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????上世紀50年代是美國經濟的全盛時期。二戰的陰云已經散去，不斷發展壯大的公司意識到，他們需要一批新的管理者，來管理橫跨多個國家和擁有幾十個品牌的綜合性大公司。

????不過，美國的公司并沒有選擇自己培養人才，而是向各大院校發展迅速的管理學課程尋求幫助——也就是授予工商管理學碩士（MBA）學位的專業。

????這一點很容易理解。既然大學已經進入這個領域，公司為什么還要去投資培養年輕的商業人士？然而，MBA的出現還是引起了許多人的擔憂。管理學大師彼得?德魯克在1950年的一期《財富》雜志（Fortune ）中對此有過描述，文章的標題是《商學院》（The Graduate Business School）。

????有批評者認為：學會管理要靠實踐，而不能靠課堂學習。MBA課程培養出來的是脫離實戰的“皇太子”，雖然理論高深，但他們對將要經營的公司卻一無所知。社會上真正需要的是靠實踐成長起來的企業家，而不是靠書本理論培養出來的專業經理人。那么，MBA專業的目的到底是什么？

????這樣的問題并不會讓高等院校放棄商業課程——畢竟，學校可以藉此獲得大筆收入，但德魯克寫道：“毫不夸張地說，商學院雖然在論戰中占據了上風，但他們并不知道該如何對待所取得的勝利。商學院并不清楚他們的職責是什么，也不知道如何完成自己的職責。”

????德魯克曾質疑，“如果專業的商學院都不明白那些商業人士在社會中的職能”，那么這些商業人士自己又怎么可能清楚呢？

????六十年后，許多事情發生了改變。首先，在德魯克的文章中只字未提女性，而通用汽車（GE）的管理者們也只是說“來自哈佛商學院（Harvard Business School）的那些聰明的小伙子們”。但如今，在哈佛商學院2015屆學生中，女性比例占到41%。過去幾年，賓夕法尼亞大學沃頓商學院（University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School）的女性學生比例也一直保持在40%以上。

????此外，如今MBA學生比20世紀50年代的學生更年長。德魯克寫道，當時，“研究生通常直接來自大學。就算他們有工作經驗，也只不過是在夏令營當過顧問；或者賣過訂閱的《周六晚郵報》（Saturday Evening Post）。他們從未像成年人一樣在成年人的世界里生活過，也從未獨立過，總之他們缺乏商業經驗。”德魯克對此并不滿意。

????六十年后，大多數商業課程都牢記他的觀點，現在都要求學生有幾年（三至五年）工作經驗。福爾德基金（Forte Foundation）的執行董事愛麗莎?埃利斯-桑斯特說：“公司開始提出工作經驗方面的要求。有工作經驗會讓他們更加成熟。”福爾德基金與各大商學院和公司合作，以提高商業職業中的女性比例。

????但其他問題仍存在爭議。德魯克對“皇太子”問題的解釋是，在商學院“有一種內在的傾向，即商學院培養出的人才目的是避開競爭，直接進入大公司的高層，而不是在與公司其他人的競爭中證明自己的能力和資質。”

????這種說法很有道理。畢竟，除非你認為讀商學院可以比熬資歷獲得更多，否則誰會愿意拿出工作時間去上學呢？而且，對于那些被打上卓越標簽的人，其他同事很自然會心懷怨恨。而這種情況會大大降低士氣。

????總之，埃利斯-桑斯特堅持認為，如今女性MBA學生身上并沒有那種“皇太子”的光環。“她們要接受指導和建議，才能知道如何提升自己。”

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????The 1950s were a heady time for the American economy. The grim years of World War II were fading in the rearview mirror, and growing corporations realized they needed a new breed of manager who could oversee conglomerates spanning borders and dozens of brands.

????But rather than cultivate their own talent, companies looked to the burgeoning academic programs in management -- those granting a Master of Business Administration (MBA) -- for help.

????It was a straightforward idea. Why invest in training young, budding businessmen when universities were already in that space? Still, the rise of the MBA inspired handwringing, which was chronicled in a 1950 Fortune feature by management guru Peter Drucker called "The Graduate Business School."

????Among the critiques: Management was about doing, not academic study. MBA programs created "crown princes" marked for the top who knew little about the businesses they would run. Society needed entrepreneurs, not business administrators. What was the purpose of an MBA, anyway?

????Such questions no longer made universities shy from business programs -- money poured into them after all -- but Drucker wrote that "It would be no exaggeration to say that the business schools, while they have won the war, do not know what to do with their victory. The business schools have 'arrived' without quite knowing what their job is, or how to accomplish it."

????How can the businessman know his function in society, Drucker wondered, "if their own professional schools do not know what it is?"

????Sixty-three years later, some things have changed. For starters, women -- completely absent in Drucker's piece, where GE (GE) managers talked of the "bright lads from the Harvard Business School" -- comprised 41% of HBS's class of 2015. Women have made up north of 40% of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School for the past few years.

????MBA students are also generally older than they were in 1950. Then, "The typical graduate student comes directly from college," Drucker wrote. "If he has any work experience at all it is as a counselor in a summer camp; or maybe he has sold subscriptions to the Saturday Evening Post. He has never lived as an adult in an adult world, has never been on his own, and, above all, he lacks business experience." Drucker was not pleased.

????Six decades later, most programs take his point to heart and now require a few (two-five) years of work experience. "Companies started asking for it. Companies started demanding it," says Elissa Ellis-Sangster, executive director of the Forte Foundation, which works with business schools and corporations to increase the representation of women in business careers. "Having that work experience matures them a little more."

????Other questions, though, are still being debated. Drucker explained the "crown prince" problem by noting that at business schools, "there is an inherent tendency toward the turning out of men who aim at making an end run around a large organization directly to the top, rather than proving their abilities and qualities in working their way up in competition with the rest of the organization."

????This makes sense. After all, why take time off work to go to school unless you think you'll gain more than those years of seniority? Nonetheless, other employees naturally resented these men marked for greatness. And that undermined morale.

????In general, today's female MBA students don't have a "crown princess" aura, Ellis-Sangster insists; "They have to be coached and advised on how to promote themselves."?