Click here for the article of BusinessWeek, May 20, 2009.
...Whether, and to what extent, the nation's business schools laid the groundwork for the economic crisis is a debate that's engulfing the world of management education these days. Philip Delves Broughton, who received an MBA from Harvard and wrote about his experiences there in Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School (Penguin Group, July 2008), calls the three-letter acronym "scarlet letters of shame," and suggests they stand for "Masters of the Business Apocalypse."...
Learning obligations for B-Schools – MBA’s – and responsible managers in general
In 1987 the stock market was capsized by an uncontrolled IT-driven stampede-like rally.
In 2008 the financial system was close to a collapse driven by similar mechanisms.
Obviously there is still something to learn, and these consecutive situations constitute a tremendous wake-up-call for the Business School and University community, with reference to comments by IMD-Lausanne and ASB-Aarhus Professors Hamilton, Cossin, Bris, and Hildebrandt – focusing on experience as an important parameter in economics.
In IMD webletter, October 2008, professors Hamilton, Cossin and Bris are commenting on ”The financial meltdown – what went wrong, and how do we move forward”:
If it was foreseeable, why haven’t we learned from past mistakes?
Prof. Hamilton: Today there are very few people in the marketplace who have been through a previous crisis. Banks have been de-layering middle management and removing the “corporate experience” – the people who would mentor others and talk about the past. So there is a knowledge gap.
What message would you like to leave with our readers?
Prof. Hamilton: In the short term we are going to see more focus on business history and what happened in the past. Institutions like IMD can help the educational process by focusing as much on success stories as on situations where things have gone wrong. This “post-mortem” approach is an effective way to learn and schools like ours can make a big contribution here.
Prof. Cossin: I would urge people to focus on risks. We all underestimate risks. The important thing is to be aware of this and to work on it, prepare for and, as much as is possible, manage risks.
Prof. Bris: Finance education has become extremely relevant. The media, regulators and customers need to understand that the financial world is complex. Education in financial concepts and techniques is perhaps more important than ever.
Check for full article on:
http://www.imd.ch/research/challenges/TC…
Check further statements (Borsen 7 November 2008) by Professor Steen Hildebrandt, Aarhus School of Business on: www.steenhildebrandt.dk
Povl Tiedemann
June 2009
Posted by: Povl Tiedemann | Thursday, 04 June 2009 at 04:36 PM