OPEN
UNIVERSITY
[This memo nicely documents the way that David Asch killed the whole FBA programme, even though the School’s MBA Board had approved it]
0319 FBA EARLY DEATH
Thank you [David Asch, the Dean] for your memo of 23 October, which you
circulated to members of the FBA project team in response to its formal proposal
for this project to be taken to the next step; which was due to go to the next
Business Development Board, and for which comments from the management team had
been sought.
Clearly, from the tone of your comments, the team had overestimated the support for the programme amongst the wider members of the School - and certainly amongst its management. My apologies, in particular, for not spelling out the rationale for the development again. I appreciate that you were unfortunately not present at the management team meeting which gave the go-ahead for the initial phase of the project, but I had - mistakenly - assumed that you had kept abreast of developments on the basis of the minutes and working papers which were regularly circulated to members of the management team, including yourself. I had felt that it was unnecessary to repeat the elements of this debate for the management team, though it would have been summarised for the Business Development Board - some of whose members had not been in regular receipt of this material.
I fully recognise the validity of many of your criticisms, and we were going to try and address them as part of the second phase - in which we were (subject to the approval sought) going to discuss these matters with key personnel outside of the OUBS, as well as conducting research with the alumni. On the other hand, the breadth - and tenor - of your criticisms is such that, while I am grateful for your offer to "address the concerns outlined above so that a revised proposal can come forward suitably developed", I feel that the members of the team would find considerable difficulty in reversing their positions on so many key elements of the proposal - especially where the proposals received virtually unanimous - and enthusiastic - support from all members of the team. Indeed, it was the unusual degree of unanimity and enthusiasm which prompted the project to move much faster than expected. I fear, however, that, in asking the team (who have been so committed to the proposals) to revise their position on so many fronts, we might only prompt a confrontation between the team and management; and that would be the last thing I would wish.
Indeed, whilst we had been confident (over-confident as it now appears!) that the School as a whole supported the proposals (which had been given wider circulation than almost any other) and there seemed to be no opposition to them (let alone active opposition), you will appreciate that our first proposal, to "Agree the principles involved", was deliberately designed to unearth any substantial opposition within the rest of the School. Your comment that "...it will be clear by now that the present shape of the development does not seem to be appropriate for a post-MBA programme of activity" indicates that we were very much mistaken in that belief. I am grateful, therefore, that you have made your position clear even before the matter reached the management team. Clearly, with the need to carry the rest of the University with us on such radical proposals, without your support we could not hope to launch such a programme. Any further work, by a team which has volunteered its time when its members are all already over-committed on other projects, would obviously be counter-productive under these circumstances. I will, therefore disband the team.
May I take the opportunity of this memo to thank all members of the team for their hard work over the past few months. This work has fortunately not been wasted, since it seems clear that we have stimulated the Institute of Management into setting up such a scheme on the national scale. Our work, which I will ask Andrew Thomson to forward to them, should be an invaluable help in their initial investigations. Who knows, when others have pioneered the idea maybe the OUBS will also come to accept the principles involved and follow suit!
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