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Gravy Training

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Gravy Training

Inside the Business of Business Schools

Jossey-Bass,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Business schools: lofty academic institutions or lucrative businesses?

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Journalists Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove blow the lid off business schools in this critically acclaimed expose, admired and valued even by those it criticizes: the people running and teaching at university business schools in the U.S. and elsewhere. The author’s mix investigation, candid stories, hard data and insightful commentary in this immensely readable examination of the conflict between the academic and commercial. getAbstract.com recommends this to everyone who is in business - or who is thinking about a business future that includes graduate school.

Summary

Gravy Training

Webster’s Dictionary defines a "gravy train" as a "much-exploited source of money." Many of today’s top business schools have become gravy trains, little more than cash cows for universities. These schools are generating record profits from unprecedented levels of enrollment in MBA and other business and executive education programs while their faculty members benefit from lucrative consulting contracts. A web of money, politics and power has compromised the integrity of many university business schools, which have become big business, part of a multi-billion dollar global industry that exerts a widening influence on politicians, leaders and others in public and corporate life.

Do business schools deliver on their promises? What does the future hold for them? Today, B-school stars and gurus charge exorbitant consulting fees; new power networks link alumni; academic affiliations affect the way CEOs perform their jobs and BusinessWeek and other media rankings drive business school curricula. How long can this continue? Business schools are at a crossroads, and many business insiders - as well as business school administrators and faculty members - believe...

About the Authors

Stuart Crainer  and Des Dearlove  are U.K.-based journalists with 20 years of business reporting experience. They co-founded the Suntop Media consulting firm. Crainer’s work has appeared in the Financial Times, Across the Board and Strategy & Business. His business books include the Ultimate series and the Financial Times Handbook of Management. Dearlove writes regularly for the London Times, the American Management Review and Human Resources. He is the author of a number of books on management best practices.

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