Shaping the Future of Business Education ― Relevance, Rigor and Life Preparation

Business today is changing more rapidly than at any time in history. From product ideas to supply chains, from marketing to sales, new technologies, techniques, and globalization have created incredible, disruptive transformations in every aspect of commerce. This will not change – change will be the only constant.

Shaping the Future of Business Education answers the question of how to prepare tomorrow's leaders with a distinctive formula as wide as it is deep. Two dozen distinguished professors and leaders in business education argue that only a broad, rigorous and relevant education will work – a fusion of business knowledge with arts and sciences, technology, and ethical training that emphasizes integrated thinking, broad perspectives, and cultural awareness along with specific expertise. These educators demonstrate practical methods of including arts and sciences in the teaching of business knowledge, while also integrating the best of business into the arts and sciences. The result? Business leaders who can communicate, operate well in ambiguous and fluid situations, as well as liberal-arts students who have the business knowledge they need to work well in organizations.

Gordon Hardy is Senior Associate Director of Content, Communication and Creative Services at Bentley University, USA. He is a veteran editor, writer, and web content developer in a wide range of topics, including politics, history, conservation, and education. As director of electronic publishing for Houghton Mifflin, he pioneered digital delivery of reference publications. He is editor/co-author of several volumes in the Time-Life Books series The Vietnam Experience and Above and Beyond, a history of the Medal of Honor.

Daniel Everett is the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University, USA. He has also taught at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Manchester and Illinois State University. He has published several books on the nature of human language and his life and work are the subject of the film, Grammar of Happiness, distributed worldwide by Essential Media of Australia.