Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59966
From Editors the Bracing for Change I've heard that people who are dissatisfied with the big things in their lives—such as their jobs and their houses—first start making changes in the small things. A woman who wants to switch careers might start by getting a drastically different hairstyle. A couple who want to buy a new home first trade in their current car. People know when they're unhappy with the status quo, but sometimes they don't recognize exactly what it is that's frus- trating them. They reconfigure a small piece of their lives first, hoping that's where the problem lies. But most of the time, what most people need is a complete overhaul. Television shows in the U.S. and the U.K. have had fun helping average people Before After with those overhauls. Programs like "The Swan," "What Not to Wear" and "10 Years Younger" offer makeovers of individuals. Other shows—such as "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Changing Rooms" and "Trading Spaces"—focus on redesigning a house. "Town Hall" is a show that, over the course of several episodes, even rebuilds an entire village. Such radical makeovers are becoming the norm at business schools, too, where many deans and administrators have become convinced that it's not enough just to tweak their programs; they have to go for all-out transformation. In "The ExtremeMBA Makeover," BizEd looks at a handful of schools that have radically redesigned their core curricula to encourage specialization and inte- gration. Program administrators admit that one of the most signifi- cant features of these revised programs is that they're not finished yet; modifications will be ongoing. Change becomes the constant. Change is also the topic of "Three-Year Forecast," in which b- school deans predict where they'll seemost restructuring in the upcoming years. It's no surprise thatmost of themplan to revamp MBA programs, revise faculty hiring and retention strategies, and rethink fund-raising initiatives. A constantly fluctuating economy and new attitudes about post-graduate business education are external change factors that also will affect the choices deans will have tomake. None of these changes are of the new-car-and-new-hairdo variety. They'll take more than a visit to the beauty salon or the car dealership to implement. But their effects will be longer lasting and more profound than many of television's best makeovers—and by the time they're done, the whole world of business school could be utterly changed. s z 6 BizEd MAY/JUNE 2005 BILL BASCOM