Morally bankrupt? Business Schools?
22 July 2025
Ian Hawkings looks at business schools' record and their purpose - pushing profit or stewarding the common good?
People often complain that LinkedIn is full of rubbish - a place that exists solely for people to boast about their latest career achievements. And, I think there’s a lot of truth in that. But I often think that this is less the case in the world of academia – don't get me wrong, there’s still plenty of peacocking, but academics often have interesting things to say, and are usually able to put them down in a form that doesn't make you want to scratch your eyes out in frustration. And sometimes, sometimes it is a source of inspiration.
In this case, I was looking for something to write for this newsletter when I happened upon this title in bold; AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MORALLY BANKRUPT BUSINESS SCHOOLS OF THE WORLD.
It went on: ‘To the deans, professors, and curricula architects of the global business academy: You have failed.’
The writer had my attention.
Firstly, he states that business schools have ‘propagated one of the most intellectually incoherent and morally corrosive doctrines of our time: that the purpose of business is to maximize profit. Not to sustain livelihoods. Not to serve society. Not to steward the earth—but to inflate shareholder returns, quarter after quarter, no matter the cost.’
He goes on; ‘You cannot plead ignorance. From Exxon’s denialism to Purdue Pharma’s death toll: the data has been in for decades. Profit-first models degrade ecosystems, hollow out communities, and entrench structural injustice.
And now? You scramble to bolt ethics onto the same broken chassis. ESG. CSR. “Purpose.” All hollow if they remain subordinate to the balance sheet. It is not enough to ask “what works.” You must ask: what is good?’
The finale? ‘Stop grooming technocrats of accumulation. Start forming stewards of the common good. Until then, let it be said: your theories are not only dumb. They are dangerous.’
So, the broad criticism is that business schools champion profit above all else, to the detriment of society. It’s not a new take, that’s for sure. In a post-Enron world at the start of the new millennium, business schools were chastised by many for the promotion of profit maximisation. A few years further down the line and the world was taking aim at MBA culture in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Head back to 1995 and noted business scholar Henry Mintzberg is about to launch the ‘reflective, collaborative, and worldly’ IMPM programme as an antidote to contemporary MBA culture. A few years later and he would publish his book ‘Managers not MBAs’, saying ‘We need to get back to a more engaging style of management, to build stronger organizations, not bloated share prices.’
My perspective? People tend to put all business schools into one big basket. That they are all the same. I’d dispute this. They also tend to think ‘MBA’ when they think of business schools. And when people think about MBAs their minds still conjure up images of Gordon Gekko acolytes, brazen profiteers, cogs in the corporate wheel; suckling greedily from the teat of whichever big bank or consultancy plucked them from whichever Ivy League or big city school training programme.
Now the above isn’t wholly inaccurate. A large part of the business school story is given over to the above process. And yes, business schools have been (and are) the places where those seeking wealth gather to learn the ‘science’ that will get them where they want to go. To the point stating that business schools have failed – well, if the goal was to create a machine to enrich individuals and maximise shareholder value, I'd glibly argue they’ve been fairly successful.
But I actually believe that whatever the starting point, business schools today are so much more than that. I’ve interviewed more business school students and alumni than I care to remember, and I can’t actually remember many who told me they wanted to grease the corporate wheels for money. I have, however, spoken to many who have used what they have learned at business school to develop ideas that benefit society. Only last week I was reminded of a student I met a decade ago who took his science background to business school in Germany and turned a rough idea into a company that has now produced the world’s most advanced portable cell-sorter for use in medical research and cell therapy.
I have met and spoken to many students who have actioned ideas designed to solve societal problems, I've spoken to many, many business school faculty whose research solely centres on sustainable enterprise, clean energy, medical innovation, and responsible management and stewardship. And there are numerous organisations committed to creating the kind of change in management education that the author of the linkedin post is calling for. Look at the GRLI for one such example.
It’s kind of simple to say that the above is ‘scrambling to bolt ethics onto a broken chassis’ and that schools are ‘grooming technocrats of accumulation’. Schools are undoubtedly an easy target. Some do feed the world’s big corporations (although only a few in any serious numbers), and I’m not saying systemic change wouldn’t be a good thing (it would) - but my experience tells me that if you scratch below the surface, there’s an awful lot of good being done by many people in today’s business schools that will help the world to be a better, fairer place.
And you’ll have trouble finding any in braces and a Brookes Brothers shirt.