On Business School's Allleged Education

Russell L. Ackoff

Keynote Speech at the Hull University Business School, 2005

When I retired from Wharton as a member of the regular faculty and became emeritus I was asked to reflect on the value of a business school education. I endeared myself to the faculty by identifying what I thought to be the three most important values of such an education.

• First, it equips students with a vocabulary that enables them to talk with authority about subjects they do not understand.
• Second, it inculcates them with principles of management and organization that have demonstrated their ability to withstand any amount of disconfirming evidence.
• Third, and this is what makes business school education worthwhile —it provides a ticket of admission to a job that provides a chance to learn what should have been learned in business school but wasn’t.

To read the speech, download the following file: Download UK TALK 05