Trained Incapacity: The Rise of Specialized Master’s Degrees

This blog first appeared on the Bloomberg Businessweek website. "Generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources. A specialist species can only survive in a narrow range of environmental conditions." – Warren Bennis When I was president of the University of Cincinnati in the 1970s, the dean of the medical school poignantly remarked that the only generalist he could find at the hospital or in the faculty was the patient. That irony has come to mind frequently in the past year or so when I……

USC Marshall’s ‘Passport to the World’

This blog first appeared on the Bloomberg Businessweek website. As I'm writing this on the West Coast at 11 p.m., Oct. 11, three top administrators from the University of Southern California–Provost Elizabeth Garrett; James Ellis, dean of the Marshall School of Business; and his vice dean for academic affairs, John Matsusaka–are in Milan wrapping up an agreement with their counterparts at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Bocconi University. These three universities are collaborating to launch a three-continent degree program that will take students from Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Milan. They've formed a partnership……

“Warren, Do You Have a Minute?”

For the past sixty years–before a strategic acquisition, during an international crisis, or after four years in college, one question has been asked by CEO's, presidents, and students alike. "Warren, do you have a minute?" Six words, perhaps better than any other, summarize the life of USC professor and CCLP Distinguished Fellow Warren Bennis, "the founding father of the modern leadership movement." At an October 6th event hosted by the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, the leadership guru spent a few minutes with USC students, faculty and staff to share stories from his latest book, Still Surprised: A Memoir……