MBA Channel Barbara Bierach, 24 July, 2012

Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño

To report on all of the author’s answers to these questions would mean to re-create the whole book. Let’s therefore concentrate on what he has to say about business schools as institutions and the question if they are up to the task to develop good managers and entrepreneurs.

First of all the author states that “management can still be one of the noblest vocations in the world” since he regards good management as one of the best antidotes to most of the world’s ills. Therefore business schools have to produce managers, and not MBAs. That’s not the same thing, he acknowledges, referring to the critics who claim that business schools attract the wrong people, teach them in the wrong way and produce graduates who are arrogant and overconfident.

Iñiguez de Onzoño ponders the criticism, but he still believes that good management and righteous behaviour can be taught, if education is a “personal transformation process”. “Business schools can provide a valuable platform for cultivating a series of virtues such as hard work, endurance, self-organisation, modesty and common sense.” Good managers, though, are forged over the course of their career, based on the repeated practice of the basic skills. The book is called “The Learning Curve” after all and the analogy is valid: in the end good management is the result of continued learning over a period of time.

Business school can only be a stepping stone, though, but an important one nevertheless. As a result, Iñiguez de Onzoño believes that business schools should provide a more “integrated and rounded education”. Too much specialization has undesirable consequences, he feels: the “silo syndrome” and a narrowed perspective. IE Business School already introduced a number of humanities’ courses as core part of the curriculum. The author also supports the idea of INSEAD’s former dean Frank Brown who suggested “refresher” courses to be given every five years after graduation from an MBA. Wharton and Harvard already provide free top-up training to MBA alumni after seven years.”Other business schools will follow suit,” expects the author.

Iñiguez de Onzoño’s book is no surprise. He spends his life teaching management at a business school and must believe that good managers can be taught and that business schools are the place to do that. Nevertheless, the book is a worthwhile read. Firstly, he sums up all the challenges for business schools and then, secondly, gives an honest account what he feels must be done to keep schools abreast of the learning curve.

If you expect a hands-on report on how to get into a prestigious school and to thrive in it, you will be disappointed. Iñiguez de Onzoño’s book digs far deeper, challenging the future of business education as such, if many universities continue to bow to the commercial interests of the companies that finance their research, if they continue to treat students as “customers” and not as students and if their business schools do not manage to deal with the notion that they foster greed and arrogance.

The other side of IE Professors: Santiago Iñiguez, Dean of IE Business School and President of IE University

Santiago takes us from Beijing, China to Segovia Spain and tells us why it is important to travel and see the world.

Series with Palgrave Macmillan

Business schools were the educational success story of the twentieth century. From humble beginnings in the US, they have spread to every corner of the world – and business studies is now the most popular subject among those seeking higher education. But, for all their success, business schools have also attracted critics and have been vilified for their part in educating the business leaders involved in the financial crisis. So are business schools the blueprint for the higher education institutions of the future? Or are they simply an educational experiment that went wrong? Illustrated with fascinating examples drawn from interviews with some of the most influential figures in business education around the world, this book offers a compelling road-map for educational leaders in the twenty-first century.

Book Summary

What the world needs now, more than ever before, are good managers and more entrepreneurs, not only in Business but also in Politics, Education and in all spheres of social life. Good Management and Entrepreneurship are the best antidote to many of the world’s illnesses, especially in times of crisis. The Learning Curve analyses how business schools can become effective educational hubs for the development of managers and entrepreneurs. Starting with the main trends in management education today and the criticisms targeted at business schools as a consequence of the crisis that started in 2008, the author proposes fundamental initiatives that business schools may implement to fulfill their key mission of developing good managers and entrepreneurs:

1. Fostering a new model of Faculty, denominated “Kangaroo” by the author. Differently from Gurus -intellectuals who focus mostly on generating bright ideas- Academic Kangaroos are able to jump from Research to Teaching and from there to Interacting with the actual world of business, performing in all the three facets with similar levels of excellence.
2. Bridging the Academia and the Agora, the university and the world of business. The way knowledge is generated and distributed today, along with the impact of new information and communication technologies, demands a revised role of universities in the value chain of knowledge.
3. Including Humanities in the Business Curriculum and constantly renewing the contents of business education, given the clinical and changing nature of management, the object of its study. The Author contends that managers can receive a much better rounded education if traditional business disciplines are complemented with courses from Humanities and Social Sciences. Management is not about techniques, but rather about leading people in complex organizations in a widely diverse world.
4. Further integrating Technology and Pedagogy, given the many advantages that technologies bring to a personalized learning process. In addition to the new educational platforms that extend the learning momentum asynchronously and ubiquitously, the blend of face-to-face with on-line methodologies provide a much richer, effective and personalized approach to education.
5. Identifying and developing the different forms of intelligence of students. Traditionally, analytical intelligence has been the main personal asset measured and rewarded at most educational institutions. However, other forms of intelligence, such as emotional, political and artistic can be as important as the analytical for personal and professional success. Business Schools may actively identify these alternative forms of intelligence in their selection and learning processes to better nurture innovation and creativity in their students.
6. Reinforcing the social commitment of managers. Entrepreneurs and managers can be depicted as the Architects of Social Structures when they perform their work with competence and honesty. The author also proposes that business schools devote particular attention to the learning and development of “managerial virtues” in their students.

The book also includes an analysis of the features of business education in countries such as China or India, which have become international education superpowers in recent years. It also contains a description of the increasing global convergence of business education and proposes alternative strategies for business schools to succeed in an increasingly competitive and multi-polar world. The author also proposes a definition of what could be consider a good manager. He explains that there is neither a magic formula nor other short cuts for turning somebody into a consummate manager. Good managers are made over time, based on the systematic exercise of good habits and routines, and as a result of accumulated experience of their sector and their relationships. To reach the heights of management excellence requires discipline and hard work, and is not simply achieved through the passage of time. The learning curve is steep and requires the combination of three basic conditions: (i) the systematic practice of what might be called the ‘virtues of management’; (ii) the importance of lifelong learning; and (iii) combining the study of the different management disciplines with the Humanities and other Social Sciences. In the words of Paul Danos, Dean of Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and author of the book’s Foreword, “this book is a must read for those who want a succinct analysis of what created the vast current world of management education and who want views and opinions from a key global participant in that world who does not match to the conventional drummer”.

Download press release from Palgrave Macmillan

“This book is a must read for those who want a succinct analysis of what created the vast current world of management education and who want views and opinions from a key global participant in that world who does not match to the conventional drummer.” – Paul Danos, Dean of Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and author of the book’s Foreword

“In this far-ranging assessment, Santiago Iñiguez, returns to the core question of how business schools can accelerate the development of spirited leaders, those who learn, fight, and proceed with passion and virtue.” – Ted Snyder, Dean, Yale School of Management

“Few Institutions are likely to make as many changes over the next few years than business schools – and this book brilliantly addresses this, i.e. what fundamental changes we can expect and why. Making good executive
development even better is what this book is all about!” – Peter Lorange, President, Lorange Institute of Business, Zurich (previous President of IMD)

“Santiago has actively debated his ideas on business education through a series of blogs and digital media posts over the last five or six years. Using this material as a base, he provides here a synthesis of his evolving views about the nature of business education. He also develops some comprehensive projections about the future of business schools. It is, in essence, a thorough and insightful treatment of Santiago’s passage and ‘learning curve’ from MBA student to Dean to President of a leading European business school. It is a welcome addition to the field.” – Howard Thomas, Dean and LKCSB Chair in Strategic Management, Lee Kong Chian School of Business

“Today, says Santiago Iñiguez, is a critical time for higher education generally.
It faces novel challenges in the form of new technologies, globalization, and ‘Generation Y’. The Learning Curve is based on the concept that business schools (relatively new arrivals on the higher education scene) are useful models of how to respond. This timely, comprehensive, and constructive book examines the key issues now facing all educators through the prism of the past, present, and future of the world’s leading business schools.” – Eric Cornuel, Director General and CEO, EFMD

“The Learning Curve is a must-read for anyone who believes, like I do, that quality management education is essential to a productive, healthy, and sustainable society. Professor Iñiguez draws comfortably from art, history and philosophy, as well as business strategy, to discuss the issues facing business schools as they enter an exciting, but still undefined, new era. The result is a book of crystal clear explanations, creative models, and inspired solutions.” – Dan Le Clair, Vice President and Chief Knowledge Officer, AACSB International

“So whether you are managing a software company, a hospital, a bank or a Boy Scout organization, the differences apply to only about 10 per cent of your work. This 10 per cent is determined by the organization’s specific mission, its specific culture, its specific history and its specific vocabulary. The rest is pretty much interchangeable”, Peter Drucker.

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other“, John F. Kennedy.

“Corporations and managers suffer from a profound social ambivalence” (leading theorists) Sumantra Ghoshal, Christopher Bartlett and Peter Moran.

“With the economy in disarray and so many financial firms in free fall, analysts, and even educators themselves, are wondering if the way business students are taught may have contributed to the most serious economic crisis in decades”, The New York Times.

“It’s like trying to teach psychology to a person that has never known anybody”, Henry Mintzberg.

“Today’s troubles have been driven not just by greed, but by a lack of confidence. I think the average employee, maybe a business school graduate, lacks the confidence to ask the tough questions”, Frank Brown (Dean Emeritus of INSEAD).

“To give style to one’s character — a great and rare art! He practices it who surveys all that his nature presents in strength and weakness and then moulds it to an artistic plan until everything appears as art and reason, and even the weakness delights the eye”, Nietzsche.

From The Learning Curve:

“In future those who stump up [for the cost of a business education] will do so because they want to learn the skills, not because they think they are buying entry into a cool end exclusive club”, Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times.

“A large number of employers use coaching to enhance the value of learning and this may be a growing field for executive education purchasers to maximize the value of individuals learning. Looking ahead, one of the main requirements of purchasers is a greater focus on personalized learning plans”, EFMD-Carrington Crisp.