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There is scant indication that case studies are being developed that will prepare American students to manage and lead multicultural workforces and do business in a multicultural marketplace. Diver- sity efforts seem to spring primarily from affiliations with organizations like Management Leadership for Tomorrow, The PhD Project, and the one I lead, The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. These affiliations are important, but insufficient. The only academic forums in which diversity is explicitly dis- cussed are one-off or annual events like the yearly diversity conferences held by Emory's Goizueta Busi- ness School in Atlanta, Georgia, and Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business in Hanover, New Hamp- shire. Yet even there the focus is on breaking down barriers among students rather than teaching them how to learn from and leverage their differences. If diversity is discussed in the classroom at all, says Gregory Fair- child, associate professor of busi- ness administration at the Univer- sity of Virginia's Darden School of Business, "the bulk of the discourse takes an HR-compliance frame." That is, the discussion focuses on how to fix interpersonal issues rather than on how to capitalize on the business opportunities created by diverse workforces and markets. As for diversity scholarship, what little there is falls into pre- dictable patterns, says Martin Davidson, Darden's chief diversity officer. Most research on gender diversity is done by Caucasian women, while scholars of color investigate racial and ethnic diver- sity. Many organizations are wary of funding diversity research, adds Davidson, because they don't have the necessary data, or because they fear being labeled exclusionary, or because they believe management journals are reluctant to include such studies. These impediments make it unlikely that diversity will be recognized as a legitimate field of study anytime soon. As baby boomers inch toward retirement, they'll take with them the majority of executives who com- prise America's corporate leadership. If their successors are ill-equipped to operate in a culturally diverse marketplace, individual businesses and the economy face an uncertain future. Business schools can re- imagine that outcome by addressing Enrollment. Even though successful 21st-century business leaders must be acutely sensitive to multiple cultures, MBA pro- grams remain diversity-challenged. Schools can address this issue by making diversity one of the goals of their admissions processes. They can direct recruiters to seek out qualified students from multicul- tural backgrounds. They also can encourage the publications that produce school rankings to factor diversity into their formulas along problems in three key areas: n with test scores and GPAs. n Curricula. Schools must make certain that their programs reflect the needs of globalized business. They should only graduate students who have learned how to recruit, retain, lead, and manage culturally diverse workforces and who understand how to market goods and services to Research. Currently, there's too little grant money and there are too few publication opportunities for faculty members who want to con- duct research on diversity. Business schools not only need to educate grant-making organizations about the value of diversity, they should consider funding such research themselves. They might also con- sider launching new journals that promote scholarship on the topic. The truth is, no organization will be able to compete for long in the globalized business environment if its top executives do not understand the multicultural marketplace. If business schools want to do right by their graduates, they must teach their students about diversity. a heterogeneous consumer base. n For 45 years, The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management has helped more than 6,000 out- standing diverse students access top business schools and broad profes- sional opportunities. It is my fer- vent hope that we are sending our graduates into a business world that will soon see them for what they are—not minorities, but stra- tegic assets who will play critical roles in helping companies adjust to a fast-changing world. Peter J. Aranda III is chief executive officer of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an alliance of American business schools and corpo- rations devoted to promoting diversity and inclusion in American business. It is based in St. Louis, Missouri. More infor- mation is available at www.cgsm.org. BizEd January/February 2012 31