New Book by GMAT Publisher Takes on Challenges Confronting Business Education

Disrupt or Be Disrupted: A Blueprint for Change in Management Education offers insights from leading thinkers on the future of business schools

RESTON, VA (August 6, 2013) – A new book commissioned by Graduate Management Admission Council, owners and administrators of the GMAT exam, examines a variety of important challenges faced by business schools and offers insights into a rapidly changing global graduate management education market.

Disrupt or Be Disrupted: A Blueprint for Change in Management Education (Wiley; 978-1-118-60239-3; August 2013; $40.00; e-book available) contains contributions from leading academics and thinkers worldwide who focus on specific ways to renovate current models and practices, such as curriculum content and delivery, student engagement, faculty development, school rankings methods, and effective measurement.

Disrupt’s authors, including Rakesh Khurana of Harvard Business School and Dipak Jain of INSEAD,  address immediate concerns facing graduate management education and offer paths forward, such as:

•    Moving b-schools from status quo to strategic innovation and fundamental change.
•    Advocating a leap away from homogeneity and duplication to differentiation and new strategies that fit schools’ unique strengths.
•    Identifying a new model of measuring program quality that offers an alternative to rankings.

Marketplace forces, such as new competitors, technological advancements, globalization, and economic fluctuations are challenging the very core of graduate management education, note authors Brooks Holtom of Georgetown University and Lyman W. Porter of the University of California-Irvine, in the introduction.

“What matters most to GMAC is that the best ideas and solutions to the challenges graduate management education faces today are given a strong platform on which to be heard,” said David A. Wilson, GMAC president and CEO.

“Graduates of these programs today are contributing to the global community in new and important ways and making a positive impact. More than ever, graduates are committed to giving back. Programs such as sustainability, data analytics, and entrepreneurship are inspiring students to think about how they can make a difference. But what does that mean for schools as they seek to teach, grow and graduate the business leaders of tomorrow?

“We commissioned this book to bring together an accomplished roster of contributors to spark and then lead the discussion and provide  new insights and new ideas. We hope that this will be an important contribution to the debate at a crucial time in the history of business education.”

Disrupt  is “essential reading for all those involved in the leadership of business schools, not just faculty but also those who sit on advisory boards and governing bodies,” writes George Yip, professor at China Europe International Business School and former dean at Rotterdam School of Management, in the book’s foreword.

For links to author information and more resourcesabout the book, please go to GMAC News Center's page of Disrupt resources for media.

About GMAC: The Graduate Management Admission Council (gmac.com) is a nonprofit education organization of leading graduate business schools and owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT exam), used by more than 5,800 graduate business and management programs worldwide. GMAC is based in Reston, Virginia, and has regional offices in London, New Delhi and Hong Kong. The GMAT exam—the only standardized test designed expressly for graduate business and management programs worldwide—is continuously available at more than 570 test centers in 110 countries. More information about the GMAT exam is available at mba.com. For more information about GMAC, please visit gmac.com/newscenter.