We are at the crossroads, where a serious introspection is compulsory in fine tuning the curriculum and focus extra on moral leadership. The fresh sub prime crisis and the resultant economic crisis had several critics wondering if the education imparted in Business schools (B-schools) globally focussed more on ruthless result achievement than reliable leadership with a important degree of moral and ethical consciousness. This has led to the inclusion of credit courses on ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. At Great Lakes for instance, students are taught management training from the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita to make them more conscious of their responsibility towards the society. This is where the East scores over the West; our principles go back several centuries and we are capable with a wealth of literature which serves as a guiding principle.
From a trade standpoint, this development of professionals towards academics was a nice thing - they were able to right-size and also had access to talent which was rightpriced instead of what progressive economic conditions and inflation would generally price them at. From the stand-point of academics, the resultant team from which institutions got to choose their students were of very high quality in terms of prior work experience and qualifications. We would say that persons took the chance and changed the grim circumstances to what possibly will be described as a winwin situation.
I believe that management education allows the technically accomplished to value the other side of business. It helps them recognize the implications of their decisions and contributions.
Case studies and experiential interludes are the best ways of doing this. I pioneered the LEAP format in Kellogg that I have start to be extremely successful in bridging this gap. This involves a set of things such as short internships with companies, problem-solving throughout case studies, empirical study as well as inviting relevant and particular industry practitioners to visit and deliver guest lectures.