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Spotlight Reading Is Fundamental For Business Book clubs have long promoted dialogue and learning on a wide range of topics. They're no less powerful a learning tool for busi- ness students, says Jim Bradford, dean of Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Manage- ment in Nashville, Tennessee. For the second year, Bradford is leading "The Dean's Book Club," which meets several times each semester to read and discuss a vari- ety of books. So far, the club has read books such as Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb; Factory Girls: From Village to City in Changing China by Leslie T. Chang; The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria; and Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Fried- man. This spring, they read River Town by Peter Hessler, which describes the struggles of a mining town in China's Sichuan province as it tries to adapt to the country's changing economic climate. For many years, Bradford has assigned each entering MBA class a book to read the summer before the program begins to provide stu- dents with a common experience and viewpoint before they meet on campus for the first time. Bradford realized that a regular book club could extend and deepen that com- mon conversation. Students do not receive credit for attending book club meetings—they participate for their own enjoyment. 80 BizEd MAY/JUNE 2010 Dean Jim Bradford leads discussion at a meeting of the Dean's Book Club. Literature helps students see through someone else's expe- rience and explore issues that will influ- ence the way they work and live. —Dean Jim Bradford Even so, each meeting attracts 20 to 40 students, as well as members of the faculty and library staff. Bradford tries to schedule the 90-minute gatherings at the begin- ning of each academic quarter. That's after breaks when students have time for extracurricular reading, but before exams and job interviews monopolize their time. The book, time, and location of each club gath- ering are posted on the school's intranet. Leading up to meetings, Bradford also sometimes challenges students with questions related to the book via Twitter tweets. He also gives them assignments to complete beforehand—to choose a quotation or passage that resonated with them or identify an idea with which they agreed or dis- agreed, for example. The club ties directly into Brad- ford's own love of reading. "Like travelling and working abroad, reading literature helps students see through someone else's experience and explore issues that will influ- ence the way they work and live," he says. The books' themes also can carry over into the classroom, provid- ing students added insights on sub- jects they're studying in their courses. In the future, Bradford might add fictional titles to the book club's line- up—perhaps by favorite authors of his own, such as William Shakespeare or Wallace Stegner. But no matter what books are up for discussion, most participants—including Brad- ford himself—leave meetings with an expanded view of business. "If I read a book, it's a nice experience. But if I teach it, it's a much deeper experience," he says. "It's also a way for me to get to know the stu- dents, who are all very smart, articulate people with different experiences than I've had. I gain a lot from them." ■ z