This session included Jim Walsh (Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan),
Judith Samuelson (Executive Director, The Aspen Institute), and Dr. Srikant Datar (Senior Associate Dean at Harvard University and Author, “Rethinking the MBA”).
There were several themes discussed in this session that made me think critically about the MBA degree as well as my current experience at Sauder School of Business. The general feeling from our speakers was that many business programs are not meeting all the needs in order to adequately prepare students for leadership positions. For example, there is not enough emphasis placed on putting our learning into practice. Moreover, the necessity of innovation is becoming increasingly important as is determining how we frame problems.
Business today touches more areas and we’re being asked to solve the problems of our time. We should view business as a world agent to solve these problems; however, we can also recognize that business is the source of many world issues. It’s competition versus a better world and we have a responsibility to create a better world. We must lead and teach by example. Moreover, we need to be critical of our education because we do not just need to learn the analytics but also focus on doing and taking action. Knowing is the foundation and once we get beyond knowing then we can become effective leaders who empower and lead people. We should recognize the lens with which we view our decisions and we should understand why we do things. There needs to be a fundamental rebalance of our thinking skills into integrative thinking.
We should have an optimistic view of management education. This past financial crisis has created an opportunity for us to step up and articulate how we want to run our businesses. It has also created a greater concern for our environment and where business fits within it. We each have an increased responsibility to understand these issues and the role of regulation. Our next steps are to determine how to bring this learning deeper into the MBA curriculum because the students should have a voice in how they want the shape of their education to look. We should also realize that there has been a measureable shift in our attitudes…it is now one of a confident humility because we don’t have all the answers. We have a choice to either save the world or destroy it and the MBA is an important tool with which to accomplish this.
The final thought these leaders left us with was “make others better for knowing you”. It was truly an inspiring session and gave me a lot of things to consider as I choose my path in this program.
