We Keep Teaching Managers. Companies Need Tinkerers

Especially now that AI does the clean thinking for us

Here’s something I’m increasingly convinced of. Business schools should be producing tinkerers. Not managers, perfect analysts, or framework reciters. Tinkerers.

That’s what companies actually need right now. People who explore edges, test unfinished ideas, break things safely, automate the boring parts, and then explain what they learned to others. Especially in a world where AI can already do the clean, linear thinking faster than any student (or their bosses) ever will.

And if that’s the goal, then today’s curriculums have a problem.

Most programs are still built around one shot submissions, polished deliverables, and grades that reward not being wrong. Students adapt quickly. Experimentation drops. Risks get minimised. And thinking gets offloaded to AI because thinking itself feels dangerous.

In my classes, I do everything I can to reverse that.

I tell students early that no one will remember their grades. I give them tons of space to tinker individually and in teams. Like multiple waves of submissions, with progressive incentive grading as the key. Recognition for progress, not just outcomes. Room to make mistakes, fix them, and try again. The effect is always the same. Once the fear drops, curiosity comes back. AI stops being a crutch and becomes a tool.

Here’s the uncomfortable extension of that idea. Schools cannot design curriculums for tinkerers if they do not hire tinkerers. Especially now. Professors need to experiment, iterate, and sometimes fail publicly with new tools, new formats, and yes, AI. But because of accreditation, rankings and heritage we’re simply not allowed. Or more accurately, not encouraged.

Safe teachers produce safe students. Curious teachers produce builders (tinkerers at the core).

If business schools want relevance, in today’s fast changing world, this is where it starts.