OBM: Master in OBM

["Towarzystwo Doradcze Ryszard Stocki" <ryszard_stocki@tdrs.com.pl>]

Dear Friends,

I think it is the highest time to start our work on the curriculum for OBM. I have provocatively called it "Master in OBM" the name should probably be formulated later, but the idea of a counterpart to MBA should remain.  

In the table below I tried to express, in the shortest possible form, the challenges we are going to face if we want to prepare students for managing and introducing ownership culture. I did it by contrasting the traditional approach to management and business education with the open book management philosophy remaining space for OBM education for you to formulate

 

Values and practices of traditional and ownership culture management

Traditional company	Traditional business school =input model	Ownership culture company	Ownership business school =output model
Obedience	Obedience	Playing a game of known rules
Hiding any business facts.	Students are not informed about  practical sense of courses.	Trust in sharing the results (numbers) of the company.
Employees are business illiterate.	Students are unaware of the costs of  educational institutions	Employees are business litarate.
Employees do not know how their actions translate into company’s success.	Students do not know how they efforts translate to chances for attractive jobs.	Employees know how their work influences financial results.
Profit oriented	Economy oriented	All stakeholders oriented (satisfaction an important aspect of work).
Managers tell employees what to do.	Professors tell students what to learn.	Managers and employees work out together what should be done and improved to achieve certain numbers.
Only marketing (sales) and top management know the results.	Schools do not follow the careers of their graduates=results of their activity.	All employees are informed about the  company’s results and act on them.
Employees seldom share in the success of their companies.	Students do not share the professional successes of their fellow graduates.	Employees share  in the gains  and losses of their companies.
Employees play the game how to get most for the least effort.	Students play the game of getting the best mark for least effort.	Employees and management play the game of business success with other companies.
People are “human resources” of the company.	Students are customers who pay for the services they get.	Employees become owners and decision makers of the company.

 

I propose to run the discussion along the following lines:

1)       Discuss the assumptions made (columns 1-3 of the table above), correct and develop the table, explain if anything is unclear.

2)       Find the educational (pedagogical) solutions to fill in the fourth column of the table.

3)       Look for the existing business school practices which fulfil the requirements.

4)       See if there are common features, elements of the existing proposals.

5)       Put them in order and check what is missing.

6)       Develop and experiment on the missing parts.

7)       Formulate the complete curriculum proposal and make it subject to a public debate – send it to any institutions that might be interested..

 

I realise there are many simplifications in the table, but this is a characteristic of any model. Please do comment on the proposed action plan for the group and the table contents.

Yours,

Richard