Are MBAs and biz schools to blame for recent eco crisis?

Published on Sat, Aug 07, 2010 at 14:55 |  Source : CNBC-TV18

Updated at Sat, Aug 07, 2010 at 20:25  

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Are MBAs and biz schools to blame for recent eco crisis?

He's taken over as Dean of Harvard Business School at a time when businessmen and their methods are being questioned by governments, regulators and the public at large. In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18's Anuradha Sengupta Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria spoke about the perception problems faced by the business community globally, and what changes he's making at the school to set that right.

Here is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: What are the key challenges you see them or the urgent changes that need to be made?

A: I have been appointed dean at a time when business as a whole and business education as a result has found itself at an inflection point. We have just come through the great economic crisis in the US-businesses have come under attack in all kinds of ways, trust in business leadership has been lost, many people are worried that business schools and the leaders that they have educated in some ways may in part have even been responsible for the crisis that was created. So you might imagine that being a business school dean right now is being put in a hot seat because there is a lot of expectation.

Q: Is it about damaged control if it was a corporation in a literal sense?

A: There was some amount of damage control but more than that I think there is also an extraordinary amount of opportunity on the other side of this crisis as well because even though we have been worried a lot about what is going on in the past, if you look to the future, it is actually a time in history when the need for innovation is so immense that it is staggering.

Think about the problems that the world faces whether it would be the environment and the need for us to find ways to either on the supply side create new fuels but on the demand side to create more efficient cars, whether you look at healthcare with an aging population all around the world, India maybe a slight exception, but nevertheless and we have to cure cancer, we have to find treatments for some other things that will allow people to live longer and healthier lives. There are opportunities in every field of human endeavour to take on major challenges that will affect the prosperity of humanity.

Q: Currently does the world think that MBAs are not ready to cope?

A: I think the world is not sure that MBAs are going to contribute to this problem and this is what I think business education has to address-which is business leaders have always been admired because they have solved society's most significant and pressing problems. It is not the only player but think about anything important that has been done, whether it be the clothes we wear, the materials we consume, great technologies like the internet, any product or service you would imagine including financial products that have created prosperity for so many people. Business has been a vital part of creating prosperity throughout the world and if you look at the challenges that lie ahead, I think business has this opportunity yet again. I believe in fact that the next century is going to be a century of remarkable innovation and what I wanted to do at Harvard Business School, in fact my vision for this school, is that we should be thinking about ushering a new century of innovation at Harvard Business School and to usher a new century of innovation in business education.

  

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