Duke Fuqua’s Dean on 4 Pillars of New MBA Model
“Given the massive changes in the way business works today, compared to how things were 20 years back, it is clear that it’s time for a new kind of B-school. We need to reinvent MBA education, else we will become increasingly irrelevant,” said dean Blair Sheppard of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business during the Third International Business School Shanghai Conference held earlier this week.
The conference theme, “Reshaping Business Schools after the Crisis,” spurred Dean Sheppard to highlight four key pillars of the new MBA model during his keynote speech. B-schools, he says, need to move from:
- Regionally based, to global in form and spirit
- Isolated from the university, to linked across the university
- Focused on Daytime MBA, to offering full suite of offerings
- From ”˜disciplined-based’, to engaging the fundamental issues confronting the world
In an interview with India-based MBAUniverse.com, Sheppard acknowledged that the changes that B-schools need to make won’t be easy, but that Duke’s business school is 100% behind the new MBA model. “At Fuqua we are committed to making this change. In my tenure, we will accomplish this mission,” he predicted.
