The Current Crisis: What should Business Schools Do?

1. The Current Crisis: What should Business Schools Do? Professor Kulwant Singh Deputy Dean NUS Business Schoolkulwant@nus.edu.sg

2. AWSJ, 18 February 2009 Today, 17 February 2009

3. OUR ROLE IN THE CRISIS Business Schools are not responsible for the crisis • But we are not free of blame Have we lost touch with the “real world”? • Students not prepared for the profession of management or Have we moved too close to business • Application has become our focus, not education

4. STRATEGY IN CRISIS: OVERVIEW • Respond in stages • Survive • Stabilize • Strategize Internal Factors Severity of the situation • Rebuild • Re-focus • Restructure • Re-energize External Factors

5. REBUILDING BUSINESS SCHOOLS • Re-focus on basics • Educate students for their careers and to be citizens of society • Prepare them to be professional managers • Appropriate balance for undergraduates and graduates • Eliminate the myth that we train CEOs • Restructure • Emphasize education & conceptual development • Research driven focus on core body of knowledge • Practical skills are useful complements • Discard fads: we are not consultants • Re-energize • Regain trust, re-assert our values and value • Help deal with the crisis • Rebuild • Re-focus • Restructure • Re-energize

6. NUS BUSINESS SCHOOL • Educate the public • 12 part newspaper series on crisis (October 2008) • Second 12 part series on dealing with crisis (January 2009) • Third 12 part series on Globalisation (February 2009) • Forums to update students and managers • Students • One-credit course on the crisis • Increased financial assistance for students • Introduce issues into relevant modules • Review programmes to strengthen focus on core • Employment • Alumni run programmes to prepare students • Increased placement efforts • Programmes for managers facing transition