Should the business discipline of Information Technology, which soared and crashed with the dot-com boom and subsequent bust, reclaim its front seat in the business school curriculum? If you are asking deans of business schools, the answer is a resounding yes. And top schools around the world are turning the heat up on this issue to inform the future of MBA education in our 21st century global, technologically connected world.

Vasant Dhar and Arun Sundararajan, both professors at NYU's Stern School conducted the first ever survey of the Deans of the top 88 business schools to assess the future of business education in an economy increasingly influenced by Information Technology. Almost all of the schools which were interviewed (43 out of the 45 respondents) affirmed that a clear understanding about how IT affects business and society is critical for future executives, for three reasons:

• 46 percent cited Information Technology as a central driver of accelerated globalization, a transformative force in business and society and a significant contributor to future wealth creation. In other words, nearly half of the deans interviewed stated these outcomes as the primary reason to teach MBA students how to think about information technologies. This was also the position of a majority (about two-thirds) of the top-30 schools.
• 27 percent claimed investments in Information Technology are critical to the success of organizations, and that successful managers will be equipped to assess the IT investment that best supports their business models.
• 27 percent said that success as a business executive in an increasingly electronic world deluged by data will depend on creativity in the use and application of this data for decision-making.

Professor Dhar and Sundararajan unveiled their research at a Harvard Business School workshop on May 5 with the intent to move towards a consensus on how business schools should shape curricula across the management education industry.

The full text of their report is available here. To join the discussion regarding what the Core Course in IS should look like, take a look at the relevant forum.