After studying leadership for more than thirty years, Professor Henry Mintzberg of McGill University, the author of such landmark studies as The Nature of Managerial Work, began to question the importance of business school training. “I ask people who know American business well to name three or four chief executives who really made a difference,” Mintzberg said, “not short-term, but who really sustained superb performance. Almost never does anybody mention a Harvard MBA, let alone any MBA.”1

Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon, has made a similar observation:

“Clear thinking in senior leadership is a primary attribute we look for: at Avon we even test for it. I’ve seen ...

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