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Economic crisis challenges business training: expert
The global economic crisis has highlighted the importance of current business
education models in training the corporate leaders of tomorrow, according to RMIT
University’s Professor John Toohey.
Professor Toohey, Head of the Graduate School Business at RMIT, said business
schools faced major challenges in the age of the “fiscal thermonuclear meltdown”.
“A downturn in the economy is often followed by an increase in enrolments in
postgraduate business programs, particularly MBAs – we are already seeing this in
some American schools and I expect we’ll see the same in Australia,” he said.
“When times are tough many people seek further qualifications to differentiate
themselves in the employment market.
“Now more than ever, business schools need to know what they stand for.
“We have a responsibility to develop the whole person; to ensure that they are
motivated by ethics as well as profit.
“The considerable rewards afforded by a career in business career bring an
additional responsibility to put something back, to perform to the highest standards
of duty and care.”
Professor Toohey said MBA programs that emphasised corporate responsibility
would help produce a new generation of business leaders to take up the challenge
of the emerging environment.
“The current crisis is linked to an acknowledgement that the ‘masters of the
universe’ have failed us,” he said.
“This next generation of business leaders will have to be prepared to be innovative
and radical, while holding firm to the highest standards of ethics and corporate
responsibility.”
Professor Toohey is an expert in business education and organisational
performance.
He is available for interview on the global financial crisis and its implications for
MBA programs and business education.
For interviews or comment: Professor John Toohey, Head of the Graduate
School of Business (03) 9925 0134 or 0419 407 095.
For general media enquiries: RMIT Media and Communications, Gosia
Kaszubska, (03) 9925 3176 or 0417 510 735.
19 November, 2008
NEWS 
