At the first Deans Conference in 2010, Professor Datar and Professor Lowes Dickinson from Harvard Business School presented the findings from the book ‘Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads’. An early attempt to define the challenges business schools are facing these days.

The book, which is co-authored by Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin, and Patrick G. Cullen, brings together research conducted over three years. It is drawing on extensive interviews with business school deans and business executives, presents comparative analysis of MBA curricula as well as in-depth portraits of institutional responses at the course and program levels to changes in the business school environment.

Significant challenges are the decrease in enrollment in many two-year, full-time MBA programs (particularly at mid-ranked schools) and the rise of alternatives to the two-year full-time MBA. Also, the declines in student engagement and a rise in external and internal criticism of the degree’s content were outlined by Professor Datar.
In response to these challenges the book suggests a reassessment of the facts, frameworks, and theories that the schools’ teach. Furthermore, the authors recommend to rebalance the curricula so that more attention is paid to developing the skills, capabilities, and techniques that lie at the heart of the practice of management, and the values, attitudes, and beliefs that form managers’ world views and professional identities.

Datar concluded the session by suggesting that the demands on MBA programs have brought them to a crossroads at which they have to reconsider their value proposition. This requires business schools to take a broader view of their graduates’ responsibilities to multiple stakeholders, and to provide their students with a deeper understanding of such phenomena as globalization, leadership, and innovation, as well as the ability to think critically, decide wisely, communicate clearly, and implement effectively.