Better Business through Philosophy

In this week's Business Week magazine, CEO Dov Seidman proposes a philosophy major as the "killer app " - even a better choice than economics! - for the next generation of business leaders. An excerpt:

Credit, climate, and consumption crises cannot be solved through specialized expertise alone. These problems, like most issues businesses confront in the global marketplace, feature complex interdependencies that require an understanding of how political, financial, environmental, ethical, and social interests influence each other. A philosophical approach connects the dots among competing interests in an effort to create synergy. Linking competing interests requires philosophers to examine areas that modern-day domain experts too often ignore: core beliefs, ethics, and character.

See whether you think his argument is convincing. If Bank of America and Bear Stearns had done a little more contemplating, could we have avoided this recession...?