As Dean of Business at an international business university, I am frequently asked the question, “What keeps you up at night?” At the top of my list: delivering on our mission to educate ethical, and socially responsible organizational leaders who will do so with an appreciation for diverse perspectives, global and multi-cultural understanding, and creative problem solving skills.

In order to turn out such students, especially in the crowded Boston higher ed market, the university must commit to creating a wholly diverse community at all levels — from the top down, the middle around, and the bottom up. This is why at Bentley University, our Business Advisory Council (BAC) is the most diverse group of accomplished individuals it has ever been. And this diversity matters.

Shaking things up to bring in new voices for an advisory council is neither a quick nor simple feat. At Bentley, it has taken at least two years to get to where we are today. The composition of the group of 31 professionals in the BAC is currently: 61 percent alumni, 48 percent women, 23 percent African American, 13 percent Asian American, 16 percent Latino, and 13 percent international. Council members are leaders at employers such as State Street, Hood, Linden Organics, BNY Mellon, and EXXON Mobil, with titles such as chief diversity officer, chief executive officer, director of risk management and chief marketing officer.

How did we do this? For starters, we brought in an executive director for external relations to sit within the dean’s office, a position dedicated to building and maintaining our external network, keeping in mind that, while alumni are important, the non-alumni voice is equally important and often more disruptive — which is what we truly need to bring about institutional change. We committed to finding new advisory council members that not only varied by gender and race, but also by industry and age. Different generations bring different perspectives, all of which are valuable.

Though advisory councils are typically more unsung, albeit equally accomplished, groups (leaving much of the spotlight to the boards of trustees), their role is critical. They are the ones advising and informing strategic and curricular details and opportunities regarding our business program agenda. More importantly, they are the ones who offer brutal honesty. It is their unfiltered points of view, though they can at times be tough to hear, that help shape our curricula for the better, make programs more inclusive and better-rounded, and suggest strategic goals we may have overlooked. These diverse perspectives inform our strategic agenda which in turn helps attract a more diverse faculty. A more diverse faculty provides more diverse role models for our students to look up to and facilitates our recruiting of a more diverse student population, which we know appeals to the companies who come to our campus to recruit our graduates. All of this leading to a more diverse university community. Students are thus better equipped for the workplace in which they will find themselves and our institution will be more competitive. Institutional strategy must be informed by diverse views in order to be sustainable and create a thriving university culture that will stand the test of time.