填空题
Business schools are facing increasing competition from other providers of management training such as consultancies. The key to their future success as manager-trainers lies in the quality both of their research and of their partnership with the business world.
In the most general sense, being a good manager is a matter of being marginally better than and different from your competitors. (0) H These are the elements which make the difference between a successful and a less successful manager. This marginal edge may be based on talent, flair or natural leadership. (9) And this is where business schools come into their own.
The education of managers should include on-the-job training, workshops, conferences and training courses. (10) Traditionally, business schools have three major differentiating characteristics. First, they offer a complete package ranging from basic to very sophisticated training. Next, they enable managers to benefit from the research they carry out. (11)
In contrast to other providers of management education, business schools often offer a complete portfolio of educational programmes. MBA programmes exist alongside general management programmes, as well as specialized programmes for experienced managers. For the business school, this has the advantage that teachers can use the information they get from one programme to cross-fertilize with their teaching on another. (12) This in turn offers substantial advantages to the companies concerned. It means that managers and executives at different levels of the organization can be confronted with the same concepts, expressed in the same language. In this way, a close partnership with a business school enables a company to create some coherence between the education and the development of its different management levels. People in the company will communicate more effctively because they use the same terminology. (13) In short, thanks to contact with the business school, more people within the same company will be embracing similar ideas.
Obviously, the value of these concepts to the company increases if they are state-of-the-art concepts. (14) Only then can the company genuinely improve its management practice and competitive performance. Working with a business school is for many companies a privileged method of accessing the latest management thinking, before it is published in trade journals or popular books.
A Different departments will be able to discuss internal issues with a considerable amount of mutual understanding.
B Yet good management is also essential to the competitive performance of companies.
C And no less important, they are able to preserve an independent outlook towards the world of business.
D However, acquired knowledge of management can also provide this decisive advantage.
E For them in fact to be so, a business school's teaching must be supported by first-class research.
F Thus insights gained from top executives might impact positively on what they cover in a graduate programme.
G Business schools have a special role to fulfill in the delivery of this portfolio.
H He or she needs to be a little faster, able to spot opportunities earlier and react more quickly.