| Recent months have seen an outpouring of | | | | contributed to their ultimate downfall, but a culture of |
| comments on the state business education is in, | | | | greed and lack of transparency that all players so |
| spurred largely by spectacular failures of international | | | | eagerly subscribed to. |
| companies and the banking crisis. The presence of | | | | Possibly, this feeling of being on top of the world, |
| large numbers of business school alumni has | | | | remaining firmly in control and leading others, not |
| highlighted the role of Harvard, Wharton and | | | | matter what values this leadership is based on in real |
| countless others in shaping a generation of leaders | | | | life, fueled the descent into the latest financial crisis. |
| who have ushered their organizations into trouble. | | | | The ties to top business schools were again all too |
| Emanating from top learning institutions, like HBS, | | | | visible and the extent of damage done necessitated |
| widely accepted ideas have reached boardrooms and | | | | deep reflection about how business education might |
| corridors of most majors firms around the world and | | | | actually contribute to failed notions that key |
| granted academic legitimacy to actions which ended | | | | decision-makers live by while in office. |
| in what many describe as economic disaster. As a | | | | All that sent shock waves down the collective spine |
| result of problems which are plain to see deans of | | | | of the industry, but other forces have been exerting |
| tops schools and directors of consulting companies | | | | pressure on it as well. The most powerful of them is |
| have started talking about the whole teaching | | | | a push towards globalization of curricula, as student |
| industry being at the inflection point, facing its | | | | groups, case studies and real business become |
| toughest challenges to date and being confronted by | | | | increasingly international. American corporate training |
| eventful choices. Is this serious tone justified? | | | | institutions wake up to it a bit late, but they do the |
| The impact of economic debacles that were partly | | | | catching-up with matchless determination, as |
| engineered by business school graduates is hard not | | | | evidenced by the choice of the first Indian-American |
| to notice. Failed businesses, like Enron, were awash | | | | to run Harvard Business School and other |
| with ex-students of the most reputed learning | | | | globally-minded innovations. |
| institutions in the world from the top echelons | | | | Another pressure is related to common criticism that |
| downwards. Their decisions and achievements had | | | | corporate training programs are too academic and |
| long been turned into teaching material in the form of | | | | often fall short of prepping people to real-world |
| revered case studies which praised their business | | | | tasks. More and more institutions invest in finding |
| acumen to high heavens. It is safe to assume that | | | | placements in companies as part of academic |
| tight bonds between the then successful | | | | experience to ensure greater relevance and help |
| corporations and academic institutions went much, | | | | translate their theories into practical skills. It is no |
| much deeper than just intellectual influence into | | | | longer enough to leave a business school with a head |
| financial support. Importantly, it is not just the | | | | full of grand-sounding concepts. |
| wrong-headed university knowledge that might have | | | | |