It seems that on a fairly regular basis I read articles about the sweeping changes in MBA programs around the country, or in business education, or in other related disciplines. Yet, it seems in the day to day very little is changing. More importantly, there is very little opportunity for change.
Everyone who is attuned to the situation knows both that the current system, while the best we have, is vastly inadequate in preparing the managers of the information age. Quite a few people are also clear that the challenge is in teaching critical thinking, inventive problem solving, cross disciplinary worldview and practical business experience. Yet, and maybe I should blame the Milwaukee backwaters, I have not had a chance to see a program that really incorporates these elements in to it. Perhaps more disturbing, it seems very hard to initiate these conversations with the people who control the purse strings.
Not that they don’t want to. It’s just that it would be a completely new process and they are not really comfortable with that. And who can blame them. The current system has sustained them through their lifetime and appears to be working sufficiently well to survive in to their retirement.
So, the problem is not with them, but rather with myself in that the ideas are not refined well enough to catch traction and in that they are not being pitched to the right audience. It is the fundamental problem of solution looking for its market. I know who will benefit, but that is not the market, rather I must ask myself the question who can pay for it and attack that market vigorously.
But for now, I must focus on the small steps of overcoming the challenge of not being plugged in.
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