01
Academia
Builds and tests knowledge through research, writing and teaching.
Method · evidence · clear argument
Teaching
Structured flexibility in the classroom
Education is in a period of transition. Some older practices deserve to be questioned; some newer practices deserve the same scrutiny. I do not see much value in choosing between tradition and innovation as identities. The more useful question is whether a method helps students do the kind of thinking the course requires.
My basic position
A course needs structure: students should know what they are learning, why it matters, how their work will be judged and where they are expected to improve. Within that structure, the teaching method can change. A lecture may be the clearest way to establish a difficult foundation. A case may be better for interpretation. A project may reveal whether students can integrate several ideas at once. Discussion can be useful when disagreement itself exposes the assumptions behind a decision.
That is what I mean by structured flexibility. The structure protects clarity and fairness; the flexibility lets the method fit the objective.
Potential outcomes
A school of business should not exist solely to produce people who will go to work for large organizations. That is only one of the potential outcomes.
Business education should develop people who are capable of understanding, managing, improving, creating and expanding organizations in different industries and across the full range of roles those people will actually occupy.
02
Business owner
Carries responsibility for an organization’s continuity, people, finances and improvement.
Operations · finance · long-term judgment
03
Entrepreneur
Creates and tests a new venture where demand, resources and outcomes are uncertain.
Opportunity evaluation · experimentation · resource use
04
Freelancer
Works directly with clients and turns specialist judgment into a viable independent practice.
Self-management · client judgment · pricing
05
Corporate employee
Contributes within an organization by coordinating expertise, decisions and responsibilities with others.
Functional competence · collaboration · organizational judgment
Curiosity and systems
The best business thinkers are curious about systems.
They ask how things connect, what drives outcomes and where models break down. Curiosity is teachable when it is modeled and rewarded, not merely mentioned.
Explore the teaching approach
Teaching ethos
Why I place feasibility, evidence, judgment and responsibility at the centre of business education, and why I do not expect every student to be moving toward the same professional path.
Read teaching ethos →Class structure
How a course can move from foundations to synthesis without pretending that every subject needs the same weekly pattern.
See class structure →Assessment
Why foundational knowledge and higher-level judgment should not be assessed in exactly the same way.
Read assessment approach →Course functions
Theoretical
Build the concepts and language students need before they can analyse more complicated situations.
Practical
Use knowledge to carry out a task, interpret a situation or produce a defensible piece of work.
Business development
Examine whether an idea creates value, for whom, under what assumptions and with what constraints.
Technical
Develop the quantitative, analytical or tool-based competence required to work accurately.
Use of AI
I do not treat AI as automatically acceptable or automatically harmful. Its value depends on the task. If the objective is to practise a skill that the AI would perform in the student’s place, using it may defeat the purpose. If the objective is comparison, critique, exploration or checking alternatives, it may be useful. In either case, the student remains responsible for sources, calculations, claims and the final argument.
A short guide for students
- •Understand the question before looking for a framework.
- •Separate what you know from what you are assuming.
- •Show the reasoning behind a number, recommendation or conclusion.
- •Use sources because they strengthen the argument, not because the assignment requires a bibliography.
- •When feedback shows a weakness, revise the work rather than merely explaining why you did it that way.
- •If you use AI, verify its contribution and be prepared to explain your own decisions without it.
My responsibility as an instructor
I should make expectations intelligible, provide material that students can actually work with, distinguish difficulty from unnecessary confusion, and apply standards consistently. Students should not have to guess what counts as good work. They should, however, still have to do the work of producing it.