Monday9 March 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 13WORK & CAREERS
Sharon Hodgson
is a former IBM
general manager
who had no
academic
experience
before being
hired by
Western
University’s Ivey
Business School
CharlieBibby/FTI
ave never known anything evenh
approaching this level of change
before.” This verdict on the current
“musical chairs” playing out among
the deans who hold the top jobs at
business schools comes from Anne
Kiem, chief executive of the Chartered
Association of Business Schools.
The changes are dramatic. Ms Kiem,
whose organisation represents UK MBA
providers, says: “In the past 12 months
we have seen a third of our 120 mem-
bers appoint new deans and there is a
limited pool of candidates. Lots of peo-
ple don’t want to move jobs and lots of
faculty academics might fit the bill but
do not want to take on what is a tough
leadership role.”
This rapid turnover at the top of busi-
ness schools, and the widening search
for suitable candidates to fill leadership
roles, is a globaltrend. In the past 12
months several longstanding deans
have retired, such as Ted Snyder atYale
University’s School of Management, or
have been promoted to help run parent
universities, such as Kai Peters, who
went from Ashridge Business School to
become pro-vice-chancellor at Coven-
try University.
The churn at the top comes at a time
ofexceptional change for business
schools, as the role of deans widens in
scope. They are now business leaders,
responsible for the financial health of
their schools as well as heading aca-
demic institutions.
MBA courses are undergoing some-
thing of an existential crisis,with more
students wanting to pursue shorterpro-
grammes. Alongside that is a sector-
wide — and potentially sector-altering —
debateover the purpose of business
education and its role inteaching future
leaders to be more mindful of environ-
mental, social and governance goals.
Deans have to lead their schools
through this mass of potentiallyconflicting demands andinstitutions
areturning to a more varied pool of can-
didates to meet these challenges. Some
are hiring leaders from multinational
businesses, such as Sharon Hodgson at
Western University’s Ivey Business
School, a former IBM general manager
with no prior academic experience; or
choosing heads of other university
departments, such as Fiona Devine, the
sociology professor who now runsAlli-
ance Manchester Business School.
This yearstarted with vacanciesat
two of the sector’s most recognisable
names, Harvard Business School nda
The Wharton School t the University ofa
Pennsylvania. Wharton recently
announced rika James as its next dean,E
the first woman and the first person of
colour to take the role. She is currently
dean of Goizueta Business School at
Emory University in Atlanta.In theframe at HBS, which has always hired
from its current or former academic
staff, are two female faculty: Amy
Edmondson, professor of leadership
and management, and Youngme Moon,
professor of business.“Business schools
are not corporations, but they are aca-
demic institutions with business aspects
to them,” says Jackie Gallagher Zavitz,
a partner at executive search firm Heid-
rick & Struggles. “They therefore look
for someone who can set strategy
and bring people along with them,
as well as having a strong academic
understanding. The trouble is that the
Venn diagram overlap for a per-
son with all those qualities is small.”
Kenneth Kring, co-managing director
of the global education practice at exec-
utive search firm Korn Ferry, likens the
dean’s role to that of a regional general
manager at a multinational. The key“performance indicators f a dean areo
the ability to raise new funds from
donors, generate returns from course
fees and manage campus property
developments,” he says.
Only a handful of business schools are
standalone institutions, so deans usu-
ally have to manage relationships
within a wider university. This often
means building respect among academ-
ics from other disciplines, who may
view the research of management pro-
fessors as inferior to their own, accord-
ing to John Colley, a professor in strategy
and leadership and associate dean at
Warwick Business School.
“There is a slight condescension
towards those of us in the business
school, while at the same time those in
other departments are highly
dependent on us to produce revenue,”
Mr Colley says.Occasionally, professors move from
wider academia into business schools.
Janice Allan was a lecturer in Victorian
literature in the School of English,
Sociology, Politics and Contemporary
History at the University of Salford
when the vice-chancellor asked her to
take on a three-month secondment as
deputy dean of the university’s business
school.
Within a week her term was length-
ened to a year. This month he wass
appointed dean. “I believe I was hired
because I had a proven record of KPIs
[key performance indicators],” Ms
Allan says. “I had overseen a fall in the
dropout rate among students and
increased the percentage of undergrad-
uates progressing to masters degrees.
“When I came into the business
school I was concerned that the differ-
ences in my academic discipline com-
pared with the faculty here would be an
insurmountable barrier, but I quickly
realised what I was here to do was
provide leadership.”
Ms Allan has continued her research
into 19th-century popular fiction. Her
latest book, onSherlock Holmes, was
published last year.
Ann Harrison, a former management
professor at Wharton and director of
development policy at the World Bank,
was appointed dean of the University of
California,Berkeley’sHaas School of
Business n 2019. “The biggest challengei
of this role is the stamina it requires,”
Prof Harrison says. “It is very long days
and you need to be empathetic with a
wide variety of people. You need
patience. You need a vision, too, and you
really have to be all in.”
The gender balance at the top of busi-
ness schools has been narrowing: 25.
per cent of business schools are now led
by a woman, up from 20.5 per cent at the
end of the 2013-14 academic year,
according to global accreditation body
the Association of Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business.
Haas was the first of the “magnificent
seven” highest-rated US MBA providers
to be led twice by female deans. “This is
a special place as a centre for liberal
thinking and free speech,”Prof Harri-
son says. “I could never imagine being a
dean of another school.”All change at the top of business schools
As the role of dean
becomes more complex,institutions are casting
wide for candidates,writesJonathan Moules
‘You need
to be
empathetic
with a
variety
of people.
You need
patience.
You need a
vision, too’
MARCH 9 2020 Section:Features Time: 8/3/2020- 15:47 User:keith.allen Page Name:CAREERS2, Part,Page,Edition:USA, 13, 1