A year at Acton was a challenge, but made me a stronger person. - Andrew Hull '06
Yale School of Management Dean Tells the New York Times that American Business Schools Are Failing
07/06/2005
Austin, Texas – The outgoing dean of the Yale School of Management painted a bleak picture of the nation’s business schools last month in an exclusive interview with
the New York Times.
Jeffrey E. Garten, who is retiring after 10 years as dean, lamented to the Times that among other things the criteria for tenuring faculty
should be changed to include real-world experience. “What business schools need to do is add some criteria for promotion.” Garten states, “One of them should be some
real-world experience, in the same way that a doctor teaching at a medical school would have had to see patients.”
The Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship, based in
Austin, Texas, is the answer to Garten’s concerns. At Acton, students are taught by successful entrepreneurs. Students learn about business by making difficult
decisions in over 300 real life cases, working up to ninety hours each week in an intense twelve-month program. Tenure is not an option at Acton. All
entrepreneur-teachers are evaluated by their customers, the students. Salary, bonuses and whether or not a teacher continues in the program are determined by how well
students feel they have been served.
Acton’s focus on teaching and private sector incentives has paid off. Last year, Princeton Review ranked Acton’s
entrepreneur-teachers the third best MBA faculty in the country.
Garten leaves Yale “with many more questions than when I came. The biggest one is, is it
possible to produce M.B.A. graduates who will not only be greater leaders of their companies but also make a much broader contribution to the world economy and the
society at large?”
Jeff Sandefer, a successful entrepreneur and Master Teacher at Acton, answers Garten:
“Acton is proving that successful entrepreneurs
are the best teachers for preparing our next generation of business leaders, not only for success in business, but for success in life as well. All you have to do is
ask our graduates.”
To read the entire New York Times article, please visit www.nytimes.com
