GlobThink

Approach

This post expresses what Dean Edward A. Snyder’s  welcome speech to the class of 2011 means to me. Some people may argue that statement of principles and values are just statements and have little connection with real practices. But I believe that sometimes it is important to step back and think about the meaning of what you are doing.

The University of Chicago is renowned for its schools of thought. Each school has its own approach for an specific discipline: Chicago approach to sociology, Chicago approach to economics, Chicago approach to physics, Chicago approach to literary criticism….

What is Chicago Approach to Management Education?

• Discipline-based knowledge : Business problems are complex and involve many disciplines. To understand organizations, markets, competition and succeed in business, you need knowledge from psychology, sociology, econometrics,  marketing… Other business schools focus on industries rather than on disciplines and neglect the multi-dimensional nature of business.
• Empirical knowledge: Chicago Booth believes in facts.
• Analysis: Good decisions are backed by good analysis. Analysis for Chicago Booth is discussing, challenging, fine-tuning ideas and deciding about them. The best idea is a provisional best idea. (See my post about this: What is Chicago Booth all about?). Booth is one of the few schools that focuses on the importance of decisions.
• Fundamental principles: Effective business practices should be based on fundamental principles, not on furors or fads.

So, What is Chicago strategy, then?

• Values: Chicago believes on an unified system of values. We should have the same values at home, at the school, at work, in our country, in other countries, when doing research, when teaching…
• Relations: every relation is important. Relations is helping each other, asking for help, giving help. We are receiving much support from second-year students, from alumni…
• Respect for diversity: new ideas stem from diversity. We need to cherish diversity.

Picture: belongs to wikipedia.com