I agree with Prof. Henrik G.S. Arvidsson

There's a pragmatic gap between what you learn in textbooks and the the real corporate jungle out there. We have examples of multi million dollar companies whose CEO had absolutely no training in business. I feel you learn as you go along, in these cases.

However, a solid background of theoretical aspects of business would definitely hold a businessman in good stead. This is reason why we have students in India who opt for MBA degrees and later on join the family businesses. The pedagogy of today focusses on real world case studies, business simulation and design thinking. All this would definitely help in a business environment.

Paul: I think it is much better if a professor has business and management experience if they are going to teach business and management courses. At my university, almost all of the professors have real-world experience. Students enjoy listening to our stories of real world application. They especially like hearing when things didn't go so well and there was failure. We then discuss what caused the failure and how it can be avoided in the future.

I have been on many search committees for new faculty as well as Deans. When an applicant has real-world experience, it is a plus. I don't think it is absolutely necessary, but it definitely helps.

Henrik G.S. Arvidsson it is an interesting and relevant question. Paul Stock I agree with you that student enjoy the real life experiences - and in my experience there are several approaches to getting that into a theoretical frame during lecturing.

So, I think practical experience can come in different shapes. For instance through much interaction with and study of organizations, we gain a broader type of experience which can also be useful in the knowledge sharing with students.

Also, using the experiences of the students in the room - notably MBAs - can also be an interesting catalyst for meaning full lectures and learning.

Having a guest lectures coming in is useful - and allows a pin pong presentation between practice and theory, which can be splendid in showing students how theories can be applied and excel and where the challenges are between practice and theory.

Br Mai

In my recruitment for instructors in my Faculty of Business Administration, a high weight to the selection criteria is attached to experience and networking. We have observed that instructors with no experience in marketing, management and HR for example lead to students' non-relevancy when applying to work, even if they graduate with high grades. The employment market is becoming [or already was like that] very demanding that students need to bring with them experiential exposure through their instructors. We are trying hard to send our students to Internships in the work place to mitigate such a disadvantage.

Good question. Actual experience can be made up by Consulting experience & case studies.

Thanks for your interesting answers...I see that most of you agree with me. I think that actual business experience is worth 10 times more than a Phd or master, now I will be crucified but I think that if you have no experience in something it is really hard to teach others, I think to a certain point you can compensate by reading up on case studies but as a businessman my self I think the questions asked in many case studies are not the most relevant, when I started my first business I found my self lost because I had to relearn most things and the realisation that all the theories I learned at university were in many cases , I will not say useless but of lesser value to put it mildly. I think those faculties who manage to find staff with business experience who can connect the dots will be more successful in preparing students for real life. I can sometimes find my self thinking that many scholars are disconnected from the business world. I think they should try to get practical experience... I know somethings about football but I never played so for me to teach football would be much harder than it would be for some one who has played him or her self. I know that some one can use this logic to claim that in order to work as a psychiatrist you must be mentally ill but this is not what I mean. Im simply stating the fact that academia is a very closed world and sometimes people view theories infront of real experience. A theory or case study can be one way of describing the reality but it is often unidimensional and a theory is often influenced by the pre knowledge of the researcher. I think academia must open up to the real world or it will lose its relevance...do you agree or am I to drastic? Best wishes Henrik

I think actual experience is really important, because in theory something might work, but reality may be different.

It is very often different and I think the universities must be more oriented toeards preparing their students for their future working life. Theories are interesting but focus must shift towards the practical. I hope one day to find a university where I can work part time who shares my philosophy but now with corona my full focus is on business..but maybe there is a future, even if I might feel doubtful right now 🤣

Sorry for spelling.. been answering during short stops whilst driving 🙂

With experience the advice, the share is completely different.

My opinion is that a teacher must have practical experience to teach. We have seen many cases in teaching, including at the university, where theory is completely broken by practice. It is difficult to understand and teach a process, technical or economic, without participating, even partially, on its development. Because of this, industrial training stage was often recommended before going to teaching. An interesting question can also be the question of how quickly some researchers become professors ...

A lot of professor are doing this ....

Anyone with a divergent opinion?

Great topic. Totally agree that academics benefit from having business experience. The ability to implement and understand the factors that affect application of theory, add a useful dimension to the academics’ ability to show students how to find good solutions to their business problems. One issue is that, with the business environment changing so rapidly, experience has to be kept up to date. (i.e. the academic needs to get out into the real world from time to time.)

However, the equation reads in two directions. I believe that business people should acquire a theoretical background to enable them to have a broader strategic base to tackle their problems. They need to develop critical reflection; to be able to develop action options from theories and models that have been tried and tested. The power of structured thinking and the ability to think wider and challenge all assumptions can provide opportunity and/or prevent disaster.

Teaching business and doing business are two different vocations but the training is done by a business teacher. A business teacher teaches students business skills and do not necessarily need to be doing business to be able to teach business.

I fully agree with you @HelenStrong. There are always 2 sides of the coin. I love teaching and as a student I have seen both good and bad lecturers, some were terrible, just talked about theory and it showed that they had no idea what they talked about and others...well.. but in general, the good ones was the ones that had a background in business, with one exception, might be to personal traits or other reasons but those without business experience in general held a much lower level. However my impression is that the faculties often favor those who are Pure products of academia. Something that is utterly sad because the ones who stand to loose from it, is the students..if some one just read about it in a book doesnt mean he or she knows what they are talking about. I have done some great things in terms of business but I also failed in other ventures and without those experiences I dobt think I would be able to teach as good..or in other words tell the story in a way that would benefit the student.. if I take a course and the professor never been there and done that..I might as well not attend class and just read the book because the professor him or her self has very little ti add.. I say this with the most respect, I cant repeat it enough because I know it is a very sensitive topic and I really dont want to hurt any one and if you dont agree with me pls voice your opinion. Best wishes H

You can, but it helps you a lot to be comprehensive and more interesting if you can share your experience.

Well, You definitely can teach Business without Business experience, but you lose the soul. You can not give your students the excitement of real-life examples. you can not teach your students the sensitivity of the real business instinct from the man who is mature in the real business world.

I agree with the general opinion that it’s best to have experience, but academics without such experience can describe relevant research findings and seek to get students in the audience with relevant experience to contribute their observations - I have in mind MBA students.

must have experience before teaching because business not only about the theory but you need to try and get the experience !

L'expérience est souhaitable avant d'enseigner.

Henrik G.S. Arvidsson The experience(in this case) is the product of the theorical practice into the real life: getting bad decisions, getting good decisions, and how you say "falling down and getting up again". This is the world of the bussines, the success is not instant, thats how you get experience, the situacions in the real world always are different, so you don`t teach how your student should act, you teach how your students afront to problems and prepare them to make decisions: to accept the "defeat" or celebrate the "victory", and make the defeat or the victory an opportunity to grow up as person and bussiness man . I think that someone who has a great theorical knowlegde can teach, but without the experience, the teaching aspect will be regulated or limited to theory. However, everyone who wants to teach should get some experience before teach someone because you will be the "example to follow" to your students so should involved them into the theorical aspects and the real situations.

-Oscar Mata

no, certainly not. you must have diplomas and experience.

I'm ok with Nadia. diplomas and a little experience are required.

Yeah that`s true. What i tried to say was that when somebody wants to teach without experience the limitations are very strong, and it`s a fact. There are a lot of people who teach and they don`t have experience. In conclution the experience and the "thing" that check that you are an "expert" are very valiable

Those who can, do. Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, administrate.

It's an old line, but a good one!

to teach is to earn money every month. Doing business means earning or losing money every month.

enseigner c'est gagner chaque mois de l'argent. Faire des affaires c'est gagner ou perdre de l'argent chaque mois.

I had twenty years of experience before becoming an academic. I discovered I could

This question cocerns not only business, byt also other applied sciences. In several countries, possiblity to teach at a university depends only on academic, not practical achievements.

Sorry, I touched Add by mistake. I was saying that I discovered I could teach. However, I also discovered that some of my colleagues who had no experience were extremely good teachers, getting better ratings than mine and electrifying the MBA and MSc students.

Richard Ormerod Yes there are always exceptions, but on the other hand your experience and the extra dimension it gave the students might still have given them a better knowledge. Some people are naturally good speakers and can give a funny class but is fun always the best? I sometimes struggle with this. I did radio when I was younger and I constantly have to tone down my self but we are all different and I think ratings are not all. I think I can give a lecture that gets 10 out of ten if I do it in a certain way but still, the guy who kept things close to reality might actually have a larger influence in the end...As a businessman I try to share my experiences but off course the lure of entertainment is always tempting...:-) But as I said we are all different and some subjects are harder for the students to like no matter how good you are esp if something is mandatory and the student dont really want to be in class at all.. Best wishes Henrik

Hardly, as you are more of a historian then. But you can teach business without busineees theory, if you have enough praxis.

For me Im both... been doing business for 20+ years and Im also an economist.... But if you have no experience, I know people who dont and still teach..from my perspective it must be much more difficult.... If I get a question I can add a personal touch and or exemplify with my own experience. But I would at least for me say it would be hard if I didn't have experience but maybe some how some people can compensate...?

Henrik, I am not sure you are right. The issue is not teaching but learning. If a lecture is entertaining, it is more memorable. I wasn't particularly thinking about my colleagues being funny. One OB lecturers used created very dramatic images. Another Ops Man lecturer used short bursts of music to illustrate how the old way of producing a song (writer, arranger, backing musicians and so on) evolved into the Beatles doing everything themselves - most students are interested in music. I sat in on the lecture. It was over 20 years ago and I still remember it vividly.

For me Lets say if teaching Marketing management I know that almost no SMEs use his logic... they dont have the skills nor the resources but if you never been there and all you read is Kotler, what you will teach your students is Kotler... Now Im not saying we should not teach Kotler but I think we should also be open with the limitations of Causation ( Planning, implementing and follow up) I own 4 SMEs and I hardly use it at all even if I have been teaching...Kotler :-) And I actually asked some friends who are also businessmen ( Entrepreneurs) and they say the same thing... SO maybe Kotler is Good but needs a counterweight?

Those lecturers who have experiences in business (or even in private entrepreneurship) can do more to the students, definitely. I was working for 16 years at multinational firms running business on different levels then came back to teach. I fully agree with those who said: having practical experiences you are able to teach more you are able to change viewpoints, apply the helicopter-view, emphasize the pros and cons better. Your view is fairly different to that of those who have nothing but a pure academic career.

Well this is a very profound question I must say which requires one to think deeply. It's quite interesting to find out that one can teach business yet having not a practical experience...what I mean is that logics can cause one to solve problems of which they never encountered. Let's take marriage counselors for argument's sake it's not all of them who are married or have gone through the experiences of the cases they deal with in every day cases but imaginations help them to come up with solutions. Therefore in conclusion I say it is highly possible.

The best is to have that so the learning process can be more interested 🙏

As a 20 yr experience businessman and executive, plus 25 yr academic staff at an Industrial Engineering University School, my opinion is that you may teach, but with certain considerations as to quality of your teachings and the credibility of you as a person by your audience.

If the scope of your discourse relates to the scientific, theoretical aspects of the discipline, then you may probably do a good job in teaching to inexperienced students. However, more experienced audiences may have doubts and questions about the practical application of the theories you teach, for which you may have no satisfactory answer.

If the scope of your discourse relates to the practical aspects of the discipline, definitely you would do a better job by being silent, in front of both audiences (unless you wanted to ask a question to the more experienced ones).

Good question. Remove the typo. It dims the glow of the question. Seeing the glow and beauty: Experience can be useless. It can even be dangerous. Experience is only useful when accompanied by analytical tools. And increasingly, the global body of reality (read, experience) is readily available and thanks to physics - you may want to say, thanks to technology. So, bring students the analytical tools. They will not struggle accessing reality. That said, carrying reality in class will help explain the analytical tools. But without those tools, the ‘teacher’ unleashes dangerous naive empirics.

Fred Amonya Thanks, done :-) And analytical tools are essential, I agree..

I agree too that analytical tools are essential for teaching business. But that was not the question, was it?

Les affaires c'est l'affaire des affairistes.

Business is the business of business people.

In my country Nigeria, people are into academics ( public sector) or work in the private sector. The carrier parts defer. People into academics are into teaching, research and learning . Those in the real sector are into the application of knowledge in creating tangibles and or services to fill gaps in the market.

There is also mobility between sectors. My thinking is that those with industry experience impart knowledge better. I personally spent years in the industry. I was into sales, brand management, sales management and marketing management before joining the education sector. Having carried out these tasks for over 20 years before joining the education sector,my method of delivery is far better because for over two decades I practiced what I am teaching. Those that ab initio started working life in the classroom may not have the same knowledge with me.

carrier "paths differ" I meant to say

I think it is necessary to have experience in business management, practice advances faster than research.

Sharing with students business situations and problems is enriching

@Diana I agree. And there is a difference experience between doing something and reading about something. I have both succeded in business and spent nights crying over projects I truly believed in that in the end failed. If you never experienced the process, I think it is difficult to communicate that to the students, business isnt as easy as you might think when you read a book or an article.. I think theoretical knowledge is good but without experience I think it is hard to give the students that special gift..

Dear Mr, Arvidson:

I will begin answering your question with another question: are good players good DTs when they retire?. Not at all. The same applies to business, When theory is good enough of course it can be taught. The thing to bear in mind is that being a social discipline, there are no absolute truths ("the one best way" Taylor talked about) in business and management. However, a business school should teach pupils to think independently, in order to analyze and adapt the lessons they receive.

Best regards

Gustavo Concari

Hello Henrik G.S. Arvidsson ,

I hope you are fine and safe.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the subject of your question. This question does not have an easy answer. It points out a question of power between those who have experience and those who do not, trying to falsely suggest that those who have experience are those who can actually teach. We need to remember that there are different forms of teaching and there are different subjects to be taught in the universe of business, as well as there are different realities and different audiences to be taught. By the way, I would like to answer this question by telling a short story, which I posted on my blog, as follows.

Some time ago, in the late 1980s, from time to time I used to hear someone comment the following: "if someone knows how to do something, he does it; if someone doesn't know how to do something, he teaches". In general, the people from whom I heard this kind of comment were people who participated in the academic world, but were connected to the market through some entrepreneurial activity as a manager or consultant. They were the so-called academic-practitioners. It was a time when there was not the same offer for master's and doctoral courses that exists today, and that many teachers had no more than an MBA. Such teachers, as a rule, used to teach only part-time. To a certain extent, it was as if they sought to define a territory that made up for their lack of a postgraduate course such as a master's or doctorate. At that time, having a master's degree was rare, and having a doctoral degree was very rare. Some of those teachers believed that their experience in business or consultancy activities outside the university was enough to legitimize them at work as teachers. They also used to say that they taught practice, and that others taught theory. Over time and through interaction with other fellow professors, and also through interaction with students we had in common, I could see that, strictly speaking, several of these teachers talked more about their own jobs and business activities, or consulting, than, in fact, taught the syllabus of the disciplines/courses for which they were responsible. In this way, I realized that teacher A or B did not teach X or Y classes, but spoke all the time about company K or Z, where he/she was a manager or consultant.

Last but not least: nowadays, to teach in a business school it is not enough to have market experience; you have to be a scholar in a particular field. Training is different from teaching. That simple.

All the best,

Francisco Vieira

P.S.: my blog can be reached here: http://culturaeconsumo.blogspot.com

I think we can split the pear in half. a theoretical part by an academic professor, and a practical part by an experienced man.

I agree with the majority of the colleagues. Balancing academic with practical experience is recommended.

However, I'd like to point out the importance of academics in many opportunities through business and management history. Even those that not necessarily had had an expressive practical experience.

Professor Edward Deming brought several contributions for modern management, specially in the field of quality. Although is not correct saying that he had no practical experience, as far as I know he dedicated most of his carrer to academia.

I think it is important doing such consideration in order to avoid some misconception of many competent and relevant professionals, that not necessaraly have a practical background.

I believe the quality of the professional and his results matters the most in this topic.

I think having some practical experience is very important for him to have a fair understanding of organisational environment and business dynamics but having vast experience is an edge but not necessary.

I believe there’s a difference between teaching and dynamic teaching. The latter requires significant experience in the field not only in the form of research and reading case-studies, but also living in that world. In my 25+ years career, I have held family businesses (industry and shipping), built entrepreneurship (service oriented business and consultancy), worked for more than 11 years in the Canadian banking sector as a financial problem solver as well as I taught subjects like accounting (financial, cost and managerial), Human resources management, managing complexity and change management and a few other courses. Also held academic leadership positions. It was vital to use examples in relation to theories and practice. Many may argue that it may not be necessary, but I believe it makes a huge difference living in the world as well as teaching.

the theoretical part must be learned at university. the field completes the theory.

La théorie est excellente, mais insuffisante

yes i agree with you. As a student, i can say teachers who have industrial experience can provide better insights but may lack in other components i.e., communication. universities should include workshops in curriculum, and invite guest speakers from industry to fill this gap. i also think that teachers should also participate in consultancy services, to help business, society, students and themselves.

Hello Henrik G.S. Arvidsson , A. Kettab , Zubair Nawaz , Alaa Hussein Fadhil

I hope all of you are fine and safe.

This is really a trick question. I have been trying to answer that. One try is above, dated from yesterday. However, I would like to make another attempt today.

In this way, I point out two things. The first one is related to the necessity of all of us recognize the role of a Business School. A Business School is far from being a ground for training work force for company A or B, industry C or D, startup E or F, whatever. Therefore, there is no room for specific practices based on an practical experience already known. A Business School, specially if it is part of a University, is a ground for a formation as large and complete as possible, according to the reality of the place (country, state, city, community) where it is. A Business School faces several and different challenges, and to provide knowledge, which is able to understand and explain the companies reality, is the main of them. The practical experience is very important - we all know that! Nevertheless, the practical experience can not be the main aim of a Business School for the simple reason that we do not have how to know all the practices of all companies.

The second one is that perhaps the Academy of Management, which was established in 1936, can tell us something by means of its Division of Management Education and Development: there is education, and there is development - the first is about how to know; the second is about how to do. In short words, we need to step ahead and uderstand that Business Schools are more suitable for education and not training. Besides that, business men or business women can always be trained in the possible best way by the companies where they are going to work for.

All the best, and have a good weekend.

Francisco Vieira

In technology, there are theoretical courses, practical work, and internships in the field. this should apply to all disciplines.

Many teachers and instructors teach business without any experience, the business experience will add quality, huge value, and transfer experience from the real-life. The answer would be yes, but personally I will always look for instructors who own hands-on experience.

a diploma should only be issued if the student has completed 10 to 20% of practical training

It would be difficult! Theory and practice complement each other.

If I can contribute with my opinion, I can say academia is a job itself and a hard work by the way. Read hundreds of books and papers demand time and full dedication, like a regular job. This mean for a professor, even in business, is hard to conciliate the time to do both functions and if the professor is focus on his academic careers will prefer to stand here. Also, we must consider as any other job, professors also aim to grow up on their professional life, mean do their best to be hired by big and prestigious universities, write papers and books that elevate their research level status and they need time for this!

We may also consider that functions of professors and business man are different and non necessarily need to be complementary. Academic business professors show different perspectives and teach how to think further to choose the best perspective or create a new one. Business man on the other hand, normally share their experiences of success or failure and complement with theories previously selected they believe are the correct ones. Certainly be a professor who had or still have business experiences will give a complete vision and will make the lecture richest in practical content that in general basis is how students learn, "listening real examples".

But the educational system in my point of view have two gaps:

a) Many universities don't allow their professors have business experience at same time

b) at same time many universities don't allow business man be professors without a Master or PhD

The real business life experience is still underestimated in academia.

Answering the question of Mr. Arvidsson: I cannot say "hands on experience" must be mandatory, but certainly need to have a heavy weight in the CV of the business and management professors because students of this lectures want to know how to apply the theory in their future business life.

Scientists who meet and discuss, it's always good to increase their visibility. it also increases the experience.

To be fully effective at teaching in most fields and professions, not just business, it is important to strike a balance. There are courses that can be taught without s whole lot of practical experience, such as some research methods courses and some theoretical and philosophical applications. But the argument can also be valid that a good research methods instructor should have experience in conducting research, and a theoretician should also be informed by practice. In life, practice is informed by theory and theory is informed by practice, and that bridge between the two has to exist. Without the bridge, we walk through the field on a treadmill, doing work and expending energy, but not getting anywhere, even if the work has value. My best experiences as a student came from scholar-practitioners. These are people that are engaged in the work and the scholarship. My experience as faculty is that I succeed better in the coursework in which I have also had practical experience. But, as someone who spent more than teo decades in government and in corporate work, my experience was necessarily informed by the theory and scholarship that exists. Evidence-based practice is critical. And, as a faculty member, my theory is best when it can be exemplified with real-life scenarios. Striking a balance is important.

Yes, but it is better to combine academic teaching with speeches of business practitioners.

Francisco Giovanni David Vieira and all others who joined this discussion.Thanks for your interesting answer.s. I can actually relate to this. After graduation ( I already startlyed my first business during my bachelor years) I struggled internally between what I had been thought and what I was experiencing as a businessman. Later I did business consulting and I found out that smaller companies don't read Kotler, or even if they did the either lack the resources or find it useful to apply his logics and teaching. I would say Kotler is the Scholar I struggled the most with. When I first started teaching I taught Marketing and guess which book that was the main focus? I was in the lower rank but the professor under which I served had become a personal friend...He was my lecturer during some courses and it was actually he who asked if I wanted to do a Phd and teach. At that time I refused the first but reluctantly accepted the second thing, teaching. Not because I really wanted to but because of the fact that we met for a cup of Coffey and he said he had a problem with a lecturer who suddenly had fallen ill. SO he asked me to teach..and Marketing was the subject. When I read the curriculum ( It was a bachelor or B level course as it was known in Sweden in those days) I told him what my feelings were towards the lack of connection to reality and to my surprise this man in his late 50s or early 60s said he agreed and it was something he raised with the faculty but " they dont listen so what is the point". Can it be that there are two types of academics..those who leave academia and sometimes comes back and those who never leave and those two groups seldom understand each other. Same with pure researchers and those who likes teaching ( Im one of the latter). Researchers are often introvert whilst if you want to teach you at least have some extravert traits within. Im an extreme extravert for example. I need to tone down my self... But it is nice Im not the only one struggling with this. Stay safe and have a lovely day. Best regards Henrik

Henrik G.S. Arvidsson excellent question. A teacher with practical experience is a reservoir of knowledge. He could take his pupil to the plain vicariously where he wanted them to which is otherwise not possible for a teacher with no practical experience. But, the world is full of examples where people have excelled with sheer greet and determination and with no practical skills too. The game of cricket, for example- we had the best umpire and commentator (Simon Taufel, Harsha Bhogle) who were not cricket players. Similarly, there are teachers with good practical knowledge who had failed miserably in the field of teaching.

Academia is also full of conceptual and review papers, and we learn from the experiences of others. Unfortunately, life is very short, and with so many things to learn, we can not experience them first-handly. A human being is a brilliant creature, and we continuously learn from the experiences of others. Therefore, yes, we can teach business without business experience.

with the theory acquired, it's easy to have experience. the opposite is not true.

Henrik G.S. Arvidsson

In executive education, the business teacher has to have experience.

No. Only if accompanied by a senior and who can learn the methodology for addressing management problems

Nothing can replace practical experience because it is a very different way of learning. However, when business academics have little grasp of theory then they are doing students a disservice in the learning experience. A close substitute for work experience is high-quality research. This is because it also affords interaction with actors outside of academia and creates empathy for situational practice (something that purely academic professors can lack).

A very interesting question, to which the answer is yes. However, the experience of the teacher as a business owner will no doubt enhance the student learning. As someone who ran a business for 18+ years and who now lectures in business, I find that my students enjoy my real life examples more than references to well-documented case studies

Some business experience is helpful. Otherwise it is important to include guest-speakers and/or connect students through hands-on, experiential learning activities with real businesses.

Possible is always possible, but someone with experience is much better, since it adds value and does not stick to theoretical models.

Yes,only when you have a degree or a PhD.

a PhD

Experience is the basis of theory, which in turn serves experience. Empirical methods still based on logical reasoning under methodologies.

based on my experience in lecturing, students can understand the theories and master the skills more when the lecturer relate them to real business life cases, not the classic type of cases, but the cases that the lecturer lived as a practitioner.

Students ( especially at the final year) have doubts about the ability to apply university courses in real life, and only lecturers with a practical background can address those concerns. Henrik G.S. Arvidsson

I think you can teach about business without experience, but only talking about methods and because of that the teaching will be limited. It would be better if you have experience because in business there are many things that happen and you learn only living those things

Undoubtedly yes!! I agree to Mintzberg's (2004) articulation in his interesting book that management per se is not only art (being creative or visionary) or science (spirit of inquiry, orderly) but it is also a craft (experiential). He takes an example of swimming. Howsoever creative and spirit of inquiry laden a professor is, one has to earn it by experiencing it first hand. Since it is experiential, people who know swimming are better placed than those who are on the other side.

Interaction among humans, environment, situations, climate etc., culminates into endless permutations which makes every experience unique. Therefore, majority of such experience sharing serves as a value addition to otherwise abstruse and insipid concepts. Rather, it infuses life to these concepts. Courtesy to varied experiences, these concepts see many incarnations. Further, given the human ingenuity, similar situation can be handled in endless ways since 'the best' is a myth. As such, students get an opportunity to appreciate an issue from varied perspectives which infuses divergent thinking amongst them. This further nourishes their holistic understanding and balanced perspective. It is unjust to expect books or teachers lacking practical experience, to accommodate these endless permutations and envelop varied perspectives, which at times may compete as well.

At the same time, we need to appreciate not all persons with a business background are able to generalize and relate their valuable experience. They might be good employees, but communicating the same in an interesting manner is not a cup of tea for all. Therefore, not all persons with rich background in business are able to capture the imagination of the class. I've also observed that (with all due respect), many such experienced individuals fail to relate their learning even across the domains, leave generalization. Connecting their rich experiences meaningfully is a creative endeavour in which all are not equal. Finally, it is also about how good one is in the art of story telling.

Statement ascribed to Lewin (1945) ”nothing is so practical as a good theory”, indicates the loop in which theory and practical are arrested. They are expected to reinforce each other. Any narration of practical experience in the backdrop of theory makes it more grounded and paves the way for building of new theories. People with experience are better placed to contribute to theory building given their easy access to putting theory into a practice.

Cutting short, moral of the story is don't expect all to do wonders. At the same time, who are good, rest at the top percentile of teaching profession, especially, on students' liking.

1. Mintzberg, H. (2004). Managers, not MBAs: A hard look at the soft practice of managing and management development (1st ed). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

2. Eisenhardt, K. M., & Graebner, M. E. (2007). Theory building from cases: Opportunities and challenges. Academy of management journal, 50(1), 25-32.

I think that for these modules, you have to give lectures by professionals.

Je pense que pour ces modules, il faut donner des conférences par des professionnels.

Believe in the lack of practical experience in any difficult area of ​​the teaching process. However, do not stop it. For a document, the more theory and practice go together, the greater the chances of success in teaching.

The experience is basic for teach business.

best regards hendrik, thank you for your question. I agree with your opinion. indeed, lecturers who teach certain subjects have also practiced what they teach to students, so that they can provide a complete answer between the concepts of science and practice in the field. before becoming a lecturer, I had already practiced as a worker or businessman in my area. currently I am also actively involved as an expert in government. so while teaching, I became more confident because I was able to understand what was thought by my students who were mostly businessmen and government employees. ideal conditions where lecturers are not only required to master scientific concepts but also practice is not easy to fulfill. because most lecturers don't have the chance to practice as you intended. maybe this is homework for policy makers on campuses to require both expertise: science and practitioners. regards..

Tough and interesting...experience is needed to make teaching better.

Мой опыт преподавания показывает, что отсутствие собственного предпринимательского опыта не позволяет мне владеть алгоритмами решения целого ряда тактических проблем, например , в инновационном проектировании, но владение теоретическим материалом способствует формированию стратегического видения решения тактических проблем обучаемых, транслировать опыт других предпринимателей, что тоже не мало важно для практической деятельности.

Theoretical classes are possible, but practical classes will be much better to be taught by someone with experience.

The study of a case of a company that is a student's family member or a company in which the student works, the teacher has some difficulties in discussing with the student, if he has no experience.

Theoretical classes are possible, but practical classes will be much better to be taught by someone with experience.

The study of a case of a company that is a student's family member or a company in which the student works, the teacher has some difficulties in discussing with the student if he has no experience.

Ye. it is theoretical and many times it becomes useless.

theory is the basis of all teaching and development in the world.

Dear Kettab, Yes. But to make it effective we need to have practical knowledge if not real business experience. Just theoretical cannot not help to do business in most of the cases. Definitely practical and real life experiences add more value to teach business. Eg. Stock market trading we teach with real trading by students.

I believe that a professor having practical experience in the same field is an asset. In general, a professor without practical experience can teach business without business experience.