrived at Wharton’s Advanced Management Program (AMP), she had a vision. By the time she left, she had a venture. AIM Elevate, launched during AMP, now empowers women entrepreneurs in underserved Indian communities with the tools, funding, and networks they need to thrive. What began as an idea in the classroom is now making a real-world impact — proof that when business leaders commit to social change, transformation follows.

A recent profile in Forbes India noted: “By building women-owned businesses, AIM Elevate does more than boost individual careers — it enhances community welfare, drives inclusive economic growth, and inspires future generations of female leaders. Agarwal envisions a future where female-led businesses play a more dominant role in the global economy, and AIM Elevate Ventures is the vehicle driving this transformation.”

Agarwal says both AIM Elevate and Meet Ira, a digital platform that provides mentorship for aspiring leaders, were not only born at Wharton, but are continuing to benefit from the lessons learned there: “AMP has given me a way to think differently from other leaders. It has sparked innovation and excellence in me. And now I am implementing specific strategies, including those around technological innovation, marketing, and branding, that I gained during my AMP journey.”

Doing Well While Doing Good

AIM Elevate, and Agarwal’s transformative journey, weren’t one-offs in the AMP. Every cohort works in teams to select and develop a Social Enterprise Project — a hands-on initiative started by Ian MacMillan, the Dhirubhai Ambani Emeritus Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Through his research; work as director of Wharton’s Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center; and The Social Entrepreneur’s Playbook, which he co-authored with Jim Thompson, MacMillan reshaped the way businesses balance profit and impact, championing the idea that entrepreneurs can solve global challenges (shorthand: “doing well while doing good”).

As Jeff Klein, executive director of the Anne and John McNulty Leadership Program, explains, “Our participants are experts in their industry and function that they rose up through, but we give them new ways of looking at the impact that they can make as leaders.” He says the Social Enterprise Project fits perfectly with the AMP’s focus on experiential education. “The program is built on a more holistic approach to thinking about leaders and their opportunities to make a lasting difference in the world. We recognize their current success while asking them to suspend their comfortable ways of doing things and be open to new experiences, ideas, and methods to build on that success. By constantly placing them in new environments where they can think and act like beginners, they can’t rely on the heuristics that got them here. Instead, they must be willing to take risks and build community. The lessons are directly transferable to a business setting.”

Mentorship Matters

Teams of AMP participants aren’t left to their own devices when working on their Social Enterprise Projects. Two of Ian MacMillan’s proteges, Jim Thompson and Martin Ihrig, not only introduce participants to the program and run skill-building workshops, but they are also there to mentor the teams as they develop their ideas and prepare to pitch their projects to a panel of distinguished Wharton alumni.

Ihrig, a senior fellow at Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, says the projects must not only be sustainable and solve a social problem, but do so by leveraging the assets of the team members. “We always have an amazing group of very senior executives with access to different kinds of strategic assets — many of them knowledge assets — and we encourage them to really think through how they could be leveraged in solving a societal problem.”

He continues, “The project serves multiple purposes. First it creates a mindset change. It makes very senior leaders aware that you can do good and well at the same time — and they have a responsibility to assess the impact their organizations can have on society. The second is that in many of the AMP lectures and experiences, participants learn tools to manage uncertainty, and the Social Enterprise Project gives them a chance to directly apply those tools. We take participants out of their comfort zone, and their project work resembles uncertain initiatives they will manage when they get back to work. Wharton’s AMP doesn’t only give you thought-provoking executive education lectures, it provides participants with the tool kits plus a laboratory in which they can practice. The Social Enterprise Project is a beautiful way to experiment with innovation for impact.”

Many of these experiments have resulted in significant real-world impacts. For instance, Hand in Hand for Haiti — a nonprofit that built and operates a school in Haiti — originated as a Social Enterprise Project led by co-founder Olivier Bottrie and his AMP team. The organization provides education to the country's youngest and most in need. In recognition of his work, Bottrie was inducted into the National Order of Merit of France and appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the Republic of Haiti.

Realizing the Vision

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that AIM Elevate is receiving the accolades it is,” says Klein. Even before AMP began, Agarwal displayed “a combination of excitement about learning, a desire to have an impact on the world, and a real ability to make things happen. Ira stands out as someone who has very high standards and really wants to make lasting contributions, but she does it with humility and grace and gratitude towards everyone who has helped her along the way.”

Agarwal says her success with AIM Elevate is a testament to Klein, Ihrig, and the many other professors and executive coaches who comprise the Advanced Management Program faculty. "The Wharton Advanced Management Program was a transformative experience for me — a journey of self-discovery. I have already achieved so much as a tech luminary and an innovation leader from India, standing among the few women at the CXO and boardroom level in the country. Yet, hearing the stories of my team members and witnessing the groundbreaking projects pitched by other teams deeply inspired me. It reinforced my commitment to empowering more women. At Wharton, I realized the immense opportunities I have received from society, and now, it is my time to give back."