New Stanford dean of Graduate School of Business touts ‘critical thinking’

If there had been more "critical analytical thinking" about the weirdness of the debt market among executives at financial services institutions, then maybe we wouldn’t have plunged into the toxic mess from which we’re still struggling to extricate ourselves.

So believes the incoming dean of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, Garth Saloner, who has been putting that principle at the core of the school’s changing curriculum. "We need to look beyond the narrower issues of ‘functional expertise’ " – the traditional MBA managerial focus – "and more on what is going on outside," said the South African-born biz school veteran, known for his expertise in entrepreneurship and e-commerce at Stanford.

Andrew S. Ross

Full Story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/07/BUIR17SMG2.DTL&type=business