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What's Right— Still Wrong— with Business Schools and Business schools have come a long way in the last few years. When it comes to building character, however, this educator believes that there's still room for improvement. By Jeffrey Pfeffer we were pleased that the article started a spirited, widespread, and ongoing dis- cussion about what's right—and what's wrong—with business schools. As a long-time business educator, I have listened to and participated in this I discussion with great interest. I've watched as many things have improved in business school curricula—business schools have clearly made steps in the right direction. Nonetheless, I've found that some of the fundamental issues and concerns we wrote about in 2002 remain. In this issue, for example, authors Brooks Holtom and Ed Inderrieden provide data on the monetary ROI of an MBA. (See "Investment Advice: Go for the MBA" on page 36.) Such numbers show that business schools still use as one measure of their success the size of their graduates' salaries. A better measure of success, however, may be how well they build each student's character and sense of accomplishment. Better Curricula, Better Students Our 2002 study maintained that many business schools were plagued with three primary problems: student passivity in the learning process, a decrease in curricular relevance, and a failure to translate business knowledge into appli- cable business skills. To a large extent, however, schools have addressed these problems, strengthening their programs overall. First, business schools have tackled the problem of student passivity. Numer- ous articles have highlighted the problem of viewing students as "customers." Dennis Gioia and Kevin Corley discussed it in their 2002 article, "Being Good versus Looking Good: Business School Rankings and the Circean Transforma- tion from Substance to Image." Christine Quinn Trank and Sara Rynes also explored their concerns with this idea in their 2003 paper, "Who Moved Our Cheese? Reclaiming Professionalism in Business Education." These articles have concluded that, if the problem is left unchecked, students almost inevita- bly come to see their educations as the responsibility of their professors. Many schools are rethinking their programs to address the problem of student disengagement—they are even re-evaluating the design of the typi- cal tiered classroom. When I teach in such a classroom, I sometimes ask my students, "What does the design and shape of this room remind you of?" They frequently say, "a theater" or "an auditorium." And what does one expect in a theater or auditorium? To be entertained, of course. This perception may 42 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007 n September 2002, Christina Fong and I questioned the effectiveness of business schools in our article, "The End of Business Schools? Less Success Than Meets the Eye." After its publication, the article inspired a firestorm of media attention and debate. Some educators questioned our premise, while others disagreed vehemently with our observations. In both cases,