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I'd like to hear suggestions from the industry professionals,
consultants, and other educators on this list about where you are seeing
specific weaknesses in new graduates coming out of business schools, today
--and I'd welcome some constructive suggestions as to how list members
think management education programs can be improved.

In the topic stream entitled "On Leadership vs Management", Rick
Corcoran asked academicians:

"Who do you see as the customer?...the student or
businesses that hire? If you see it as the businesses that hire,
what have you done to find out what companies are doing and what
they need in applicants coming right out of college?"

I think these questions are vitally important.

Personally, Rick, I see _both_the students and the industries that
hire them as the larger service market mix of customers that education
needs to satisfy and to serve. The challenge faced by the academy,-- or
one of them at least--, is to serve both segments.

One of the most important trends in the last ten to fifteen years
has been the willingness of business schools to "partner" with industry in
several ways: to bring industry practitioners on campus as visiting faculty
members; to bring academics into industry for faculty internships or as
facilitators for on-site classes/programs; and to create guest speaker
programs throughout the school year so that students are able to dialogue
with industry leaders about what it takes to survive in industry, today.

In addition to the above, many schools have created networking
opportunities via various kinds of mentor and internship programs designed
to pair students with industry professionals who may be able to assist the
student in finding an entry level position. Also, faculty encourage
students to join professional associations while still in school and, in
some cases, students receive assistance via the associations to attend
yearly conferences in their area of interests, yet another vehicle designed
to encourage exposure and networking with many important contacts in the
field.

Surely, the above attempts to make management education more
relevant don't always work as well as we want them to, so there is always
room for continuous re-evaluation and on-going development, for sure.
Hence, my post to this list.

I'm sure I'm not alone in welcoming all sorts of constructive
suggestions about improving the quality of management education. I think
that everyone on this list realizes that heavy workloads are the culprits
in terms of why more educators and industry professionals probably don't
dialogue as much as any of us would otherwise prefer, --one major reason
why this list discussion opportunity seems to be such a wonderfully rich
resource for all of us. Thank you to everyone for the great discussion!
I'm learning so much from all of you.

Michele Grottola
ABD, Cornell University
Adjunct Instructor--NLU/Chicago
College of Management and Business

Michele Grottola wrote:
>
> I'd like to hear suggestions from the industry professionals,
> consultants, and other educators on this list about where you are seeing
> specific weaknesses in new graduates coming out of business schools, today
> --and I'd welcome some constructive suggestions as to how list members
> think management education programs can be improved.


Michele,

You've hit on at least two critical issues in business education.

The first has to do with our serving two masters. My research indicated that in
nearly every
survey of business managers about what they wanted from new hires, or what they
saw lacking
in their new hires, the ability to communicate effectively, both writing and
speaking, came out
first. In those few in which it didn't, first place went to "broadly educated,
ability to change (be
placed in different positions in the firm) and communication skills came in
second.

CAVEAT: although this research included analyzing over two dozen such surveys of
executives, it took place ten years ago. However, in informal discussions with
business persons
in the interim I've detected no change. If anyone has more recent info to
dispute or support,
please let us know.)

So business educators, sensitive to the expressed needs of middle and top
managers
consturcted programs to satisfy those needs. Unfortunately, the reality of they
way companies
hire new managers contradicts their own top management, because recruiters who
go around
to college campuses are trying to fill slots and seek new graduates with
specific skills to fill
openings in functional areas of the firm.

The result as you can imagine is that we now serve two masters. We have to
satisfy the
recruiters because if our graduates can't get jobs, pretty soon we don't get
students. At the
same time, if we don't prepare students to be able to grow and take on more
responsibility in
their jobs, then our newly hired graduates don't get promoted.

The other major problem area you've hit upon is the deficiencies of graduating
students. It
seems to me based on my own experience that communication skills still ranks up
there as a
serious lack. To that I would add a disturbing lack of what might be called a
sense of
responsibility, ethics, an internalized belief that being in business does not
convey the right to
do things they might not do in their personal lives. Too many students believe
that being in
business allows them to lie (exaggerate or fail to disclose something) in the
name of profit, or
bend the rules, or mistreat employees, etc.

I've occupied too many bytes already, filling up all those mailboxes.Still
getting ready for that
first class of the term tomorrow. Sorry.

Laurie P.