Business schools are the root of all evil... really! #MBA

One of the philosophical underpinnings of western society is individualism - the idea that we are free to do what we want, when we want, with the simple caveat that we don't hurt someone else in the process. OK, that's a short take on it, but the essence is clear. And clearly something has gone wrong right now, and people are being hurt. So logically we should look for the individuals who let us all down and expect them to take individual responsibility (rather than pay rises and termination jackpots). We have laws to enforce that, of course, up to a point.

However it rarely works like that. Yes, some brave souls will 'do the right thing' and accept that the individualism that fed their corporate lives and wealth should be paid back with the individual responsibility and integrity we expect or hope for. But others will blame the system, or the law, the lack of control or - would you believe - their education! Yes folks, it's the MBA system, the business schools that are to blame. Clearly courses like 'Capitalism without regret' and 'Greed 2.0 - the strategic imperative' don't help (and yes, I made those up, but you know what I mean); but it's really just blame shifting, isn't it? Unless we can all be reprogrammed so easily that the last school we attended is the only thing that influences us... in which case every school, business or otherwise, needs to take some heat right now.

There is of course some truth in everything, but no absolutes. We are not simply the robotic output of a failed school system, we are thinking beings that absorb, reflect, analyse and synthesise everything in our environment. Yes, business schools need to digest the economic crisis and adapt their courseware, if not their entire agenda. Indeed you'd expect that as a matter of course - this crisis will be high on their case study agenda anyway. And the truth is that business schools have actually been teaching concepts like the triple bottom line and corportate social responsibility for the last decade, if not longer. Perhaps the real problem is that the business schools - indeed all schools - aren't as influential as we think. Maybe peer pressure, group think and so-called 'individualism' are more to blame than we care to admit.