Economic Crisis and Business Schools...

ABC has a very interesting radio program investigating whether business schools have some responsibility in the declining economy.

Talking about how MBA's are supposed to train managers:

"You cannot create a manager in the classroom, let alone a leader. You simply can't. Management is not a science, it's not a profession, it's a practice. You learn it by doing it. To claim that you're training people who are not managers to be managers is a sham. You can't do it." [1]

A retired professor who pioneered business schools was asked the following question: "What are the benefits of a business education?" and answered that...

"there are three benefits:

1. To equip students with a vocabulary that enables them to talk with authority about subjects they did not understand.
2. Give students principles that would demonstrate their ability to withstand any amount of disconfirming evidence.
3. Give students a ticket of admission to job where they could learn something about management." [1]

Other interesting quotes:

" The characteristic of the new age of management profession is improving the number, not improving the product." [1]

"The case-study method trains people to be make decisions about things they know nothing about in their guts and in their soul." [1]

Link:

1. ABC: Background Briefing, MBA: Mostly bloody aweful, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2009/2526727.htm>