New deans, new directions: changes at the top bring innovation to the traditionally staid world of top business schools

Chief Executive, The, Sept, 2006 by Rebecca A. Fannin

Business school deans once cloistered themselves in ivy-covered towers within serene university settings, isolated from real world pressures. But no longer. Today, the top job at the world's top schools presents challenges akin to those faced by corporate CEOs. Competition among schools has intensified, international curriculum and campuses are now de rigeur, and faculty recruitment and retention is more challenging.

It's not easy to simultaneously maintain high rankings in league tables, lure faculty from higher corporate paychecks and partner with schools overseas--not to mention beef up executive education programs and raise endowment funding.

The demands of these new responsibilities are, in turn, shaping a new breed of dean, as well as shorter tenures and higher turnover in the posts. The trend is evidenced by the recent "re-deaning" choices of Harvard Business School, INSEAD and Columbia, as well as the search for a replacement for Laura Tyson, who will leave her post as London Business School's dean this year. Under fire for curriculum that lacks real-life relevance and fails to instill ethical behavior, these and other top schools are appointing deans viewed as capable of bringing new thinking to the challenge of educating the corporate leaders of tomorrow--and charging them with doing just that.

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Broader Is Better

The newly installed deans bring a broader range of backgrounds to the post, some with deep corporate experience and governmental roles. Consider Frank Brown. In May, the well-regarded International business school INSEAD named Brown as its first dean outside of academia. An American who previously headed up global services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Brown was a bold and controversial choice.

A 26-year veteran of PwC, Brown brings a corporate manager's perspective to running INSEAD. "Schools are capable of being well-run businesses," he says, adding that the job of dean carries the same responsibilities as that of a CEO, such as allocating spending to high-priority programs, managing cash flow, reporting to a board and recruiting and retaining talent.

The well-rounded career of Glenn Hubbard, who was named dean of Columbia Business School two years ago, encompasses government, business and academia. In addition to being a longtime faculty member at Columbia and a presidential adviser, Hubbard serves on the board of five major corporations.

Conversely, Harvard Business School Dean Jay Light is very much the academic, having spent his entire working life at his alma mater. Light began his doctoral program there nearly 40 years ago and became a faculty member shortly after that. Last August, he was charged with holding the fort until a new dean could be found. But Light won the post himself in April, after impressing the selection committee by steering a record $600 million fund-raising drive and a $25 million restoration of the school's Baker Library, all while keeping HBS near the top of the university rankings.

Already, the new deans at INSEAD, Columbia Business School and Harvard Business School are putting their stamp on programs and initiatives to update their schools' approaches to grooming tomorrow's corporate leaders. Initiatives under way range from global programs to groom young executives in multicultural skills to working toward bringing curriculum more in tune with the practical business-solving and team-building challenges of managing large corporate entities.

Countering Critics

Striking the right balance between educational coursework and more practical programs has become a major consideration for today's deans, says Harvard Business School Dean Jay Light. "It's a question of whether business schools can teach and do research that is both rigorous and relevant, or whether the pendulum has swung too far toward one at the expense of the other," says Light. "It will be crucial for business school deans to look carefully at what we teach and how we teach it. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to this challenge."

Glenn Hubbard of Columbia Business School agrees that business schools have been hit hard for being too removed from the business world, but argues that "it's really just false that business schools are out of touch." Business professors often have an impact in economy and society, notes Hubbard, whose own research work has helped shape the Bush administration's economic policy.

Still, Hubbard wasted no time making changes at Columbia. Soon after his appointment, he introduced a partnership program in executive education with Shanghai-based Fudan University--known as the Yale University of China--that will bring promising young Chinese people to the U.S. for a four-week training program. And a new partnership with Hong Kong University will bring up to 40 Chinese students to the New York City campus each year. The dean himself has found his way to Hong Kong, where he co-led a real estate executive education program for HKU.

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Columbia's location near the New York City business hub helps the school keep abreast of changes within the corporate world. Under Hubbard's stewardship, however, faculty are encouraged to get out from behind the campus walls more often. The Columbia dean is a role model, having taken a leave of absence in 2001 to chair President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. Currently, three Columbia business faculty members are on a one-year sabbatical for corporate jobs, including finance professor Laurie Hodrick, who is heading up equity research at Deutsche Bank.