MBA 2.0

Business schools can remain vital in the years ahead—if they reinvent themselves as intellectual hubs that tackle big problems

By Dipak C. Jain
                    

The current economic crisis is good in this way at least: It focuses the mind and provides an opportunity for reflection, renewal, and responsibility. Cold comfort, maybe, but business-as-usual cannot flourish in this environment, nor should it. As business practitioners now take a long look in the mirror to figure out the next step, so too should business schools examine how they can position themselves to meet the needs of an uncertain global market.

The best will do so by understanding that their mission is more important than ever, since business occupies a space at the convergence of many fields—from the social sciences to the physical and life sciences. Acting on this insight, business schools can become interdisciplinary knowledge centers inspired by diverse ideas and a passionate engagement with the world. If the marketplace is too complicated for clear prediction, then leaders instead must learn to anticipate change, managing with the knowledge that comes from multiple sources and perspectives. These schools will unite science and philosophy to let students make data-driven arguments that create actionable processes that deliver results.

Equally important, by turning imagination and analysis upon serious social challenges—poverty, hunger, environmental degradation—business schools can redouble their efforts to produce successful, significant graduates who make the world a better and safer place. Top schools will understand that the curriculum must go beyond traditional notions of business education. They will cultivate an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach that focuses on global leadership as well as functional expertise.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

First, though, the schools themselves must keep evolving.

Here again, collaboration is key to build on the strengths of existing models while moving beyond the insular silos and sometimes narrow focus that has historically proven successful for business schools and their stakeholders.

While business has always found valuable ways to engage customers, academics and practitioners alike typically have not focused on the most pressing matters—these were considered someone else's job, often the government's. Now, though, people expect more from business, too. They want business to take an active part in addressing issues, such as disease and pollution management or educational innovation, that impact millions of people worldwide.

To fulfill these expectations, expect business professors to reach out to colleagues in medicine, law, public policy, engineering, media, and elsewhere. We have already seen how changes in communications technology have impacted intellectual-property rights. So some business schools have modified their offerings, partnering with law school peers to create a framework that helps manage in this new climate. Other challenges, such as combating diseases like HIV/AIDS, are resulting in cross-disciplinary collaboration among business, engineering, and medical schools, as well as with partners in the for- and not-for-profit worlds. A range of geopolitical, technological, and environmental problems demands that we design better solutions—and quickly. The innovation required to meet such challenges cannot be generated in isolation.

Central Role for B-Schools

Externally, too, there will be innovative partnerships, even among traditional rivals, as academic institutions try to solve emerging problems. Some of these relationships may seem odd at first, as opponents realize the power of working together and find win-win ways to harness each other's strengths. In fact, though, the future of competition looks a lot like collaboration.

Business schools provide the ideal home for this collaboration, in part because the modern business school draws its faculty from various disciplines, such as economics, psychology, sociology, industrial engineering, and mathematics. But in addition, these schools teach how to synthesize information and design the systems that bring innovation to market in a valuable way.

Today, the task is to apply this expertise more broadly.

This revitalized role for business schools looks promising. But it won't happen without the commitment of university leaders. To start, better communication among colleges universitywide can lead to new collaborative opportunities. This conversation must extend off-campus too, and engage frontline practitioners working to solve problems.

Administrators also must design incentives carefully—including mechanisms in the faculty tenure and promotion process—that encourage interdisciplinary research and inventive, reasoned risk-taking. Other institutional support is important, too; research centers and programming that encourage cross-boundary discussion, such as conferences and symposia where academics from various fields come together, will help transform business schools into knowledge hubs.

Students for an Improved Society

These schools can adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to curriculum, teaching, and research. The classroom itself should be an incubator for business plans that later become real ventures—including those like One Acre Fund, whose mission is fighting hunger in Africa, and which was started by a student at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management (Kellogg MBA Profile).

No matter what, schools must stay close to stakeholders, like recruiters, to remain aware of market demand, trends, and possible future developments. Of course students are central too, and schools should inspire in these people a passion for possibility. Students should see the MBA degree as a way to earn a great living, but also as a vehicle to create enduring social value.

If business schools want to transform themselves into knowledge hubs, they must rethink their value proposition in light of today's global challenges. Not surprising, this reevaluation extends to the admissions process: To leap beyond the traditional, schools must attract those who share a vision for the big role that leadership can play in improving both the bottom line and the planet.

It is this spirit that will reemphasize the pervasive value of management education.

Dipak C. Jain is dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he is also the Sandy and Morton Goldman Professor in Entrepreneurial Studies and a professor of marketing. Jain wrote this article in collaboration with Matt Golosinski, executive editor, Office of the Dean.