While Columbia Business School students receive ethics lessons informally in classes and from various school efforts to reinforce the importance of ethics, formal ethical training at CBS has not been successful, failing to survive as one of the top four themes in the core curriculum, the administration has acknowledged. But it has not been for a lack of trying. Columbia Business School did make efforts, but ran into obstacles developing a program, getting faculty and staff on board and implementing it. We recognize where we fall short sometimes.
Ethics is one such area.
It has not been absent from the curriculum, it is not de-emphasized, but it has not been done well. And yet the need remains. A lightning rod for creating a formal ethical training at the school can be found in the halls of Uris or in the classrooms in the person of Professor David Beim, a former investment banker who joined the faculty in 1990. Beim, who credits his experiences in the investment banking world for cultivating and honing his sense about the importance of ethical training, is passionate about the need for such an ethical course, especially in light of the pressures and situations that MBAs will face when they enter the business world. Beim takes part in the ethical workshop that is presented during orientation, which essentially covers a video, a case study and an astute and telling lecture by Beim.