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The Dean's Editorial

A crisis of leadership

If there is a silver lining to the recent global economic crisis, it’s the round of self-evaluation triggered among businesses, governments and educational institutions around the world. Everyone is questioning their role and asking themselves what they can do differently to prevent or mitigate a similar situation in the future. It’s clear that the time is ripe for change.

Business schools, in particular, are casting a critical eye on the way they operate, re-evaluating their selection process, enrolment levels, program length, classroom size, curricula, teaching methods and—perhaps most importantly—how they measure success.

Management training is in high demand, with more and more students viewing business education as a wise investment. As educators, our job must remain to provide students with the information and training they need not only to flourish in the business world, but to be responsible leaders and global citizens.

The process begins with careful screening to ensure that classrooms are filled with individuals who have integrity and a strong sense of personal and social responsibility. Next, business schools must confirm the importance of rigor, with a curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking, thorough analysis and prudent reflection over impulsive decision making, oversimplification and dogmatic ideology.

For too many people, management training has been characterized as “common sense” rather than an academic discipline backed by theory and research. Dispelling this myth must be our top priority.

It’s crucial that business school graduates come away with a clear understanding and appreciation of the complex links among social, environmental and business spheres. These leaders in training must look beyond short-term indicators to consider the broader, long-term implications of their business decisions.

I would argue that the current situation is as much a crisis of leadership as it is an economic crisis. Leadership is neither an innate quality nor something taught in a classroom, but rather a skill that can be nurtured and strengthened in the right setting. For business schools, the challenge is creating an environment that fosters leadership.

Bernard RAMANANTSOA
Dean of HEC Paris and Chairman of CEMS

This text is the The Dean’s Editorial of the HEC Paris Corporate Newsletter #25