Rakesh Khurana, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of From Higher Aims to Hired Hands, a historical analysis of business education, says business schools never really taught their students that, like doctors and lawyers, they were part of a profession with professional standards. In the 1970s, he said, the idea took hold that a company’s stock price was the primary barometer of a leader’s success. Among other things, this changed business schools’ concept of proper management techniques. Instead of being viewed as long-term economic stewards, he says, managers came to be seen primarily as the agents of the owners — the shareholders — responsible for maximizing shareholder wealth.”We can’t rely on the usual structure of MBA education, which divides the management world into the discrete business functions of marketing, finance, accounting, and so on,” he says.
