After 34 years in engineering and management, Jerry Suran has found out that teaching M.B.A. and engineering students is not as easy as some industry people may think. Suran, a former General Electric executive and a senior lecturer at UC Davis, says his own preconceptions about academia were flawed and that many of the "truths" that he had believed while still in industry were less than absolute. Among the myths perpetuated in industry are that academia is highly inefficient, that those who can't practice, teach, and that teaching is a nice way to retire. "Academic management is different from industrial management in style, time constraints and measurement," says Suran. "In the corporate world, decisions are made quickly and by a few people. Whereas in academia decision making is more democratic with greater employee participation. Faculty members are both production workers and managers." The better teachers in academia would end up among the top-valued people in industry for the same reasons: their market orientation and ability to communicate. To those who are contemplating going into teaching to escape the hectic pace of the business world, Suran says: do it for reasons other than escape, because the hours are just as long and the pay is less.