Book Review - Rethinking The MBA: Business Education at A Crossroads

Publisher :Harvard Business Press
Year:2010
Price:Rs.895
Authors:Srikant Datar,David A. Garvin and Patrick G.Cullen

Three professors from Harvard Business School have written a very relevant book on business(management) education in the current context.Through chapters 1 to 6, the authors have a critical look at the state of affairs in the MBA education, viewing it from the angle of changing market place, the curriculum, the various concerns, meeting the ongoing challenges of globalization, leadership and integration and also the innovation that has been happening in the pedagogy and the course contents.The authors go on to describe the responses from the institutions to the above concerns and challenges in chapters 7 to 12 and concludes with a discussion why business education and the institutions involved in it can be said to be at crossroads detailing reasons why changes are difficult to happen while stressing that there is a need for change & rebalancing and considering all the challenges for the future.

The book is the consolidation of the proceedings of the two-day colloquium held in May 2008 at Harvard Business School as part of its centenary celebrations. Chapter 1 details how the authors went about the research study.The study was conducted through indepth interviews of academic administrators like deans, current and former CEOs from companies (belonging to four broad sectors namely financial services, consulting, MNCs and high-tech)which frequented BSchool campuses for recruiting MBAs.Data were also collected regarding applications made,enrolments done, fees, faculty hiring etc.They also collected data regarding curricula by looking at leading MBA programmes and also the program content,architecture and pedagogy.Finally, they took a sample of five business schools (major ones from the US and the Europe)and the Centre For Creative Leadership in US, and studied the responses of them to the varying demands on them and changes that happen in the business education landscape.

The research of authors led to understand the knowing-doing-being framework as applicable to B Schools and to the identification of 8 unmet needs, most of them related to being.These are:
Ø Gaining a global perspective
Ø Developing leadership skills
Ø Honing integration skills
Ø Recognizing organizational realities and implementing effectively
Ø Acting creatively and innovatively
Ø Thinking critically and communicating clearly
Ø Understanding the role, responsibilities and purpose of business
Ø Understanding the limits of models and markets

The authors point to the fact that while the enrolments in the top ranked schools increased over a period of time, the enrolments at the lower ranked institutions were declining.Also, the study points to a trend that even financial services firms recruit non-MBAs as it is felt that the on-the-job training they get in the firm is better than that they get in a business school.There are also firms who feel that the training the MBA get in a business school is not necessarily useful.

The authors also find that there exists an effort to standardize the curriculum especially after the leading institutions. They also provide a list of core as well as elective courses offered at the major institutions and also describe their positioning. While differences exist in course length, cohort size, and the number of required courses, one commonality exists in the form of analytical and technical orientation of the MBA training, which is also one of increasing criticism and concern today.

While discussing the rising concerns , the authors describe the research activities of the BSchool, the concerns about the lack of practical applicability of the research conducted to everyday management.The authors themselves feel that while examples of relevant research exist, more need to be done in this area.

Another point of serious concern is that while most courses emphasize on quantitative and analytical techniques, the softer, organizational skills get neglected.This results in students learning analysis but not action.
Yet another concern is about the very shift from learning to earning is networking,attending recruiting events,and pursuing the best possible job rather than devoting time to academic learning.

Yet another concern is that the MBAs are naive about organization and their realities.This, the authors say, is even true about MBAs with years of experience in industry.They quote an executive , who put it bluntly:”In terms of managerial competence,MBA students are at a’B’ level.That needs to be higher”.

A concern that as raised by both academics as well as executives was that MBAs lack essential innovative thinking skills.This puts them into difficulties when facing unstructured problems , ambiguous data, rapidly changing environments and information overload while ready to face clearly defined targeted problems.While pedagogical methods like case studies can help students to overcome the limitations, even case studies tend to be pre-packaged for essential calculations and irections.Managerial jobs usually requires to face unstructured and/or unpredictable environments.And managers have to not only solve problems when presented or appear but also to identify the problems.

A major concern which everybody raised was the lack of awareness or concern by the MBAs of the role,responsibilities and purpose of business in the society.This concern has been emphasized in the past as business leaders were held singly responsible for many of the business failures.The leaders were alleged to be keen to protect their private interests alone ignoring the social consequences of their actions.

MBAs also fail to recognize the limits of the so-called market models.While today markets are supposed to be the final word and hence lot of faith is put on it.But, they should understand that perfect markets don’t exist and hence the market-based models are incomplete.

A host of BSchools have embarked on innovation in curriculum design and pedagogy to overcome some of the allegations regarding these.Authors cite the Stanford’s Critical Analysis Thinking(CAT) as an example.The authors then list how the institutions have chosen to respond to the concerns and challenges by picking sample institutions.

In the conclusion, the authors suggest that there is a need for rebalancing between practice and knowledge.And MBAs should have better organizational skills(the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ skills).And they underscore the need for reshaping the curriculum in line with this.

The book has been written well with lot of data on BSchools, admissions,faculty strength etc etc.The bok also must have come at the time when the whole world has raised serious questions about the very relevance of the MBA course.

But a few concerns for the readers remain.For example, why Centre for Creative Leadership has been considered as one of the respondents?CCL is not fundamentally an MBA institution. Another concern is about the respondent institutions.In the sample of five institutions(after removing CCL), four are from the us and one from Europe.Such a study should have included responses of institutions from across the globe rather than a skewed sample from the US.

The authors have also expressed that “these criticisms are surely overstated “ while talking about the recent economic crisis and the role of leadership in many companies who were alumni of some of the best-in-class BSchools. The reviewer, an MBA and teaching at MBA levels for the past 15 years, feels that there is a serious problem in the way fresh MBAs perceive the world.While we claim that MBA education is professional education, the definition of profession is not necessarily reflected in their behaviour and conduct.They are highly competitive but a large majority of them are self-centred with practically no concern for their co-workers and the society at large;altruism is not a hallmark in them.