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ROBERT
JOSS

Robert L. Joss, a leader in global banking, former Treasury Department official and Stanford Ph.D., became the eighth Dean of the Graduate School of Business in 1999. For six years, Mr Joss served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Australia’s Westpac Banking Corporation. From 1971 to 1993 he held a variety of posts at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank, rising to the position of Vice Chairman in 1986.
His affiliation with the School is long-standing: he was a Sloan Fellow in 1965-66, earned his MBA in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1970, writing his dissertation on the market for commercial paper. He was a member of the School’s Advisory Council. Before joining Wells Fargo, Mr Joss worked in Washington, first as a White House Fellow and then for the U.S. Treasury Department as deputy to the assistant secretary for economic policy.
 

MANAGEMENT…
is a TOUGH JOB

Society relies on managed institutions to produce and deliver our goods and services – public and private. How well those institutions perform their economic and social roles – that is, how well they are managed – has a very large impact on the quality of people’s lives. It is the managers of those institutions, from front-line supervisors to the most senior executives, who work together to determine and deliver the performance of each institution. Management is a tough job, requiring one to work with and through others to accomplish the mission of the organization in an ever-changing environment. It is a noble calling – just as is the work in other professions.
A manager can impact the world significantly when an organization performs well. Society benefits from a jobwell done, and employees benefit from a positive work life.

     
 
Entrepreneurship:
With rapid change comes the need for an entrepreneurial mind set characterized by thinking and acting with a sense of ownership and bias toward innovation. The study of entrepreneurship has implications for any business, whether one is managing it, advising it, or investing in it.
  
 
 
 
Social Accountability:
With increased public scrutiny of corporations comes the realization that businesses are not only economic institutions, but also social institutions that are part of the larger fabric of society. They will succeed and prosper only if they continue to earn the respect of the community.
  
 
 
 
Leadership:
To keep changing for the better, all organizations require personal leadership that builds on a strong self-knowledge, good communication skills, emotional strength, high ethical standards, and the ability to take and give honest feedback.
  
 
 
 
Global Awareness:
The emergence of new markets, the geographic competitiveness of industries, and the movement of an ever-greater portion of the world’s human, physical, and financial capital across national boundaries means that business education must serve to develop the next generation of business leaders in a global context.
  
     
 

Schools of management ask themselves how to best prepare managers for this pursuit. The future of international business education will be shaped by four forces that exist as major factors in the business world of today: rapid change, corporate and individual social accountability, the need for leadership, and global competition. How does this translate into the impact academic institutions have on society and business and vice-versa?

These dynamics increase the need for strong analytical skills and robust frameworks for understanding markets, organizations, people, economies, and societies. Management education must begin with a solid disciplinary foundation of the relevant social sciences and methods of careful inquiry and analysis; supporting “walls” represent the functions of management; and the general management “roof” knits the structure together, simultaneously gaining and giving strength to the walls and foundation.

The four cornerstones of entrepreneurship, social accountability, leadership, and global awareness are essential to a complete general management education. An understanding of global issues is essential to setting the foundation for successful managers to build organizations that span multiple countries, cultures, and economic or political systems.

This reality necessitates a multidisciplinary, cross-functional approach to research and teaching that will drive business education into a much larger arena. This involves the convergence of traditional business disciplines and geography, demography, anthropology, and culture. It is the role of leading schools of management to foster faculty research that will help develop frameworks to prepare managers with a better understanding of, and the tools to address, the challenges of operating in the global environment.

A globally-oriented business education also requires the creation of new approaches to curriculum, case studies, and textbooks and teaching methods that encompass these issues and infuse international perspectives into every discipline – be it finance, marketing, accounting, or organizational behavior. In addition, collaborative relationships with industry partners provide real-world laboratories for the study of complex problems in this arena. Combined with experiential opportunities in a diverse community, business education will bring new insights to today’s executives and prepare tomorrow’s leaders.
   
 
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© Grosvenor 2003