I don’t know what it is about business schools these days, but boy have we ever become the object of increasing attention. What’s the matter, are there not enough other things going on in the economy to write about? Have the credit crunch, subprime fallout, and prospects for a recession become passé? Or are we just easy targets?

I’ve written a bit in past blogs (see here and here) about how the relevance of our research has become a topic of considerable debate among academics and non-academics alike. Now, our curriculum has come into question. I would refer you to an interesting article that appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal questioning whether we’ve failed in achieving our larger, societal mission (Business Schools Forgetting Mission?). The journal writes:

B-schools…have lost track of their original mission to produce far-sighted leaders who can help the economy run better…M.B.A. training has deteriorated into a race to steer students into high-paying finance and consulting jobs without caring about the graduates’ broader roles in society…Panoramic, long-term thinking has given way to an almost grotesque obsession with maximizing shareholder value over increasingly brief spans…As a result…getting an advanced degree in business no longer amounts to entry into a full-fledged profession, like law or medicine. It’s just a badge that lets graduates latch onto situations where they can jostle the actual managers of companies and make a lot of money for themselves in the process.

The article goes on to conclude:

In the current environment, many brilliant young M.B.A.s don’t aspire to be corporate chief executive officers, who struggle to uphold their agendas against pressure from all sides. These students would rather be consultants who earn big money fomenting change. Better yet, they want to be the powerful investors who hire and fire CEOs. Until those dynamics change, it will be hard for top business schools to resume their traditional — and vital — role as training grounds for the next generation of corporate leaders.

I think these are important questions to ask. At its essence, the argument is rooted in decades-old questions about whether stakeholder or shareholder maximization models achieve more desirable social outcomes. I would, however, disagree with the assertion that students no longer yearn to be CEO’s. I’ve had no trouble finding students who long for that role. What I have found, however, is a greater desire among students to lead firms that they themselves have founded (whether an investment, consulting, marketing, or some other kind of firm).

Granted, the WSJ article is mainly meant to summarize the views from a book recently authored by Rakesh Khurana of Harvard. Nevertheless, judging by what’s been written about business schools of late, you’d think that we are facing an outright crisis of confidence. Given all the controversy, I’m just wondering what will they come up with next.

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