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students and businesspeople from around the world effective management, marketing, and leadership. plines, are university professors responsible for the bulk of popular books in their areas of specialty? Probably not. If not, why try to hold business professors to that standard? Business schools do not respond quickly enough to changes in the real world. In responding to the threat of for- profit and online business pro- grams, business schools have but that is common across industries. Innovation often comes from struggling, second-tier organizations who leapfrog complacent first-tier competitors. Innovation can result from creative, poorly resourced desperation, not just from well- funded inspiration or complacency. And innovations brought to business education by one school are quickly adopted by other schools, so that the level of education and its delivery are raised across the spectrum. The topic of business cannot really be taught. This is the most serious accusation of all. Pfeffer has asked the ques- tion, "Do you really learn anything in business school?" Samuelson has declared that business schools have two main objectives: to enhance under- standing of how business works and to train future managers. Samuelson claims that business schools are somewhat successful in achieving the first objective, but fail to achieve the second. Arguing that busi- ness skills are not teachable, Samuelson declares that "no two businesses are exactly alike. ... The essence of business—tak- ing sensible risks, creating valuable products, motivating people, and satisfying customers—lies elsewhere and cannot be taught in the classroom." I would reply that businesses—like human bodies for doc- been aggressively innovative. It's true that innovation is sometimes absent from the top-tier schools, able to enroll the very "best and brightest." Many of the more gifted choose liberal arts and science programs, including pre- medicine, pre-law, and engineering. The most valuable aspect of a business school education is how it can take the students with modest-to-good academic abilities and college board scores and transform them into informed, educated, realistic, productive, well-paid, contributing members of society. Business schools succeed because employers value what not judge how much they learned—nor should he judge them. Deming believed that profound knowledge can be difficult to describe and even more difficult to measure. He also believed that the customer determines the quality of the product of the process. According to these criteria, business schools regularly pass the most demanding test: the market test. At the undergraduate level, business schools often are not business school graduates bring to the workplace: mastery of the basic language and culture of business; a set of values, knowledge, and skills; and an appreciation of the integral role of work and career in a meaningful life. The fact that students bring some of these desired characteristics with them to busi- ness school or learn them outside the classroom makes the lessons no less valuable. Business schools value these charac- teristics and facilitate these lessons; the lessons need not be part of the business school's formal curriculum. Conclusion: Business schools offer real value. Despite the criticism of graduate business education, students and businesspeople fromaround the world continue to flock to business schools to learn about effective management, market- ing, and leadership. Why? Because there is value in business school education, and that value will grow with globalization. The best evidence of the value of business education lies in its economic impact. Business education has resulted in market- driven salaries, advances in knowledge and creativity, and cul- tural knowledge transmitted across generations and geography. Business schools serve customers. They create wealth by tors and river beds for civil engineers—do indeed differ. However, the analysis and understanding of their problems, practices, and purpose is certainly possible, if difficult. Business schools succeed because they recognize that the world is diverse, dynamic, and complex; they prepare students to manage in that world. B-schools produce globally compet- itive products: knowledge and knowledge workers. I would also look for inspiration to W. Edwards Deming, who awarded A grades to all his students, claiming he could adding value to the lives of their students. They provide the basis for a sustainable comparative advantage to their host institutions and to their customers. While not businesses, business schools operate in a businesslike fashion, as global knowledge enterprises befitting and benefiting universities in the 21st century.We must actively advance these truths about business education. If we do not, the critics will continue to believe that business education offers more style than sub- stance, more sizzle than steak.s z Peter Lorenzi is a professor of management at the Sellinger School of Business, Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland. BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2004 43