Maybe B.S. Stands for Business School

•  
  arvanro@...03/04/08 Report as spam
  1

  Business Schools seeking a purpose

  Law, medicine, and theology are professions, each with an organized body of knowledge to impart.
  
  ?Business? is more like a trade or craft, requiring both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. The classic method for imparting a trade or craft is apprenticeship. The model for business administration is found in the work/study programs for actuaries and chartered financial analysts.
  
  An example ? There?s no use having ?met a payroll? in the airline industry (i.e. practical experience) if you don?t understand the theory of distribution channels, and thus fail to see the challenge of moving from travel agents to internet.
  
  Another example ? There?s no use to understanding game theory (i.e. theoretical knowledge) if you don?t know how emotions can outweigh logic in union negotiations.
  
  Business schools should be the theoretical component of a work/study program, rather than a multi-year diversion into academic exercises.

•  
  Michael Fitzgerald03/05/08 Report as spam
  2

  seeking a purpose

  Thanks for your comment. I would note that one useful purpose of business schools as they seem to be structured is that students get exposed to all the major elements of how to run a business, and they can find things they're passionate about doing. Whether that is of real value to a company, I'm not sure. But then, companies routinely want college degrees from employees who perhaps would be just as good with a few months of job-specific training. So if the problem with business schools is that they're not as effective as an apprenticeship, then the same problem would seem to exist in spades for colleges.
  
  Michael