Time to Retrain B-Schools?

This article appeared in the NY Times earlier this week, questioning the role of the business school training, that many employed in the finance world received, in leading to our current financial crisis: Is it Time to Retrain B-schools?

It's a great read if you're thinking about attending business school. Some of the criticisms the article mentions is that B-schools are too narrowly focused on analyzing problems using numbers and technical knowledge without consideration for real world complexities. The article ends with a quote saying that business schools are good at producing managers, but not necessarily leaders.

This sentiment resonated with me because we discussed the difference between a manager and a leader within at least two weeks of beginning our program at Heller. My program is interested in producing leaders, which is something that they are very clear about. The article also mentioned the Aspen Institute study - I'd recommend checking out their "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" rankings for a list of business schools that are the best at integrating social and environmental topics into their B-school curriculum.

Some people may think that we are not "hard core" enough at Heller because we don't crunch numbers all day, figuring out how to maximize shareholder value. My response is that we are learning the skills that our world is going to need to be improved from this day forward. Things are not going to be the same in the business and finance world for a long time - we're learning leadership skills that will give us the ability to create purpose, solve complex organizational and social problems, and fulfill missions. We are certainly learning a little something about numbers along the way, but the real value of our education comes from our preparation to be social change leaders in the incredibly complex, sometimes very scary real world.