Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads [Hardcover]

Srikant Datar (Author), David A. Garvin (Author), Patrick G. Cullen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2010

"Business Schools Face Test of Faith." "Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools?" As these headlines make clear, business education is at a major crossroads.

For decades, MBA graduates from top-tier schools set the standard for cutting-edge business knowledge and skills. Now the business world has changed, say the authors of Rethinking the MBA, and MBA programs must change with it. Increasingly, managers and recruiters are questioning conventional business education.

Their concerns? Among other things, MBA programs aren't giving students the heightened cultural awareness and global perspectives they need. Newly minted MBAs lack essential leadership skills. Creative and critical thinking demand far more attention.

In this compelling and authoritative new book, the authors:


· Document a rising chorus of concerns about business schools gleaned from extensive interviews with deans and executives, and from a detailed analysis of current curricula and emerging trends in graduate business education

· Provide case studies showing how leading MBA programs have begun reinventing themselves for the better

· Offer concrete ideas for how business schools can surmount the challenges that come with reinvention, including securing faculty with new skills and experimenting with new pedagogies

Rich with examples and thoroughly researched, Rethinking the MBA reveals why and how business schools must define a better pathway for the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Is business education becoming more like the liberal arts? If the question is, 'are we trying to teach more about how to be a well-rounded human being who happens to be practicing business,' the answer is absolutely, 'yes.'"

—David Garvin in The Atlantic, July 14, 2010

About the Author

Srikant M. Datar is the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University. David A. Garvin is the C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Patrick G. Cullen is a research associate at the Harvard Business School.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; 1ST edition (April 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422131645
• ISBN-13: 978-1422131640
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.3 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #586,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for educators and MBA seekers! November 19, 2010

By Ho Kheong Tan

Format:Hardcover

This is a must read for educators and MBA seekers.
I hardly come across a book that was written with such details and clarity. It is amazing that 3 academics from Harvard Business School were able to write with such clear prose, discuss the MBA programmes of top 20 US MBA programmes without biases, and include detailed description of the MBA programmes and maintain exhilarating reading pace.
For the educators, Srikant M.Data, David A. Garvin and Patrick G. Cullen described how the top MBA programmes are using innovative approaches to a address 8 social and business concers;
1. Gaining a global perspective
2. Developing leadership skills
3. Honing integrative skills
4. Recognising organizational realities and implementing effectively
5. Acting creatively and innovatively
6. Thinking critically and communicating clearly
7. Understanding the role, responsibilities, and purpose of business
8. Understanding the limits of models and markets
The authors' insights and description of how top Business Schools design and develop their programmes could also be used in any Undergraduate programmes .
For MBA seekers, the authors devoted 6 separate chapters to provide detailed description of courses at 6 top US Business School;
1. University of Chicago Booth School of Business
2. Insead
3. The Center for Creative Leadership
4. Harvard Business School
5. Stanford Graduate School of Business
6. Yale School of Management
MBA seekers will have better understanding of and preparation for the demanding and torturous training programmes that they will undergo. At the same time, they could judge how these programmes will meet their needs. Even if they were to choose other Business School, they will be able to demand similar programmes or a hybrid of the staples of these MBA programmes.
It is a great book to keep! Why?
Because the authors have included so much details that you could develop your own in-house programme from it!

4.0 out of 5 stars Presents How B-Schools Got Where They Are and Current Trends - Future Direction Remains To Be Seen, May Need Further Rethinking April 12, 2013

By Fred Cheyunski

Format:Hardcover

For this reviewer, it was interesting to get the authors' take on business education's current status and prospects (with his background as a consultant for major firms and since being a B-school graduate, former staff member, adjunct faculty and visiting class speaker some time ago, the update was appreciated). Like other reviewers, this one concurs that the book is well researched and written. However, while the authors present the dilemmas schools confront, they (not surprisingly given their vantage as professors) seem to take quite an optimistic view with respect to schools' ability to respond, which remains to be seen.

After a helpful overview, the authors summarize their findings such as the declines in 2 year full time curricula in favor of condensed, part-time and/or executive programs. A brief historical overview explains the delicate positioning of business schools in universities and the pressures for more scholarly and academic rigor over the years. Detailing the criticisms of B-schools, they explain ways schools are often over analytical, do not address important business needs, and underemphasize important topics and skills.

The authors go on to highlight eight broad needs including the importance of developing global perspective, leadership skills, cross-functional integration, comprehension of organizational realities, creativity and innovative thinking, oral and written communication, understanding of the role and purpose of business as well as the limits of markets and models. They review a wide range of programmatic and curricular responses in leading schools. The authors indicate that schools are generally more responsive to the first 3 needs, but are still wrestling with how to respond in other areas. For instance, they discuss while experiential learning is considered the best way to teach organizational realities, few schools have mastered this approach.

Recognizing the fall-out from economic recession and scandals, the authors acknowledge that business executives are regarded with suspicion. They also confirm that the majority of graduates still prefer jobs in financial services and consulting where the opportunities are not as readily available as they once where. However, the authors specify that major needs for B-school talent are in other areas such as in entrepreneurial, functional management, corporate, non-profit or NGO arenas. They acknowledge the challenges in attracting those who want to "change the world" and shifting courses to more of a "doing and being" orientation (from "knowing and having?").

The authors' stance is that the kinds of B-school innovations and the initiatives covered in the book will address the concerns schools face. It remains to be seen if the authors' optimism will be fulfilled and /or whether further answers are needed - the "rethinking" may have to be "re-thought." This book and others such are Christensen's "The Innovative University" are useful in looking at these questions.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough examination of the state of the MBA November 5, 2010

By Rolf Dobelli HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Authors Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin and Patrick G. Cullen have done their work very well. Their examination of the current state of the master of business administration (MBA) degree touches on the nature of education, the nature of higher education as an institution and culture, and the conceptual and practical demands that business places on education and employees. Though one might question citing the best MBA programs in the U.S. to represent business education as a whole, the authors' examples are nicely specific, their prose is clear, and their commentary is honest and revealing. getAbstract recommends their book to a cluster of readers: those seeking MBAs, those running MBA programs, anyone in human resources and anyone interested in corporate culture. This text could also serve as a model of disciplinary self-evaluation for educators running other programs.