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54 November/ December 2014 BizEd DAVE CUTLE R thinking. The overarching goal is to develop managers who think critically about important issues, make decisions responsibly, and develop strong, compassionate, moral values. ■ The blended learning model. While early distance learning pro- grams combined structured tutori- als with face-to-face teaching, more recent versions also incorporate real-world experience. For instance, Open University in the U.K. retains faculty who produce and update core materials—but it also increas- ingly brings practice-based experi- ences into the classroom. Students share learning experiences and make a virtue of action learning. (Read more about the OU model in "Open Season," which appeared on page 30 of the September/Octo- ber 2012 issue of BizEd.) OU isn't the only school that combines a strong IT platform with an investment in faculty resources. The same attitudes prevail at tra- ditional schools with strong online presences, such as Indiana University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the U.S., University of Warwick and Henley Business School in the U.K., and Instituto de Empresa in Spain. ■ The stakeholder model. While many business schools still argue for stakeholder primacy, new educa- tional options emphasize all stake- holders. For instance, the 50+20 Project: Management Education for the World aims to provide educa- tion and research that is relevant and applied, holistic and integrated, responsible and sustainable, and interdisciplinary and multileveled. This partnership argues that, in the future, business schools should be judged on the skills and quality of their graduates. The project's broad stakeholder vision stresses managerial relevance and embraces a collaborative form of socially responsible, democratic capitalism. Graduates master holistic decision making, which takes social and environmental factors into account, as well as entrepreneurship, leader- ship, and critical thinking. ■ A radical model. Different from all of these is the Lorange Institute of Business Zurich in Switzerland, which links the class- room, the real world, and the business disciplines in an uncon- ventional pedagogical fashion. It has no departmental silos, minimal full-time faculty, and no academic tenure. Above all else, the Lorange Institute—founded by this article's co-author Peter Lorange—provides a forum for debating alternative business school designs. The institute's primary offering is a flexible EMBA designed for work- ing executives, who take between two and five years to complete the 13 two-day modules and five two- week modules. In a typical class- room, a teacher delivers a 20-min- ute lecture, which is followed by 20 minutes of small-group debate and a 20-minute plenary discussion in an "open-plan" design, which reinforces learning. The cross-dis- ciplinary curriculum is taught by a network of part-time visiting profes- sors—most of them academics, but some of them leading practitioners from firms and consultancies. The school also eschews the typical bureaucratic administration by outsourcing functions such as accounting, public relations, and IT. An open office structure encourages efficiency and interaction between occupants—for instance, Lorange works at a large table in the lobby area. Such a low degree of bureau- cracy allows the school to maintain lower costs and to respond quickly to student needs. (More details about the Lorange Institute can be found in "A New Model for Management Education," which appeared on page 38 of the Janu- ary/February 2010 issue of BizEd.) What's Next? As these examples show, business schools of the future do not have to pattern themselves after elite U.S. institutions, which usually change slowly and incrementally. In fact, our hope is that, in the future, the global and competitive nature of management education will result in far more diversity in business school models. We also hope to see continued experimen- tation and innovation as business schools redefine themselves for the 21st century. Howard Thomas is dean and LKCSB Chair in Strategic Management at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University. Peter Lorange is owner and president of the Lorange Institute of Business Zurich in Switzerland. Jagdish Sheth is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Mar- keting at Emory University's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Georgia.