TOMORROW鈥檚 鈥済old collar workers鈥� will be scientists with business
degrees, says the dean of Cornell University鈥檚 school of management. Making the
right technological decisions is becoming vital to a company鈥檚 financial health,
and the people best equipped to make them have advanced scientific or technical
training, says Alan Merten, who set up one of the first fast-track business
degrees for scientists last year.
A study commissioned by Cornell鈥檚 Johnson School of Management last autumn
showed that almost 90 per cent of the 500 American senior managers they
interviewed thought people with higher degrees in physics, chemistry, maths and
computer science would become the next generation of successful managers. Almost
all felt technological literacy was important for good management. And 30 per
cent said they planned to appoint more scientists to management positions over
the next five years.
But the survey also illustrated how little science has permeated the upper
echelons of industry. While two-thirds agreed that their firm鈥檚 competitiveness
would be enhanced if more senior managers had a technical background, under half
of today鈥檚 managers have that kind of training behind them. A study last year by
Management Practice, an American research company, indicates that the number of
scientists and engineers in the top jobs is growing: 24 per cent of all chief
executives last year had technical backgrounds, up from 19 per cent in 1991.
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Last year, Cornell accepted 30 people into its accelerated MBA for
scientists. In what it calls the 鈥�12-month option鈥�, scientists complete the
first year of the masters degree in business administration in just three
months, covering subjects such as microeconomics, accounting and finance. They
join nonscientists for the second year. This year Cornell had 1400 inquiries for
45 places.
Cornell is not alone. Temple University in Philadelphia has been running an
MBA for chemists since 1986. For the past five years, Northwestern University in
Evanston, Illinois, has been offering a business oriented master of
biotechnology鈥攁gain, for scientists only.
The end of the Cold War and corporate cutbacks in R&D have forced
scientists to rethink their careers, says Merten. In the Cold War years, the
government 鈥渢hrew money鈥� at the universities in a 鈥渧ery inefficient, very
expensive鈥� attempt to drive science forward. 鈥淲e are now moving鈥攚ith
pain鈥攖o a demand driven model,鈥� he says. And there will be plenty of
demand, he believes, in the higher reaches of the corporate world.