In a world that requires business leaders to address the concerns of all their stakeholders, we must reshape management education to be both practical and aspirational.

What kind of leaders does the business world need to train and develop? In a time of private equity preeminence and mounting global competitiveness, should they be risk takers who are richly rewarded for focusing on the bottom line? Or, in the wake of scandals involving individual excess amid seemingly blind “short-termism,” should the next generation of leaders focus on team spirit and internal organizational development to increase shareholder returns? (See “CEO Succession 2007: The Performance Paradox,” by Per-Ola Karlsson, Gary L. Neilson, and Juan Carlos Webster, s+b, Summer 2008.) These questions are a concern for any thoughtful business leader and raise fundamental questions for business educators, as well.

Mary C. Gentile is a consultant on management education and leadership development. A former faculty member, researcher, and administrator at the Harvard Business School, she is the research director for the Giving Voice to Values initiative and senior advisor to the Aspen Institute Business and Society program.

About strategy+business

strategy+business media publishes a quarterly magazine, Web site, books, and ancillary publications. Its mission is to provide executives with commentary, research, and practical ideas that bridge the gap between theory and practice in contemporary global business.

strategy+business (s+b), a thought-leadership business magazine for senior business executives and the people who influence them, reaches more than 100,000 readers worldwide. Alone among major business publications, s+b draws on a combination of journalists, academics, consultants, and corporate strategists to contribute articles that set the agenda for business leaders and guide them through its execution. Using all the reporting forms in the editorial arsenal – case studies, interviews, scholarly research, journalistic reports, profiles, and first-person accounts – s+b delivers penetrating and vital insights and practical guidance about management, innovation, public policy, strategy, and more.

strategy+business is published by Booz & Company, the global commercial consulting business of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

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By Mary C. Gentile, strategy+business magazine

strategy+business magazine is published by Booz Allen Hamilton.
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Resources:

Andrea Gabor, “Lessons for Business Schools,” s+b, Spring 2008, www.strategy-business.com/press/article/08111: Resources on the history of management education and its relevance to the needs of today’s business environment.

Mark Gerencser, Reginald Van Lee, Fernando Napolitano, and Christopher Kelly, Megacommunities: How Leaders of Government, Business and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today’s Global Challenges Together (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008): Illuminates how groups from different sectors working in concert can address problems none of them can solve alone.

Rakesh Khurana, From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession (Princeton University Press, 2007): A Harvard Business School professor’s review of the history and purpose of management education and an outline for reform.

Art Kleiner, “The Thought Leader Interview: Anne-Marie Slaughter,” s+b, Autumn 2007, www.strategy-business.com/press/article/07310: The dean of Princeton’sWoodrowWilson School on networks and the multisector career path.

James O’Toole, Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership (Ballantine, 1996): Management theorist looks to art, history, and philosophy to demonstrate that values-based leadership is the best way to coax organizational change.

Reggie Van Lee, Lisa Fabish, and Nancy McGaw, “The Value of Corporate Values,” s+b, Summer 2005, www.strategy-business.com/article/05206: Booz Allen Hamilton/Aspen Institute survey of corporate behavior finds that leading companies are crafting purpose-driven identities.

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