Harvard Business School launched the MBA degree 100 years ago.
HBS marked the occasion by interviewing 30 deans and associate deans and roughly 100 students of various business schools. I’ll give HBR Alumni Bulletin good marks for candor, for reporting that “The findings presented a mixed diagnosis of the health of MBA programs but on balance were, in the words of one HBS faculty member, ‘depressing’.”
Professors Srikant Datar and David Garvin wrote that MBAs graduated with valuable, current business and management knowledge in my generation, but now you can learn just as much at an in-house program at a major financial institution or consulting firm. Business schools are faulted for not getting globalization right.
Many MBAs don’t understand the practice of leadership or have sufficient awareness of their impact on others.
“A number of recruiters said that what they value most is the screening process top schools use to pick students, and a few preferred to recruit straight from a school’s admission list.”
Things were worse before wake-up call generated by a 1959 Ford Foundation report that characterized MBA programs as vocational in content and indefensible in quality.
What should HBS do now? Datar and Garvin heard recruiters asking for more soft skills such as self-awareness and the capacity for introspection and empathy. They also found MBAs lacking in critical and creative thinking, as well as communication skills.
HBS Dean Jay Light said, “Throughout our history, we’ve had periods of frank self-reflection. The Centennial has provided an opportunity to assess the impact of significant innovaitons over the past few decades in the context of a rapidly changing world– to step back and see the forest and the trees.”
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