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The Greatest Skill Learned in Business School, Kellogg's Dea

Published: Jan 04, 2011

 Education       Grad School       

Sally Blount, the glass-breaking new dean of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management discusses, among other things, what she thinks is the best skill learned in business school, why women remain an underrepresented minority, and the reason those two things are related.

From Big Think:

Part of it I wonder is if we haven’t misrepresented in some ways what you learn at business school.

To me, the greatest skill that you learn is how to build effective organizations. You learn about the markets and how they work, but you learn how to build effective organizations, which is how we, as human beings, organize, which is how we get things done. And I think if we did a better job at explaining to people that that’s what it’s about, I think that more women would be drawn to it because women naturally organize—in their communities in our families, in our churches, and you know, in all sorts of domains.

And I can’t help wondering if we need to get more enlightened language so people truly understand that business school really is about building effective organizations within a market context. But it can also be in a not-for-profit context, or a religious context.

Watch the rest of Blount's interview below. Other topics addressed include: why "supply and demand don't exist," why the service sector will save the American economy, what will matter most in the perhaps not-so-distant future.

 

 

[Big Think]

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