DeansTalk - business management education

Italian business schools offer postgraduates for would be managers of ex-Mafia concerns

The Economist, November 6, 2012

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"A group of business schools and business associations this year launched a postgraduate course offering formal, practical training for would-be managers of ex-Mafia concerns. The course, which included visits to see Mr Turchio and the San Paolo, aims to train a cadre of experienced managers to be deployed across Italy. “We need professional managers to come in not only to keep a business from closing but to develop it so we can demonstrate that when the state takes over from the Mafia, that doesn’t mean job losses,” says Marella Caramazza, director-general of Fondazione Istud, a business school located near Milan, which is leading the course along with two other business schools, Bocconi in Milan and Luiss in Rome. “We must show that when managed legally these can be profitable businesses that bring employment to the community.”

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"Social innovation must be in core curriculum" - CEO of the Global Business School Network in FT Soapbox

Financial Times Soapbox, June 30, 2012.

In recent years, business schools have been both advocates and developers of social innovations, often enlisting support from schools of design or engineering in exploring promising new products that are intended to address both economic and social demands. Barely a month goes by without some “pro-poor” or “base of the pyramid” or “inclusive” innovation hitting the news. A multitude of different solar-powered indoor lights and charcoal-saving cooking stoves have been invented in recent years.

But few of these innovations have been scaled up to benefit large numbers of people. Part of the problem may be that those engaged in social innovation activities at business schools operate apart from the mainstream curriculum....

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Guy Pfeffermann is chief executive of the Global Business School Network, www.gbsnonline.org (Wikipedia),  and was previously chief economist for the International Finance Corporation. Jonathan Doh is the Herbert Rammrath chair in international business and director, Center for Global Leadership at the Villanova School of Business.

"Core values" - The Economist survey of MBA students

July 2, 2012, The Economist

...If the core of an MBA programme itself has a core, then it is the finance and strategy courses. Nothing could be more fundamental; they are the building blocks on which nearly all other business knowledge is built. Interesting, then, that a new survey of applicants, current students and recent graduates, conducted by Which MBA?, suggests that it is in these subjects that business schools are failing...

IE has launched new Executive MBA+ y Global MBA+: personalise to your needs.

June 16th "GO BEYOND" IE Business School
Madrid, 10:30 am, in Spanish.

"GO BEYOND"
El professor David Bach, IE Business School Dean of Programs will present the new MBA part-time (Global MBA+) specially adapted to you.

IE Business School's Global MBA+ and Executive MBA+ allow you to personalize your MBA experience according to your personal needs.

 

Northwestern Kellogg to shrink two-year MBA program

Article by John A. Byrne, contributor

The school plans to put less of an emphasis on its traditional two-year degree program as part of a sweeping strategic review at the school.

(Poets&Quants)-- Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management said today it plans to shrink the size of its two-year MBA program by up to 25% and double or triple the enrollment in the school's one-year MBA program for business undergraduates.
"It's very clear that growth in demand for the two-year MBA is going to be slowing and that growth for one-year programs will be growing," said Blount in an interview with PoetsandQuants. "We have to be realistic about the market in which we find ourselves. We think the market for two-year MBAs is going to get very elite."

The changes are the result of a sweeping strategic review by Dean Sally Blount, former dean of New York University's undergraduate business school, who took the reins as dean at Kellogg in July 2010. Some 30 faculty members at the school were engaged in the review, along with alumni and students...

Dean Richard Lyons, Haas (Berkeley), paper - CURRICULUM REFORM: GETTING MORE MACRO, AND MORE MICRO

Download Paper 10/31/11, forthcoming, Journal of Management Development, (PDF, 14 pages)

Via @richlyons

Abstract

UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business pursued curriculum reform using a barbell approach. The macro end is pinned down with a leader archetype, that of an innovative, path-bending leader, plus a supporting and explicit culture now deeply embedded in admissions. The micro end is pinned down with a set of ten capabilities that are extended and integrated throughout the curriculum (e.g., problem framing). The connection to action is achieved through a new requirement in experiential learning that allows students to select among many options (e.g., a Cleantech-to-Market course). The school followed a particularly high-touch approach to gain the buy-in of its faculty.

Introduction

“To what end all this curriculum change? What tethers the ‘vision’?” Every Dean has received such questions – from a Board member, alum, faculty member, whomever. Another common question: “Let’s get concrete – exactly what will these graduates be able to do that sets them apart?” In today’s business school marketplace, there is less room for, and tolerance of, more traditional ‘middle-ware’ curriculum reforms that outline changes, but fail to articulate a higher- order destination, or a set of concrete enabling skills.

This article addresses our experience here at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and some resulting lessons...

Public Relations: Coming to a B-School Near You

Businessweek, Curriculum Chronicles, December 07, 2011

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the largest industry group for public relations professions, which is trying to get business schools to take a more serious approach to teaching MBA students the art of corporate communication and reputation management. It’s a skill that is sorely lacking, according to a new study the PRSA...

One of the first efforts to encourage business schools to start thinking more about corporate reputation management and strategic communication will commence in the 2012-13 school year, when five business schools will participate in a pilot program spearheaded by the PRSA. Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business will be one of the five schools participating; the other four schools have not yet been named, the PRSA said. Paul Argenti, a Tuck professor and author of the textbook Corporate Communication, is developing the curriculum for the pilot, which can be adapted for full-semester, mini-semester, or seminar-format courses. The class will include lessons on communication strategy, media relations, international corporate responsibility, reputation management, and investor relations. In addition, students will be asked to participate in crisis communication simulation exercises and review case studies on the topic. The hope is that all the leading business schools will incorporate this class, in some format, into their curricula in the 2013-14 academic year, the PRSA said.

Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Alison Damast recently spoke with Argenti...

The B-School Case Study Gets a Digital Makeover

Article of Businessweek, July 25, 2011.

Tablet technology is beginning to transform case studies from straightforward narratives into complex and changeable plots—a metamorphosis nearly a century in the making

Dean Nitin Nohria - "Harvard Business School Evolves" - U.S. News

U.S. News, July 8, 2011

Nitin Nohria celebrated his first anniversary as dean of Harvard Business School on July 1, making it a fitting time to reflect on the considerable changes underway at the venerable b-school. From major innovations to its curriculum and shifts both subtle and major within the class of 2013 profile, to huge surprises—some might say upsets—in M.B.A. admissions, the past 12 months have been anything but business as usual...

The Four Curriculums of a Great MBA Program - Poets & Quants

Poets & Quants

When leadership professor Nitin Nohria became dean of the Harvard Business School last July, he had to give up teaching in the classroom. But he has managed to do a bit of cameo instruction here and there, including the lunch-time presentation of a two-page case study on whether HBS delivers what it promises to MBA students: a transformational experience...

Free Course, Game Theory for Managers

Game Theory for Managers, MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT OpenCourseWare's First 10 Years: 100 Million Served

MIT OpenCourseWare's First 10 Years: 100 Million Served

On April 4, 2001, MIT announced it would publish educational materials from all of its courses freely and openly on the Internet. Ten years later, OCW has shared materials from more than 2000 courses with an estimated 100 million individuals worldwide. Join us in celebrating the 10th anniversary of this groundbreaking effort.

MIT Faculty Newsletter, September/October 2010
—Shigeru Miyagawa, Chair, MIT OpenCourseWare Faculty Advisory Committee: "Among the many milestones we will celebrate during the Institute's 150th anniversary year, I am particularly proud of the 10th anniversary of MIT OpenCourseWare, which was announced on the front page of the New York Times on April 4th, 2001. Since the announcement, MIT has published materials from more than 2,000 courses, presenting the undergraduate and graduate curricula from all 33 of MIT's academic departments."...

Chicago’s New Dean Pursues Globalization, Stronger Alumni Network

By John A. Bryne, Poets & Quants

...If he has made little time to move into his new home, it’s completely understandable. Kumar has one of the toughest leadership jobs in academia: he’s following the most successful business school dean of this generation at a school that has never been in better shape.