Time To Shut Down Harvard Business School
Monday, December 4th, 2006 by Mark | Posted in Business, Management, Marketing, Public Relations, Sales, Unconventional Thinking | Comments
Time to shut down Harvard Business School . And Stanford. And Columbia. And all the other academic sink holes that pretend to be the epicenter of business learning, when in fact… How can that be…?
The real knowledge resides in the companies that actually make and sell stuff (an act of unabashed capitalism, the B school professors find repugnant.) The U.S. industry would be infinitely more effective if it absorbed the brightest college grads and taught them business where business really happens. Why do they have to have these same grads brainwashed by nonsense when they could learn how the marketplace really works by hitting the streets with a salesperson or sitting in on a heated management meeting? There is no good answer.
A few companies are the exception and they benefit for it. Guardian Life has a nearly 150 year tradition of mentoring their own stars from within. And teaching them the right way from the start. But the vast majority of companies continue to worship the B schools. Some years ago, I was asked to join the adjunct faculty at Pace University. I would teach one marketing course a semester and I loved it. Until the administrators took me to task for taking the students out of the classroom to visit… oh my God… businesses. To see how they work first hand.
Maybe they’re right. We can all learn so much more about the fierce marketplace from semi-socialistic academics afraid of business than we can from men and women who create the Googles of the world.
Mark Stevens
CEO
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December 11th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Dear Mark,
Hey, thanks for these words of wisdom! It’s like putting another log on the fire of my business. Keep it up!
Bill
William D. Clark, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Ultimate Synergy, LLC
http://www.ultimatesynergy.net
December 11th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Amen, preach it brother.
Alyson Salz
Righteous Clothing, LLC
800.548.1227
rchq.com
“The repetition of small efforts will accomplish more than the occasional use of great talents.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon
December 12th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Bill & Alyson,
Thanks to you both for your kind words. You’re the reason I write.
Mark Stevens,
CEO
December 21st, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Sales and Marketing cannot be taught in class rooms. Period. School is for everything except business; to which rules dont really apply.
The higher education system in america is built to generate employees who will conform to policies, NOT entrepeneurs who will make their own rules and question everything.
That being said, the college experience is absolutely of tremendous value. While the classroom portion sucks, outside the classroom there is a whole lot of connect the dots being played. At the time you don’t know how the dots connect, but they do. It’s just a shame I can’t account for one teacher that inspired me. All of my dots were connected with peers who came from different places all over the world. I Learned more from interacting with those peers than from any teacher, period. And that’s why college, even in business, is necessary to experience for one’s self.