Hippocratic Oath for MBA students: antidote to immoral (or incompetent) management

Something is moving in the horizon: according to the CNN a group of Harvard Business School MBA students, sensitive to "accusations leveled at business schools that they are failing to produce ethically accountable graduates" (CNN June 9, 2009) will give an oath underlying their ethical and societal responsibilities as managers. Readers of this blog know that there were a few occasions that I discussed the nature of the business education today as a possible cause for the corporate lack of responsibility and greediness that has lead to the well known corporate scandals of the last ten years and to the latest financial and economic meltdown. Let's hope that the initiative of the Harvard MBA students and the article of Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria in the HBR, proposing the Hippocratic Oath for managers will be the beginning of change and improvement in corporate management ethics.

Harvard Business School: Case study teaching revisited? II

The controversy about the ethics of managers and their relation to the teaching methods and tactics I mentioned in my post of April 9 continues in the Harvard Business Blog in the subject How To Fix Business Schools. I admire the openness of Harvard on the issue an I suggest to have a look to it if you are interested in the issue. Do not miss the post of Bob Sutton titled "Do Economists Breed Greed and Guile?" , the response of Steve Kaplan titled "The Economists Have It Right" and the readers' comments on both of them.

Harvard Business School: Case study teaching revisited?

Bloomberg reports that top US universities are in a soul searching mode after criticism that some of their alumni have been among those responsible for the current financial crisis. According to Bloomberg "Harvard’s alumni include Stanley O’Neal and John Thain, the former chief executive officers of Merrill Lynch & Co. who presided over the New York company’s decline; Rick Wagoner, the ousted CEO of General Motors Corp.; and Christopher Cox, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" Another HBS ex-student is Andrew Hornby, the head of the failed bank HBOS. Interestingly the Harvard Business School, well known for its management teaching based on case studies prepares a new case study meant to examine whether this method of teaching is adequate to prepare future managers in risk assessment and risk management.The case study must be really interesting, look forward to read it.