To fill this gap, we need to “revitalize the intellectual and moral training of future business leaders.”encourage consideration Management as a vocation In a spirit similar to the way we train doctors and lawyers, a move away from the simple pursuit of a career for personal gain to a higher professional and moral purpose of serving society.
To do this you need to rebestablish a business school in the system of aspiration principleThis is not a call for a “value statement” to “brand” the business school in a differentiated market. It calls for a clear statement of the aspirational principles that will guide the structure of business schools: Build curricula, co-curricula, and pedagogy from which they are formed. Invite recruiters to place you in leadership positions. Select role models to promote as exemplars of the principles you are trying to replicate. We often accept donations that leave a physical and cultural mark on the facility. and guide the research and remuneration of its faculty.
To this end, the curriculum can no longer make the forms and functions of capitalism unquestionable, but instead teaches how multiple capitalisms are constructed and the fundamentals on which they are based. models, and guide students to critically understand where they are. What will it look like in the future if it fails? This leads to a challenging analysis beyond the simplistic notion of “expanding the pie” and the search for Pareto optimality that often fosters the inequities that undermine society.
Two key elements of this change are being reviewed Corporate purpose When Government’s role in the market. First, most business schools continue to teach shareholder primacy as a company purpose. This misguided thinking has led to a focus on short-sighted and opportunistic shareholders, and has given rise to many market problems, including overly short investment plan horizons and near-grotesque CEO compensation packages. . To replace it, business schools should return to the idea that ‘the purpose of a business is to create customers’ and that a business should exist to contribute to society as a whole. Such thinking leads to an entirely different approach to the role and education of corporate leaders.
When it comes to the role of government, too many students believe that there is no place for government in the marketplace, that regulation is trespassing, and that all lobbying is corruption. These views are simplistic and destructive to both the society and the companies in which students work. Government is the domain in which market rules are set and enforced. If recent history has taught us anything, it is that businesses and markets need strong, clear rules.
Big obstacles, but big stakes
The profound transformation of business education is an institutional challenge, requiring coordinated change across the ecosystem: pedagogy, rankings, recruiters, enrollees, donors, faculty, and more. The required changes are significant. But the potentially devastating consequences of doing nothing are more important. As the cause of many of our challenges, particularly climate change, business must play a role in driving markets towards solutions and having a net positive impact on the environment and society. Business schools must play a role in training future business leaders to accept the challenge. We can be part of the solution or we can remain part of the problem. The choice is ours.