And they are not the only ones to hold a MBA

The prestigious diplomas MBA from American patterns have lost their luster. For Henry Mintzberg, Professor of management of McGill University in the Canada, "two names" personify the shortcomings of this training: the first is George w. Bush. The second is Rick Wagoner. George Bush has finished his eight-year Presidency on the greatest financial crisis since the second world war. While Rick Wagoner drove the giant of the General Motors automobile to the brink. And both are former students of the prestigious Harvard Business School.

And they are not the only ones to hold a MBA. John Thain, the former number one bank Merrill Lynch, Stanley O'Neal, his predecessor, Richard Fuld, the Lehman Brothers ex-patron... the list of graduation closely associated with the Wall Street slump is long. "It is not a few bad apples that need to get rid, considers Angel Cabrera, Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. These patterns were very good students who have applied what they learned. "The questioning is that last Wednesday, on the eve of the ceremony their diploma, 400 889 Harvard students marched to swear an oath pledging to act"in the highest integrity"in their future careers. "In both as manager, my goal is to contribute to a world better by linking people and resources to create, set of resources than an individual could create only one", pointed out the text of the oath.

For their part, Angel Cabrera, Henry Mintzberg and a few other teachers set out to reform their courses. Henry Mintzberg banned the youth of its classes. "It does not create a manager in a classroom", he said. The Professor prefers to work with "quadras, already leaders in their business, learning will rely on their own experience." One of his students, James Paterson, forty-six years, hearing officer in the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, and spent a week in his own company, observed by another student, framework for human relations at Motorola. "His eyes have generated new, practical comments very useful conversations", Judge James Paterson.

Case study

If McGill professors prefer field, other teachers remain in the classroom. But, again, the course content changes. Joe Badaracco, responsible for the program MBA of Harvard Business School, had already felt the wind turn with the Enron and Worldcom scandals. The current recession made that reinforce the need to consider, in the first year, the notion of responsibility. "Prior to any decision, three criteria must always be taken into account, he said, the economic, the legal aspect and the ethical issue.". This expert in ethics is reluctant however to "preach the Gospel" to his students. "Is better change their way of thinking", he said. Angel Cabrera, who does not believe in the virtues of "optional ethical course therefore of secondary interest", also believe that we should rethink the function manager as a true profession", with its values, its responsibilities towards the society and its code of conduct... to recite the day of delivery of the diploma.

And all in the case submitted to students from the concrete stories, beyond the financial sphere. Angel Cabrera wants more retreating to review "of a company A buying a company B". He prefers to follow the company Shell in Nigeria, see how it manages its relations with the people of the cru and measure its ecological impact on the environment in the long term. Joe Badaracco, he explores "the disasters of the time." And plunges into the "subprime" mortgage case The express purchase of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Bank gives, for example, a light on Wall Street. "We add 250 to 300 new cases to our teaching," he said. History to better understand the complexity of the crisis.