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27 BizEd September/October 2014 N I E UWE N KAM PR /TH I N KSTOCK A llen Kupetz thinks his biggest challenge is honoring what's best about traditional academia, while continuing to experiment with new approaches. Embracing innova- tion, he emphasizes, is one of the most important aspects of his job. "There is sometimes a generation gap between older and younger pro- fessors when it comes to trying new approaches. I've seen syllabi for intro to marketing courses that do not talk about social media, search engine optimization, or the wisdom of crowds," Kupetz says. "Sometimes I want to shake folks and tell them, 'I know you didn't learn this 30 years ago in your PhD program, but talk to business leaders—they'll tell you they need these skills from MBAs.'" Fortunately, his dean gives him freedom to follow new paths. For example, Kupetz was allowed to create and teach two new courses, Technology Entrepreneurship and Technology Management, which have proven to be popular electives. His biggest concern? That busi- ness education still remains too focused on theory. He points to "How Business Schools Lost Their Way," the provocative article by Warren Bennis and James O'Toole that appeared in the Harvard Busi- ness Review in 2005. Even now, he is struck by a seminal point in their argument. "They wrote that while medicine is a profession taught by doctors and law is a profession taught by law- yers, business is a profession taught by PhDs with little or no nonaca- demic experience in the subjects they teach. How much has changed in the past 10 years?" Kupetz asks. The Practitioner Allen H. Kupetz is the executive-in-residence at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. From Practice to Pedagogy Allen Kupetz suggests that business schools offer these words of advice to practitioners who want to make the leap into academia: 1. Focus on being great teachers. Attend classes taught by your col- leagues. Talk to students about their most and least favorite courses and pro- fessors. Ask them why. 2. Write cases. Draw on your real-world experience and contacts to develop cases. "Your students will love that you can speak to the cases first- hand, and that you can invite the executives from the companies involved to present their real-world solutions to the class," Kupetz says. 3. Embrace your status. Share your background with students. "They know you're there to complement their theory-based courses with real-world experience," says Kupetz. "I tell my students, 'My title is executive-in-residence. If you are impressed, remember that just means I'm the least educated mem- ber of the faculty.' It gets a laugh, but it gives me a chance to say that I'm not better or worse than my colleagues with PhDs. I'm just different." He adds, "Forward-thinking deans, as well as efforts like AACSB's Bridge program, are bringing more practitioners into classrooms. But change is slow—too slow." To emphasize the importance of practice-based curricula, Kupetz opens all of his syllabi with this quote, often credited to Yogi Berra: "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." He believes that hands-on, real-world consult- ing projects—with deliverables determined by companies—should become as common for business students as residencies are for med- ical students. "No MBAs should graduate without having done real-world consulting, preferably both in their own countries and internationally." Whether professors are academ- ics or practitioners, Kupetz views teaching business as a privilege. "I don't have a job for life. I have to earn my slot every year," he says. "In my course evaluations, students regularly respond positively both to what I teach—practice versus theory—and how I teach it. I am grateful for that."