Professors Avoid the Middleman in Hawking Expertise to Companies

For years, when big companies needed to train their leaders to manage large teams, change their thinking on product development or soak up the latest findings about globalization, they called on business schools.

Schools’ executive-education offices would suggest a professor or two to lead a brief course on campus or at company offices, for which companies would pay thousands of dollars. Professors usually got a small cut of the earnings.

But as professors themselves become bigger brands–aided by TED talks, Twitter and networks on sites like LinkedIn–firms are reaching out to the instructors directly instead of going through the schools. Faculty, meanwhile, are doing more to court outside teaching opportunities.

It is a subtle change–executives in those workshops see little difference–but the shift saves companies money and endangers a revenue stream for the educational institutions.

By MELISSA KORN and CAROLINE PORTER

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