Faculty and administrators must become more responsive to environmental forces or their continued viability will be threatened. Academic institutions must become leaner, awarding tenure only to faculty members who make the strongest case in terms of their value added to the distinctive mission of the operating unit. Indeed, to Dean Moore, the era of multiple "cookie cutter" programs in a geographical region in on the wane--institutions and programs must become distinctive to survive. With distance learning and technological breakthroughs, institutions must also become better able to serve the customer in the workplace.

To Dean Moore, corporate America is largely dissatisfied with the inability of traditional higher educational institutions to respond to changing demands of the marketplace. Arthur D. Little represents a new threat to the viability of such institutions, one in which the corporate world will draw upon its own resources to develop accredited graduate managerial training programs. Arthur D. Little is currently in the candidacy stage for accreditation by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

While typical college or university departments may devote one or more years to altering a 3-credit course in the curriculum, Dean Moore asserts that corporate providers will react far more swiftly to develop and deliver enriched programs. Among the competitive advantages of corporate providers are:

• Bottom-Line Responsiveness--Corporations have the capability to respond quickly to change agents to ensure profitability.

• Experiential Richness--Students at Arthur D. Little will work on current cases being pursued worldwide, and will be guided by the senior consultants who have responsibility for problem resolution.

• Assessment Orientation--Corporate program directors are working diligently to develop "skills competency" assessment transcripts. These will become increasingly more important to personnel managers than traditional transcripts with letter grade enumeration of individual courses taken.

The implication are clear to accounting educators: we must do more that to pay lip service to dealing with changing demands. Skills development, interdisciplinary delivery, experiential richness, and assessment of outcomes are among the many avenues for which ongoing faculty development is necessary. Academics must respond well and quickly to these forces to meet the needs of an increasingly-competitive marketplace.