rate. We know action is called for, but is leadership education a top priority? Research on reasons for business failure hints at inept leadership, but usually cites poor management as a prime reason for failure. Research on what it takes to be a successful business owner also suffers from a lack a clear distinction between management and leadership. Fortunately, there is one big difference. Everyone seems eager to talk to the successful and try to learn the secrets of their success; similarly, the successful enjoy talking about how they became successful. As a result, the popular press is full of success stories. What do the highly successful stories tell us? Their message is that effective communication is critical to success. Bennis and Naus argue that business schools are focusing on the wrong thing. They feel that, schools and businesses should be teaching the principles of effective leadership rather than simply management skills. Teachers should be helping their students begin the lifelong process of internalizing these principles. “The major problem is that what management education does do moderately well is to train good journeymen / women managers; that is, the graduates acquire technical skills for solving problems. They are highly skilled problem solvers and staff experts. Problem solving, while not a trivial exercise, is far removed from the creative and deeply human processes required of leadership. What’s needed is not management education but leadership Education”. The education system can train people to be leaders in addition to training them to be managers. All most of us need to do to improve our programs is to adopt a new perspective – a new vision. Leadership, in my view; is the key word. It is at the core of what has been referred to as the “competitive edge”. I have argued that, perhaps, the single most important thing in entrepreneurial ventures is a focus on leadership to g...
