Forrest Gump might have compared a dean search at Harvard University to a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get.

That maxim is usually true as search committees gather names of possible candidates in the early stages of the process. And it's always true when the search provides a president with the chance to determine the path of a school whose educational future is uncertain.

Faculty, staff and administrators at the Harvard Business School are busy writing letters to and meeting with President Neil L. Rudenstine during the search for a successor to outgoing Dean John H. McArthur. Ideas about the qualities for the new dean are abundant, rampant--and above all, as assorted and extravagant as the cremes in a box of Godiva.

Some members of the Business School community are urging Rudestine to select an outsider to replace McArthur, citing the need for a fresh perspective to help the school recapture its fomerly unchallenged perch at the pinnacle of business education.

Others are telling the president to pick an insider, saying that only someone intimately familiar with the historically independent school can be a successful leader.

Finally, many say they want a dean in place as soon as possible, while others--including the president himself--cite the need for a careful, through search.

But as Rudenstine prepares to replace McArthur, all parties agree on one thing. As school stands at a crossroads and the choice of its new leader will not be easy.

The Four Early Favorites

The search process is still in its infancy--advisory committees have just begun to meet and a list of potential candidates is currently being complied, according to Rudenstine.

Still, just six weeks after McArthur announced his intention to retire after 15 years in the deanship, observers' speculation has been centering around only a few names.

In the days following McArthur's announcement, many dubbed Robison Professor of Business Administration James I. Cash Jr. as the favorite to be his successor.

Since then, though, it has become evident there is no consenus pick.

Sources also have repeatedly listed Figgie Professor of Business Administration Kim B. Clark '74, Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration William A. Sahlman and Professor of Business Administration Leonard Schlesinger as likely candidates for the post.

Especially in recent weeks, Schlesinger's name has come to the forefront of the race.

Assistant Professor Kazuro Mishina says thatSchlesinger is appropriate for the position.

"[Schlesinger's] specialization is servicemanagement. A lot of students ask why we know somuch about service management but practice solittle," Mishina says. "It's time to put thatpractice into use."