Marquis's business school essay

Business · Heat 2.4 / 10 · 2 shows · 18m airtime

Cambridge professor Christopher Marquis published a New York Times essay on October 17 arguing business schools should be shut down and redesigned around societal impact, citing that about 80 percent of graduates of large schools go into consulting, finance or big tech. The discussion has moved to how the schools teach: case studies cannot be published without the subject company's sign-off, which over-represents winners. Wharton dean Erica James calls the op-ed a salacious oversimplification while conceding schools were complicit in aggressive recruiting. What remains open is whether the critique changes admissions and hiring or stays a debate about curriculum.

How 2 podcasts covered it

1. Squawk Pod, 2026-10-23 (22:38 to 32:16)
   Interviews the essay's author on consulting pipelines
   Interviews the essay's author, who says about 80 percent of graduates of large business schools go into consulting, finance or big tech and cites research that companies appointing business school graduates cut labor wages and benefits. The hosts push back on whether the problem is capitalism, not the schools.
   New angle: About 80 percent of graduates of large business schools go into consulting, finance or big tech.
2. The Indicator from Planet Money, 2026-10-28 (0:19 to 1:20)
   Recaps the abolish-the-MBA op-ed
   Opens the episode on Marquis's op-ed, quoting its call to abolish business schools and noting his Cambridge post and earlier stops at Cornell and Harvard. Sets up the debate with the popularity of business majors; no new ground beyond the essay itself.
3. The Indicator from Planet Money, 2026-10-28 (2:16 to 6:33)
   Explains the case-study sign-off critique
   Marquis himself walks through the essay's argument: abolish means redesign, not closure, and the case-study method is the second pillar of the critique. He says companies must sign off before a case can be published, and that Harvard's early-2000s Enron cases sold a fraud as strategy.
   New angle: Case studies cannot be published without the subject company's sign-off, which over-represents winners.
4. The Indicator from Planet Money, 2026-10-28 (6:33 to 9:44)
   Questions the Wharton dean on the op-ed
   Puts the abolish-the-MBA argument to Wharton dean Erica James, who calls the op-ed a salacious oversimplification, concedes business schools were complicit in aggressive consulting and finance recruiting, and points to courses like Reforming Mass Incarceration. She and Marquis converge on engaging other disciplines.
   New angle: Wharton dean Erica James calls the op-ed a salacious oversimplification and concedes schools were complicit in aggressive recruiting.