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Bookshelf It is not uncommon today for critics to ask if business schools have lost their way, but Harvard's Rakesh Khurana poses the question against such a vivid, detailed, and compulsively researched historical background that it becomes more provocative than ever. In From Higher Aims to Hired Hands, he examines the social and political contexts that led to the rise of business schools around the turn of the 20th century and that What really distinguishes an excellent leader from an ineffective or down- right bad one? Lead- ership gurus Noel M. Tichy and War- ren G. Bennis sum it up in the title of their new book: Judgment. For all of us, they write, the relative success of our lives can be measured by assessing the effects of our judgment calls. "How many good ones did we make? And more important, did we make good ones about the things that really mattered?" The questions are doubly important for leaders. Tichy and Bennis contrast good calls by GE's Jeff Immelt and Intel's Andy Grove with poor decisions by HP's Carly Fiorina and Merck's Ray Gilmartin. But the authors don't just recite anecdotes about CEOs; they actually provide a framework for understanding the elements that make up a good judgment call. In their matrix, leaders must cultivate knowledge about themselves, their social networks, their organizations, and the context in which they are operating; they must draw on that knowledge as they make decisions about people, strategy, and crises. Tichy and Bennis simply have shaped their evolution ever since. Once conceived as institutions that would legitimize a new profes- sional class, business schools have transformed themselves twice—first in response to post-war reforms that called for business schools to be more intellectual; then in response to the economic crises of the last 30 years that gave rise to the notion of maximizing shareholder value. "Business schools have evolved over the century and a quarter of their existence into their own intellectual and institutional antithesis," Khurana writes. Along the way, he believes, they have found themselves fairly detached from moral or values-based education. According to Khurana, if business schools "are to continue to play any role in the education of managers that could not be filled equally well by corporate training programs or for-profit, purely voca- tional business schools, they belong in the forefront of the discussions… 56 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 do not buy the common argument that successful leaders make decisions based on "one of those important but ineffable qualities" like instinct. They work to develop good judgment—and they use good judgment to succeed. (Portfolio, $26.95) about the shape that capitalism should take in the 21st century." He admits he does not have an easy solution, but the questions he raises are sure to inspire those connected to management education to con- sider them. (Princeton University Press, $35) When you think of a terrific salesperson, you visualize someone affable, out- going, and driven, who will use a combination of charm and industry analysis to convince customers to buy. Not a good picture any more, says international consultant Ram Charan in What the Customer Wants You to Know. In today's complex and transparent business environ- ment, he says, the sales force must partner with customers to help them achieve their own goals, such as faster turnover or higher revenue. This approach calls for a whole shift in mindset for the salesforce—and the company as a whole. Salespeople must compile and analyze data about their top customers, then develop what are essentially business plans for each client that identify goals and the strategies for achieving them. At the same time, they must rally teams of support people in their own organizations from areas such as finance, legal, and manufacturing. Charan calls this approach "value creation selling," and he does a con- vincing job of selling his argument as the only way to stay in business in the 21st century. (Portfolio, $21.95)