This innovative Stanford University initiative is partly an antidote to the information overload and fragmentation that busy professionals face in trying to get—and stay—up to speed on a dizzying array of global developments and research. Worldview Director Brie Linkenhoker traces the inspiration for Worldview to her days as a management consultant: “We often found ourselves scrambling to help clients become more informed about highly complex changes and uncertainties before they could even begin to evaluate their strategic options. This learning curve can be steep and the acquisition of new knowledge often took a back seat to the urgent strategic conversations.”

There’s got to be a way to build a better bridge between new knowledge and action, thought Linkenhoker. Decision makers need direct access to the critical knowledge being created at top universities. Moreover, by investing in the knowledge of their own people, organizations reap greater value than by outsourcing the learning to others. Academic researchers, in turn, can translate their work for professionals whose decisions have impacts in the world, while gaining a better understanding of the pressing issues that business, government, and nonprofit organizations face.

That’s where Worldview Stanford comes in. Stanford University’s deep commitment to interdisciplinary research, as well as its strong ties to some of the world’s most innovative industries and companies, made it the perfect place to create this mutual information exchange. Through learning experiences that combine flexible, online content with an immersive, Stanford-based experience, decision makers across sectors get new frameworks, perspectives, connections, and skills to inform wise decisions—and to continue learning long after they’ve left campus.