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To discover what skills and perspectives these nonacademics bring to the business school, BizEd recently talked with three executives-turned-deans. Ed Grier spent 29 years with the Walt Disney Company, taking positions in Paris and Toyko before serving as president of Disneyland Resort. In 2010, he became dean of the School of Business at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Christine A. Poon's career spanned 30 years in the healthcare industry and included a post as vice chairman and worldwide chairman of pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson. In 2009, she was appointed dean and John W. Berry Sr. Chair in Business at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business in Columbus. Steve Reinemund is a 23-year veteran of PepsiCo, where he served as chairman and CEO from 2001 to 2006. In 2008, he became dean and professor of leadership and strategy at the Wake Forest University Schools of Business in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. All three spoke of the similarities—and differences—between their business and academic jobs, and they reflected on what skills they have brought to the dean's office that lifelong academics might not possess. All of them can see great potential for synergy between corporate and academic worlds. Grier is particularly enthusiastic. "I'd love to say, 'The university is where business comes to think.' But the truth is, corporations aren't calling on the talent within most universities as much as they should," Grier says. "If corporations get more involved in the university, they can help shape future leaders. When corporations invest 30 January/February 2014 BizEd in universities, they make longterm investments in the future. Companies paired with universities—what a powerhouse!" If more executives assume the leadership at business schools, could those "powerhouse" combinations be common in the future? And what other advantages can an executive dean bring to the business school? Grier, Poon, and Reinemund share their perspectives on these questions and describe what it's been like for them to cross over from the C-suite to the office of the business school dean. What's the biggest difference between being a top executive and being a business school dean? What has surprised you most? Reinemund: There are far more similarities than differences. Whether individuals are leading business schools, businesses, or "All leaders need vision, purpose, values, and people skills." Steve Reinemund, Wake Forest University not-for-profits, they need vision, purpose, values, and people skills. Those skill areas are very much the same among organizations. If you have alignment of values between individuals and the organization, things work. If you don't have alignment, they don't. The differences center around the nuances of how you make decisions. Grier: As CEO, you set the vision and the direction of the organization; ultimately, you are responsible for every decision, every action, and every inaction of your organization. All CEOs have their own leadership styles that determine how much they include other constituents in the decisionmaking process, but once the experts and stakeholders have been polled, the decision rests squarely on the CEO's shoulders. In the corporate environment, executive decisions aren't often revisited. I have always taken a very transparent and inclusive approach to decision making and considered consensus building to be one of my strengths. In academia, the consensus building takes much longer and everyone's voice must be heard, not just the voices of stakeholders. Even then, past decisions and actions are visited and revisited. Deans can't take that personally. They can't view that as a judgment about their leadership abilities. It's just the nature of shared governance. Poon: When I first became dean, I had idealistic notions about academia. I knew that a medical school dean was also a physician and that a law school dean was also a lawyer, so I just assumed a business school dean had some business experience. It surprised me to discover that wasn't very com-