Argues that fundamental mistakes have been made in the way in which business school professors have been managed in many schools. The effects of our well‐meaning actions in enhancing income and conditions for this fortunate group of people has exploded in our faces and left us with many professors who contribute little to their universities, their disciplines or professional groupings, or to industry and commerce. It may not be too late to rebuild the academic leadership of the key business disciplines so they fulfil their promise, but this first demands that this problem should be recognised and addressed.