"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which has the grander view?" This question from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables may seem obvious at first glance; however, both instruments offer a brilliant view. The microscope illuminates minute objects; the telescope, distant ones.

Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business offers a similar illumination: students gain both a micro view of business principles in such disciplines as accounting, marketing, and management, as well as a macro view of global issues that intersect with business. The Ten Years Hence Lecture Series course, coordinated by Professor Jim O'Rourke, Director of the Fanning Center for Business Communication, examines emerging issues that our graduates will face in the next ten years. The series, open to the public, features diverse speakers from varied backgrounds, with course topics ranging from finance to labor, from global development to environmentalism. This year's panelists include Jean Sweeney, Vice President of Environmental, Health, and Safety Operations at 3M, and Jack Daly, Senior Vice President – Corporate Relations and Chief Communications Officer at McDonald's Corporation.

2009 MBA candidate Rory Tipton says, "As MBAs all of us hope to one day be a part of broad and world-changing decisions. Ten Years Hence exposes us to the likely context and drivers of those decisions. It is an opportunity for MBA students to gain a broader perspective of the trends, innovations and challenges that will guide the future world. The quality of speakers and variety of topics are both testaments to the power and applicability of the Notre Dame experience." That, of course, is part of the vision that Carolyn Woo, Dean of the Mendoza College of Business, has for the students: to become leaders who make our future together better by the privilege of the positions they will hold, the decisions they will make, the resources they will develop and use, and the people whose lives they will touch.

It is this disciplined long-range look at business and global issues, with all their inherent challenges and possibilities, coupled with a close-up examination of real-world business practices, problems, and solutions, which provides each MBA with the vision essential to impact a changing world.