Dean of SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business Professor Howard Thomas said that there is no more pressing need for values than in business schools, which many in society have denigrated since the 2008 global financial crisis for turning out graduates who are only out to make a quick buck. However, he is disdainful of efforts by most business schools to “redesign” their curricula to address such criticism. He said: “Life lessons have to be embedded in our moral fibre, not just talked about in a lecture theatre.” Prof Thomas’ big idea, then, is that business, which to him includes management, should be made a profession and so entrepreneurs should be trained in and tested on best practices and held to strict standards, as doctors, lawyers and engineers already are. The immediate panacea, he argued, is to imbue business education with values like integrity, service to others and taking responsibility. To do this, he said, business academics should focus more on coaching their students on the right and wrong behaviours in business, such as why bribes cannot be written off as necessary business cost.