An MBA student in contemporary Peru needs to cultivate their character because they are preparing to lead in an environment where technical competence alone is insufficient. The country offers real business opportunities, but at the same time demands leadership amidst complex institutional conditions. The World Bank identifies factors within the Peruvian context such as the regulatory framework, infrastructure gaps, political instability, and corruption; and the  Investment Climate Statement 2025  indicates that corruption and social conflict continue to erode trust and pose risks to the investment climate. Furthermore, Transparency International ranks Peru with a score of 30 out of 100 in Corruption Perceptions Index, placing it 130th out of 182 countries. In such a context, leadership is not just about knowing how to make decisions; it is also about having the character necessary to make sound decisions.

From this perspective, the value of Sebastián Arnillas’s interview with Aurora Bernal, a researcher in character pedagogy at the University of Navarra, becomes clearer. Bernal explains that character is not simply a way of being, nor a spontaneous reaction to circumstances. It is the set of capacities a person has to act humanely; that is, to perform actions involving intelligence, will, and freedom. Therefore, educating character does not mean imposing external behavior, but rather helping the person develop the capacities that allow them to act freely. Freedom, in this sense, does not consist only of wanting something, but of being able to achieve it. As Bernal points out, “if someone wants to be an astronaut, but is not capable of studying physics, that’s a problem: freedom requires abilities.”

This idea has a direct consequence for business schools in our country. Many students enter master’s programs between the ages of 25 and 32, at a crucial stage in their professional and personal lives. They are no longer teenagers, but they are still making decisions that will shape their future: what kind of career they want to build; what role work will play in their lives; how they will define success; what kind of family they want to create; what price they are willing to pay to advance; what boundaries they will not cross; and how they will cope with pressure, competition, mistakes, or frustration.

In those years, a bad decision doesn’t usually stem solely from a lack of information. Often, it arises from an underdeveloped sense of freedom: wanting something without possessing the strength, prudence, temperance, or sense of justice necessary to choose wisely. Therefore, a business school cannot be content with simply training technically competent professionals. It must ask itself what kind of person it is helping to cultivate.

This doesn’t mean turning the MBA into a moralizing program, nor artificially adding ethics courses as if they were merely a humanistic embellishment. It means recognizing that all educational experiences shape character. Bernal states it clearly: “There is no such thing as a neutral educational environment. An educational institution, whether it intends to or not, shapes or deforms; it educates or mis-educates. It does so in its classes, its rules, its conversations, its demands, its silences, in the way its professors treat students, and in the way students learn  to treat each other.”

In business schools that use the case method, this responsibility becomes even more apparent. The case method not only allows for the analysis of business decisions; it allows for observing how a person approaches reality. In a case session, the student doesn’t simply repeat concepts; they put themselves out there. They demonstrate how they think, how they listen, how they argue, how they react to disagreement, how they defend a position, how they change their mind, how they tolerate criticism, how they distinguish the essential from the incidental, how they confront an incomplete problem, and how they make decisions under pressure. In that space, something that often remains hidden in a lecture-based class emerges: character in action.

This is especially important because managerial life is much more like a case study than a multiple-choice exam. Managers rarely make decisions with all the available information. They decide with incomplete data, under pressure from others, with people who think differently, with legitimate conflicting interests, and with consequences that affect others. Therefore, the case study can become a privileged laboratory for character development. There, one can see if the student is genuinely seeking the truth or simply wants to win the argument; if they listen to others or merely wait for their turn to speak; if they acknowledge a mistake or cling to their initial opinion; if they intervene to contribute or to show off; if they have the prudence to discern the opportune moment; and if they possess the humility to learn.

I recall a session that perfectly illustrates this point. The professor was wrapping up the class. He had guided the discussion toward the central point of the case and was concluding the final reflection. At that moment, a student asked a rather incidental question, loosely connected to the session’s conclusion. The professor responded briefly, but calmly. He didn’t humiliate the student, didn’t publicly point out that the question was out of place, and didn’t lose his composure. He simply answered what was necessary and moved on. Later, that student spoke with the professor and told him that he had noticed his composure. That serenity had helped him realize that his intervention had been inappropriate. A harsh reprimand wasn’t necessary. The example of a calm authority figure was enough for the student to gain some insight into himself.

This episode helps us understand a central idea of ​​character education. Character isn’t formed solely through lectures. It’s also shaped by the atmosphere, by gestures, by the way authority is exercised, by the manner of correction, and by the human qualities of the teacher. Bernal insists that character education permeates relationships, norms, daily practices, and personal conversations. It’s not limited to a specific course.

In a Business School, this means that character formation also occurs when a teacher demands rigor in an intervention, when he teaches how to disagree without being aggressive, when he helps a bright student not to be arrogant, when he encourages an insecure one to speak up, when he does not allow the class to become an exchange of random thoughts, when he shows that managerial intelligence needs self-control.

This training is more necessary than ever today because many young professionals experience profound inner disharmony. Some are highly skilled at calculating means, but less accustomed to questioning the ends. Some are very sensitive to their feelings, but lack the capacity to manage their emotions. Some young people are very active, full of projects and commitments, but lack the inner unity to sustain their efforts over time. The result is a mixture of pragmatism, emotionality, and activism, but not always true maturity.

In the business world, this disharmony becomes especially delicate. The culture of success can reduce reason to instrumental calculation: how to grow faster, how to earn more, how to get promoted sooner, how to gain greater visibility. At the same time, well-being is often understood as feeling good, avoiding suffering, not getting frustrated, not carrying stress. But real professional life demands something different. It demands learning to endure hardship, delaying gratification, recognizing limitations, accepting mistakes, apologizing, making unpopular decisions, and remaining true to certain principles when doing so comes at a cost.

Therefore, character development in a business school means helping students become free to make sound decisions. Free from the allure of prestige, money, peer pressure, fear of failure, the need for approval, and the impatience to achieve quick results. It’s not about denying professional ambition, but about channeling it. It’s not about weakening the desire for success, but about questioning what kind of success is truly worthwhile. It’s not about creating less competitive professionals, but rather more self-possessed individuals, capable of using their talents to serve a greater good.

Aurora Bernal’s interview allows us to revisit a fundamental conviction: character development is not an ornamental complement to education. It is its core. Perhaps that is why the challenge for our business schools is not only to update their curricula, incorporate new technologies, or strengthen the employability of their graduates. All of that is necessary, but not sufficient. The deeper challenge is to train professionals capable of bearing, with human maturity, the weight of the decisions they will one day have to make. Professionals who not only know how to lead organizations, but who have first learned to lead their own lives.

References

World Bank, Peru – World Bank Group Country Survey 2025 and Business Ready.

US Department of State, 2025 Investment Climate Statements: Peru.

Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index: Peru.

Sebastián Arnillas Menéndez, A Small Manual for Growing Up, interview with Aurora Bernal Martínez Soria (unpublished document).