Are the JGSOM lessons outdated?

We just completed our first full 3-hour class with Mr. Rico Gonzalez today. It was about business ethics but in his class, we got more out of it than we expected. For nearly the entire duration of the period, sir Rico told a lot of stories about himself and his adventurous friends who went abroad to work for investment firms. I personally don't know what exactly happens in those firms but people who work there sure make a lot of money. And by that, we are talking about dollars in the billions! Then he goes on talking about the experiences of other people who worked in the same industry. He told us how three people saved a company during an economic crisis and because of their intuition, they were given a bonus of more than $15 billion each. So what's the point of all this?

When talking about financial consultations, stocks and investments intelligence is not enough. You got to have the right intuition and most importantly, the conviction to follow that intuition. It's about following what you believe in when making decisions.

Then he asked an interesting question, "The age of brick and mortar business is over. So why is JGSOM still pushing through with this old business method?" By "brick and mortar" he meant that JGSOM students are trained to make a tangible product and sell it for profit. This explains why most, if not all, SOMBA and LS projects turn out to be food products. Maybe it's because making tangible products is the only way that the students can follow the strict and rigid templates JGSOM has formulated (and please the panelists and professors in the process).

But if you think about it, the things that earn the most are services and products that are not as tangible as food and clothing. Examples are technologies like Ebay, Face Book, Google and You Tube. So what is it about the discipline JGSOM is trying to pound onto the minds of its students? Are the things they teach still viable today or are they already considered outdated? Maybe the Ateneo needs to review and reconsider its teaching methods once again. Maybe they need to give the students a chance and listen to their intuitions and allow them to follow a non-conventional type of business.