VENTURE MODE

Hastings and Packard propose a new model of business training in this nonfiction work.

“The world is full of administrators,” the authors write in the book’s opening lines, lamenting the fact that “administrators then go on to employ an army of bureaucrats to enact their administrative tasks.” This “archaic mode” of running a business, they argue, is bolstered by an educational apparatus (particularly the MBA degree) whose existence hinges on protecting administrators from “entrepreneurial disruption.” The book’s first three chapters are dedicated to outlining the authors’ argument that the MBA is “killing business” by stifling creativity and adaptation. They posit that business school teaches students “how to operate the machinery of corporate control,” which does little to foster innovation. Central to the book’s thesis is the need to replace current administrative models of business leadership with the titular “venture mode,” which substitutes an emphasis on organizational management with an entrepreneurial mindset reflective of successful startups. This alternative paradigm prioritizes “imagining the value that end users crave,” identifying creative avenues to deliver that value, and taking customer feedback into account for continued innovation. The volume’s final chapters call for a “radical reform” of the American educational model; Hastings and Packard suggest that MBA programs should be replaced by a new Master of Business Enterprise degree that reflects their venture mode. (The book’s appendix material even includes detailed descriptions of what the curriculum of an MBE program would look like.) While the authors’ self-described “radical reform” of business schools may be unlikely to be implemented, they convincingly support their position with ample anecdotal evidence and scholarly resources. An entrepreneur and Silicon Valley startup CEO, Hastings blends his enthusiastic, often conversational writing style with Packard’s more academic grounding as a tenured professor who has published extensively on entrepreneurial theory.

A well-researched, iconoclastic take on the need to reevaluate business education in America.