Sales and earnings, the staples of business growth, are not the only dynamics that executives confront during their careers. In their pursuit of customers and profits, managers may draw many wild cards: product failures, proxy fights, hostile takeovers, weak economies, mounting debt and even bankruptcy. Chances are good that executives will be challenged by at least one of these situations in the course of their careers. And if they conduct business across country borders, in unfamiliar cultures, another layer of complexity -- and potential volatility -- is added to the mix.

Business schools are responding by preparing students for the worst with courses that address conflict, risk and change, and their consequences. Curricula in MBA programs today typically include required and elective courses in negotiation, crisis and risk management, corporate restructuring, corporate governance and industrial relations. "It is important to present business students not just with examples of best practices," says Richard Dunford, director of academic programs at Macquarie University's Graduate School of Management in Australia. "It is important to balance course content with examples of organizations that have malfunctioned in some way. It is quite common for this approach to have a more profound impact on students."