"Leaders must learn the fundamentals in finance, marketing, and operations," Snyder says. "Through our issues-based initiatives, we are able to weave current themes into ethics, e-business, and entrepreneurship."
David Schmittlein, deputy dean of the Wharton School, says Wharton encourages individual faculty members to manage the balance of old and new. "The faculty at Wharton have a very strong research base and a deep understanding of some basic discipline," Schmittlein says. "Through consulting activities, projects, and experimental learning, professors tackle issues and decisions of the day."
Wharton's MBA program includes more than 17 e-business electives, which are reviewed yearly. Schmittlein cites a low barrier to creating experimental courses, which become permanent once they pass the test of time. He too warns against basing case studies on new, unstable companies.
"Knowledge from last year's cases may become obsolete in just a few years," Schmittlein says. "Learning about industries through a set of cases is less effective than gaining a sound fundamental perspective."
At least one-third of the elective courses offered at the Stanford Graduate School of Business didn't exist five years ago, but dean Robert Joss says these e-business and e-commerce topics will remain optional.
"The management of information has become an integral part of every function, not a discipline in itself," Joss says. "That is why we offer a solid base of courses in the foundations of business and then supplement that base with interesting electives. We don't offer a master's in e-commerce because such a degree cannot stand alone."
At a time when "dotcom" is used as an epithet, B-schools must examine new course offerings from the perspective of an incoming student -- specifically, a dotcom refugee with a tainted opinion of e-anything.
"Last year, we saw students rush to our new course offerings with the intent of founding a startup," Joss says. "Today, our e-business courses remain vital even to students entering the automotive or manufacturing industries because every business today is an Internet business."
Snyder also cited a shifting focus within Darden's curriculum. "We have certainly broadened the objective of the Batten Institute to include innovation and technology management within big companies," he says.
At the same time, Schmittlein argues that even students who wouldn't be caught dead working at a dotcom still want to learn about the business models and strategies that make dotcoms tick. For example, he expects Wharton's "Marketing and E-Commerce" course to remain steadily popular regardless of students' renewed interest in jobs at old-economy stalwarts.
"The content of our e-commerce or e-business courses has evolved substantially over the past three years," Schmittlein says. "Supply-chain management courses won't go away just because a few supply-chain startups have gone under. Our students still want to understand the business."
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