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January/February 2002

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January/February 2002 TECHNOLOGY ISSUE BizEdJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 Rosabeth Moss Kanter The Evolution of the Digital Age The MIS MBA Powers Up PLUS: Business Schools Cross Disciplines Entrepreneurship In Eastern Europe BizEd SPECIAL FOCUS:Cont TECHNOLOGY ents 52 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 56 24 DEPARTMENTS TECH FOCUS FEATURES 3 From the Editors 14 A New E-Attitude 34 On the Path to Prosperity Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter Providing quality management 4 Letters considers the promise of the digital training to the aspiring entrepreneurs age—and the pitfalls for those who in Central and Eastern Europe is a 6 Headlines fall behind. top priority in getting the region’s economy thriving. 56 Technology 18 Ethics in Cyberspace Old values still hold true in the new 40 Connecting the Dots 58 Bookshelf economy. Cross-disciplinary classrooms help students combine the disparate 60 Calendar 24 The MIS MBA aspects of management education A specialized degree plugs students into one cohesive whole. But 62 Your Turn into all the functional silos and sustaining such courses exacts a readies them for a world in which heavy toll on schools and teachers. 63 Classifieds every part of management is shaped by technology. 46 The Executive Edge 64 Spotlight Everyone wins when executives go 30 Rethinking IT back to school. Too much tech? How has the prevalence of computers, cell 52 Making the Grade phones, pagers, and PDAs changed Student satisfaction surveys allow our mindset, and are those changes school administrators to identify for the good? their weaknesses and capitalize on Cover photo by Peter Simon their strengths. BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 1 Fromthe Editors Mass Communication When terrorists struck the United States last September, the world knew about it instantly. Not only did we know about the tragedy, we saw it occurring in live images of crashing planes and collapsing towers. News services scrambled to keep us apprised of events in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., literally as they unfold- ed. That’s the power of today’s media—and the power of today’s technology. On September 11, everyone was communicating. Passengers with cell phones called from doomed airplanes. Frantic friends, unable to get through on phone lines, left e-mail messages for loved ones in New York and Boston. Organizations around the world began contacting their members to see if they, and those they knew, were safe. Business schools and alumni networks went into immediate action, setting up mes- sage boards that listed the whereabouts and status of students, faculty, and graduates. One typical Web site featured an alphabetical chart of everyone in its network, noting who was safe and how that information had been obtained: e-mail, phone call, note from his wife… It was significant that most news had been obtained electronically. More than a hundred years ago, when the Civil War claimed disastrous numbers of casualties in every engagement, news filtered back slowly from the front. It often took weeks before those waiting at home knew the fate of their loved ones. Now, we often get the news before nightfall of the same day. And that’s the true power of today’s technology. Previous generations expected their technology to help them cook food, wash clothes, heat houses, and drive faster cars. We expect our technology to allow us to communicate instantly. Our cell phones and wireless networks and laptop computers and PDAs help us stay in the loop—every loop—every minute of every day. Sometimes we use that technology to find out sports scores or stock prices. Sometimes we use that technology to say, “I survived.” It is almost impossible for us to conceive of a location or a circumstance in which we could not, if we needed to, get a message through. In this issue of BizEd, we look at how technology has affected busi- ness schools. How has technology reshaped the mindset of educators and students? What’s the benefit of an MIS MBA? And what does a thought leader like Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter think about tech- nology’s role in the world today? Business school isn’t just about tech- nology, of course—but schools certainly wouldn’t be the same without it. And neither would the rest of the world. Iz BILL BASCOM BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 3 Letters PREMIERE ISSUE Bi EdNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 Bravo for BizEd ! z IS YOUR Peter Congratulations on the impressive debut of Drucker BizEd. Jeff Cannon, the director The Lessons of BUSINESS Business Schools of our undergraduate business pro- What Keeps Deans Awake gram, just shared the gorgeous new atNight? SCHOOL PLUS: magazine with me (but he made On Track with me promise to give it back!), so I’m Technology Hello, World! MEETING The Indian School rushing to read the excellent articles of Business Arrives now. Thank you very much for the THE MARK wonderful coverage of OneMBA! when it comes to… Allison Adams Communications Office • Highly satisfied Kenan-Flagler Business School students and faculty? University of North Carolina Congratulations on the inaugural issue of • Competitive faculty at Chapel Hill BizEd magazine! It is a highly salaries? informative, attractive, and useful Congratulations on the premiere issue of publication. Our director of • Sufficient resources BizEd. Impressive! This magazine MBA/MS programs and I were to achieve goals? will become the definitive reference delighted to be part of the premiere • Programs that meet and template for B-School maga- edition. Your article captured both current demand? zines. I really enjoyed John the promise and perils of technology- Fernandes’ write-up on fantasy base- enhanced education. • Visibility that it deserves? ball. I commend him on the many John DeAngelo Associate Dean for Information • Information that supports bold initiatives implemented during his tenure at AACSB. Well done. Technology the case for accreditation? Benjamin Ola. Akande The Fox School of Business and Dean, School of Business and Technology Management Get the knowledge you Webster University Temple University St. Louis, Missouri Philadelphia, Pennsylvania need for strategic planning, accreditation, and commu- Congratulations! The magazine looks great. Correction nications. For more informa- It had very interesting articles and tid- tion, visit our Web site at bits. I was very im press ed. You should We received the BizEd magazine today www.aacsb.edu. be very proud of this first issue. and saw the article on Singapore Larry Edward Penley Management University. It’s great— Dean, College of Business thanks very much for giving us such Arizona State University wonderful coverage! However, we Tempe, Arizona have to let you know that there was an error in the figure for the cost of I have just seen your premiere issue. It is the city campus. It should be S$500 impressive. Best wishes to you and million, not S$500,000 as written. It Contact: [email protected] the editors. would be great if a correction could [email protected] Mary Ellen Oliverio be printed. Or call: 314-872-8481 (U.S.) Professor of Accounting Monica Lim Lubin School of Business Associate Director Pace University Office of Corporate Communications New York, New York Singapore Management University 4 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 Headlines Schools Respond to The school also learned that a Terrorist Attacks recent alum, Daniel Walker Mc- Neal, had been killed in the WTC When tragedy struck New York City last attacks while in his office at San- Sep tem ber, among the institu- dler O’Neill. Students, alumni, tions acting quickly to offer help and school officials have banded were business schools in the af- together to create an award that fected cities of New York and will be handed out in McNeal’s Washington, D.C., as well as name. Although details are still schools in other parts of the being finalized, friend and fellow country. alum Tobin Richardson says it At Baruch College—The City will be a service award that will go University of New York, the way to a second-year student who best to help was immediate and obvi- exemplifies McNeal’s traits of self- ous: offer the virtual trading floor lessness, high ethical standards, at Subotnick Center for Financial and great personal energy. The Services as an actual trading floor school also is considering naming for about 30 displaced Wall Street an auditorium after McNeal. commodities brokers. I The Fisher College of Busi- Bruce Weber, director of the ness at the Ohio State University Subotnick Center, arranged to in Columbus created a Septem- have 20 additional phone lines in- ber 11 Memorial Endowment to stalled. “We also had to get per- support student programs at the mission to turn this place from a college. The endowment was es- simulated trading environment to tablished in memory of alumni an actual trading room,” he says. CORBIS/SYGMA who died in the attacks on the Permission was granted by Reuters, World Trade Center and the Penta- which supplies the center with live BARUCH COLLEGE OFFERED ITS gon, and in the plane crash in west- data feeds from exchanges all over the ern Pennsylvania. world. “Not only did Reuters agree to VIRTUAL TRADING FLOOR AS AN “At this time, we have been in- let us trade, they arranged immediate formed of one alumnus, Peter access to the London International ACTUAL TRADING FLOOR FOR Mardikian, who died in this tragic Financial Futures Exchange Chicago event,” said Joseph A. Alutto, dean Board of Trade, which we previously DISPLACED COMMODITIES BROKERS. of the college. Mardikian’s family re- lacked,” says Weber. quested that any memorials sent on In more normal times, the Subot- memorial gifts, and other actions: his behalf be given to the college, nick Financial Services Center and I Students at Georgetown Univer- Alutto said.
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