Archive for April, 2009

Harvard Business Review’s online debate on “how to fix business schools” enters its forth week with a posting where I defend the need to treat management as a true profession and I tell the story of Thunderbird’s Professional Oath of Honor.

You can join the online debate and share your thoughts here.

AACSB International, the world’s largest association of business schools, included in its annual conference program today in Orlando a debate on whether business schools are responsible for the current economic crisis.  Dean Richard Cosier of Purdue University argued that they are not (the crisis resulted from a combination of greed and poor regulation).  I argued that they are (the crisis was in part caused by a dominant doctrine in business schools that overemphasizes financial profits over true value creation). Judith Samuelson, of the Aspen Institute, argued that it is the wrong question to ask (whether or not business schools are to blame for the mess, they have to do something about it).

After the debate, I am even more convinced that we need to recognize our responsibilities as a first step to accept that something needs to change. As Judith said, arguing that business schools have no responsibility is paramount to saying that they are not important.   Evidence indicates that business schools do impact students values and attitudes towards business (it would be quite sad if they didn’t!), and we need to ensure that the values that permeate our courses in finance, accounting and strategy not only teach tools, but convey the right values.

Deloitte’s Chairman Sharon Allen (in the picture) spoke at lunch and said that we need to recouperate society’s trust in business by cultivating ethical leadership.  “We need to make business cool again”.  I couldn’t agree with her more.

Japan’s health care expert James Kondo had an epiphany at a meeting of Young Global Leaders organized by the World Economic Forum in 2006.  While one group was discussing the health, social and economic costs associated with obesity, another group was busy trying to understand the causes and consequences of hunger.  The irony of these discussions taking place at the same time, in the same room, inspired him to create Table for Two.

This week Thunderbird became the first Table for Two institution in the US thanks to the enthusiasm of our caterer Chartwells (which is already trying to extend the concept to many of the institutions they serve).  The concept is simple.  Our cafeteria will offer one healthy meal (under 800 kilocalories) everyday, which will be labeled “Table for Two”.  For every person that chooses that meal, the cafeteria will donate 20 cents to provide a meal in a school in a developing country.

You eat better and feed someone else at the same time.  A simple idea that has already provided 600,000 school meals to hungry children in Uganda, Malawi and Rwanda.

My friend Linda Rottenberg, co-founder of Endeavor (a non-for-profit that supports high potential entrepreneurs in emerging economies) shared some insightful thoughts last month with a group of students at Brandeis about the types of rewards expected by social entrepreneurs (she was speaking as the recipient of an important award for Global Entrepreneurship).  Her remarks will resonate, I’m sure, with many Thunderbird students.

In the text of her remarks at Brandeis today, Rottenberg told the business school students in her audience that it may turn out to be very lucky for them that the financial climate has turned so sour. For one thing, it may encourage them to go another route than Goldman Sachs or Boston Consulting Group.

She suggested that the MBAs she works with may not have gotten rich but they have earned “psychic equity,” worth “priceless personal satisfaction and fulfillment.”

“Well, today in a world where bonuses are under siege and the stock market is at its lowest point in over a decade, that psychic equity is looking even better! Hey, it doesn’t devalue! (And as my husband pointed out while watching the AIG imbroglio, bonuses paid in psychic equity can’t be clawed back!)”

“Through this financial crisis, certain doors have been closed on, or rather for, you – and that’s a GREAT thing.” Rottenberg declared. “I’ve always believed too many options were a distraction – I hated the mantra that was sold to me throughout undergrad and grad school, to “always keep your options open….”

“I would encourage you to look around and start asking questions: Where’s the need, the gap, the pain point? What’s currently being overlooked by both the government and the private sector? Where’s the opportunity to bridge a gap?”

Harvard Business Review’s on-line debate about the responsibility of business schools in the financial meltdown is heating up by the day. Last week Steve Kerr argued in favor of business schools by diminishing their level of influence in the behavior of practicing managers. Today Bob Sutton argues that dominant economic theories breed greed and guile (a re-take on Ghoshal’s posthumous argument of how bad theories can destroy good management practice). My own views are reproduced below (Warning!  It’s a rather lengthy version of the op-ed I wrote in Spanish for El Pais).
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After interviewing three deans in Spain as well as two academics on this side of the pond (including yours truly) Spanish journalist Paz Álvarez writes in the weekend edition of Cinco Dias that business schools are against the ropes.