Darman Says Schools Fail To Educate Businessmen

Businesses need a more complete understanding of government's role in financial matters in order to promote what should be a closer partnership between the two, the deputy secretary of the United States Treasury said in a speech at the Business School last night.

Richard G. Darman '64, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said in his speech before 300 students and faculty members that the country's education system is to blame for the failure of businesses to comprehend properly their role in both national and international market finance.

"I question whether our educational system itself has adapted fast enough to meet what seem to me to be the demands that modern realities should place on it," Darman said.

Businesses tend not to accept government action such as the recent tax reform bill because they see it as unwarrented intervention in their internal restructuring processes, Darman said. Yet they do not realize how great a role the government plays in many facets of business policy, he said.

Darman said that when he was a student in the late 1960s the B-School taught an introductory course on the relationship between business and government because few students had learned the extent to which government and the business sector intersected.

He said the fact that the course, which he called "BIGIE," still exists shows a lack of improvement in the quality of national education.

In his teaching experiences in the last decade, Darman said his students "have seemed to lack grounding not only in government and the international environment, but also in Japanese or statistics or economics or any of the other basic skills that one would think relevant for modern management in a complex, government--prevaded, international environment."

Many businessmen have never been trained in cultural analysis or even long-term planning, both of which Darman said are essential for existence in the current international market.

Darman also said that other major countries in the international market, such as Japan, do not suffer from the same educational deficiencies found in the United States.

"The basics ought to be taught throughout the elementary and second school systems. This would help improve labor productivity," he said. "And for would-be effective managers, it would allow graduate education to concentrate more fully on education that is worthy of the label 'higher.' "