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REDESIGNED WITH YOU IN MIND. www.dardenbusinesspublishing.com The Darden Case Collection contains · thousands of cases, technical notes, and teaching notes · fi eld-researched materials featuring prominent companies · free inspection copies · instant electronic delivery EXPLORE SUGGESTED CASES IDEAL FOR SPECIFIC PROGRAMS ADVANCE BROWSING CAPABILITIES— SEARCH BY CATEGORY, INDUSTRY, AUTHOR, AND DATE STAY CURRENT WITH DARDEN AUTHORS' LATEST PRODUCT OFFERINGS In your book, you note that if you had a heart-to-heart with a CEO, the first thing you'd ask is, "How much of your budget is being channeled toward innovation and making a unique product?" What would you ask a business school dean? I would ask, "Are you confident that you are preparing your students for the world of business as it will be ten years from now, rather than for the world of business as it exists right now?" I also would ask, "What are you doing with your curriculum and research that would have your competitors scratching their heads and thinking, 'These guys must be crazy'?" I've had many conversations with deans at business schools about what we're doing at MLab, and they're uni- versally enthusiastic about it. But when it comes to the prac- tical implications of having to change their own models, they find it enormously difficult to get their heads around that idea. When we look at business model innovation, we learn that the things that ultimately make a difference were often seen in their inception as practically crazy by the incumbents. If you're not trying at least a few of those "out there, on the edge" experiments, your business school is not embracing innovation. What do you think the b-school landscape will look like ten years from now? I think there will be more online and diploma programs that are focused on particular needs, that aren't full-fledged, two-year MBA programs. There will be more flexibility in the curriculum in terms of the pace at which students earn their degrees. I think there will be more emphasis on clini- cal learning, on getting out and integrating the theoretical lessons of the classroom in practice. I do think there will be many opportunities for business schools to reinvent them- selves. To what extent those opportunities are going to be exploited, I don't know. What do you hope your work will ultimately accomplish? The world is becoming more turbulent faster than our organizations are becoming more adaptable. There are problems that we should be working on and speaking to, and society is desperate for answers to these challenges. The world deserves better organizations that are better managed and more humane. My motivation in all of this is that I believe that most organizations are less adaptable and less inventive than the people who work there. I meet many ordinary folks who have changed course mid-career. They've gone back to school, moved across continents, and dealt with enormous tragedies. They've risen to those kinds of challenges. Human beings are adaptable and innovative, but somehow the way we manage human beings seems to leach those qualities out of them. How do you build organizations that are as human as the people who work there? For me, that's a very important quest. ■ z BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 25