Business schools learn from the crisis by emphasizing ethics
7 September 2010
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Capital.fr: Last June, the Cercle de l'Entreprise which you preside over co-published a report with an unequivocal title: "Rethinking the training of managers." Do you feel that management schools have really learned the lessons of the crisis?
Jean-Pierre Helfer: The crisis acted as a shock. Teachers and school principals understood that mastering the most complex financial tools was not enough to train good managers. The Kerviel affair is an illustration of this naive belief in the efficiency of financial tools, which comes even before ethics. Schools have been blamed; we would indeed be guilty if we did not change our teaching methods.
Capital.fr: Beyond the observation, what needs to be changed concretely?
Jean-Pierre Helfer: It is up to us to develop the critical thinking of our students. They must no longer take theories for granted. From the beginning of their studies, the grandes écoles must encourage their students to ask ethical and not simply operational questions. The second priority is to strengthen the transversality of teaching. Teachers must place all practical courses such as finance in a historical or sociological context. If our students had had an hour-by-hour course on the 1929 crisis, the subprime mortgages would probably never have existed. Grounding technique on a cultural background allows one to take a step back, so as not to leave the door open to misconduct.
Capital.fr: Since spring 2010, Harvard students have been taking an oath on a code of ethics. Do you encourage this type of initiative?
Jean-Pierre Helfer: I am not convinced by this kind of "Hippocratic Oath" for managers. These are simply promises without consequences, such as "I will do my work ethically," "I will present accurately and honestly the results and risks taken by my company." In business, good practices do not respond to an ideal conduct but must be thought out and adapted to the context.
Capital.fr: How do you plan to set an example in your own school?
Jean-Pierre Helfer: In 2009, we adopted the slogan "Giving meaning to management." In other words, Audencia encourages reflection on ethics and professional obligations. Then, we will strengthen "search skills." Research projects do have the merit of raising students' awareness of the need for precision and reflection and extracting them from a temporal frame that is often too immediate. To gain distance from practice, our 520 graduates each year take a "competency oral examination" which allows them to take stock of their achievements after their internship. Finally, I wish to further enhance associative commitment in the curriculum. Managing is indeed an art that presupposes above all relational skills.
Published on August 24, 2010
Posted online on September 7, 2010
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