Brewed Fresh Daily

Cookie-cutter programs are producing look-alike MBAs. Contemporary companies want creative, collaborative thinkers and leaders. When John Reed, longtime chairman of Citicorp, accepted the Academy of Management�s Distinguished Executive of the Year award in 1999, he ended his acceptance speech by challenging his audience of elite academics. �The business community knows full well that business schools perform a useful function [in] sorting potential hires,� he said. �The schools sort out from the general population those who are more ambitious, more energetic, more willing to subject themselves to two years without income�. But the real question is: Do you give these students a set of skills that is going to serve them well over their careers?� His answer, in 1999, was: �On average, clearly the answer is yes.� In his view, business schools were doing a reasonable job preparing their students for fulfilling careers. But in 2003 our answer is: �On average� is not good enough anymore. Whether your company is a bank, a consultancy, a manufacturer, or any other sort of business enterprise, the current MBA education offered at most U.S. graduate business schools does not, in our view, adequately prepare people � even those attending the top schools � for the tougher-than-average challenges they will face when they start careers at leading corporations.