At the same time I would say ‘No’, because we are not the cause of to respond to that class in a meaningful way. When all the responses
the global economic crisis. But while this is true, we should have are posted, everyone has an opportunity to read each other’s comments;
been more diligent certainly, we should have been teaching our stu- then we ask them to go back and address some of the issues that their
dents to ask questions in a more concerted and systematic way, and colleagues have put forward and to rebut and react in a very meaningful
our scholars should have done more in terms of research and analy- way. It works and it does help.
sis in order to challenge some of the things that were occurring.
Should business schools be placing greater emphasis on risk-man-
Will the aforementioned crisis lead to lasting changes in business agement? One needs to understand the numbers side and the soft side of
school curriculums? I certainly think so. We need to push students risk management. What bothers me about risk management and a number
and faculty, not only to come to grips with the lessons that can be learned of financial courses is that they are all very numbers oriented; you run statis-
from this particular crisis, but also to take on new ideas and theories as tical programs or create a financial model with a view to postulating a best
they emerge. This includes things like understanding the various causes or worse case scenario, but ultimately it comes down to a number. One can
of the crisis; how events and occurrences became intertwined, whether say that the business of business is making a profit; but in a capitalistic so-
they’re related to housing policy, the role of speculators in the economy, ciety people need to understand it’s not just a number. A colleague of mine
or the extent to which banks did or did not perform etc. states ‘the soft side of business is the hard side.’
There must be changes in the curriculum. We are seeing this already; We have to make our students and society understand the real im-
particularly in our finance and economics school. Change must also be plications of their professional behavior, we need to stress market
applicable to marketing courses. failures and imperfections and help people understand why they
have failed, and the likelihood of repeated failures in the future.
Yes, change is inevitable; it probably won’t come as fast as it should, but
it will probably take place in the better universities fairly quickly. leadership
What role does the student culture of the business school play in this ever-changing economy, how important are strong leader-
in building ethical mBA graduates? We are placing a great deal of ship skills and to what extent is this addressed throughout the
emphasis on ethics and leading an organization in an ethical manner. program? The executive who enrolls in an executive MBA program
We feel so strongly about this that we actually lead off with the afore- wants to advance and take on more leadership. Therefore, by definition,
mentioned topics in our first residency and then reinforce the concepts every online EMBA needs to address and readdress leadership issues.
in all of our courses. The aim is to build a culture within our student One of our goals is to help people improve their leadership abilities.
bodies that incorporates strong personal ethics. Ultimately, we want
people to take responsibility for their actions. We start with a 360-degree analysis of students. We provide them
with feedback on their leadership style and compare them to oth-
When we talk about culture in an online setting, where the students are ers in their work group, with their employees, peers and superiors.
not interacting on a regular basis with each other and faculty face-to-face, Through the course, and with the aid of some additional coaching,
how does one emphasize culture and ethics within an organizational set- we work with students to develop a customized plan of work for
ting? Our solution is to put up discussion questions, some of which will the next 15 months. These plans are very personalized and depend
relate to cultural ethical issues. Everyone in the first half of the week has upon the entry point of the student.
78 | CEO
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