LOU DOBBS TONIGHT

September 26, 2003

DOBBS: One of the most storied military training grounds is the Officer Candidate School of the U.S. Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. It's where generations of Marine leaders have honed their skills. Today, the grounds welcomed an unlikely bunch, second-year MBA students from the Wharton School. They spent the day literally down in the mud learning leadership from Marines.

Peter Viles has the story.

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PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Susan Park (ph) is not a Marine, and she never will be. She's a business student at Wharton. But today's lesson was leadership. And it was taught by the United States Marine Corps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, good morning.

STUDENTS: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We sounded like we're tired. Good morning!

STUDENTS: Good morning!

VILES: The drill, combat training and problem solving on the Marine Corps' famous leadership reaction course.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are so close. You are so close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can do it. Let's go! Come on!

VILES (on camera): There's a lot corporate America could learn about leadership from the Marines: discipline, teamwork, sacrifice. But there's another variable, an intangible the Marines stress that corporate America could use a little of. And that's character.

(voice-over): Part of the point of these exercises is to fail, sometimes again and again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fast! There you go. Good job. All right. Let's go.

VILES: The marines want to see if you get back up.

COL. LOU RACHAL, MARINE OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL: We've seen some people here who come here and fail the events, all then of the sudden start going downhill. We've seen some who fail and they don't let that stop them. They try to -- try to lift themselves back up and find another solution.

VILES: For MBA students, it's a test they can't study for. A course where theory does not matter.

EVAN WITTENBERG, WHARTON LEADERSHIP PROGRAM: The marines really teach our students -- our students sometimes get stuck in analysis paralysis, looking for the 100 percent solution. And what the marines teach us is sometimes a 70 percent solution, as the marines say, violently executed, well executed, is better.

VILES: Susan Park had a tough day. She fell hard from a rope, spent a lot time in the mud, but she stayed focused on the day's lesson.

SUSAN PARK, WHARTON STUDENT: Quick decision-making. And when there's a setback, you overcome it, and you continue to press on.

VILES: Somewhere in the mud, the marines have a lesson for all of corporate America, humility and perseverance. Peter Viles, CNN, Quantico, Virginia.