AMBA & BGA GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2025
Vinzi began by looking at the importance of a skills‑based approach to education, providing as context a piece of research showing that some 63 per cent of companies complain about the mismatch between the available expertise and their own requirements. He cited as being of key importance to MBA cohorts emerging skills such as networks & cybersecurity, environmental stewardship, user experience and sensory‑processing abilities. To remain competitive in this new environment, where we are moving from a mass production economy to one of disruptive innovation, Vinzi noted that organisations need to recruit and train more than I-shaped leaders; “they will need T-shaped leaders, at the very least, who combine deep expertise with a holistic vision of the company and its challenges,” he noted. Vinzi then described a new paradigm of lifelong continuous learning – as jobs disappear, skills evolve; he also quoted an OECD statistic: in 1987 the average lifespan of a skill was 30 years, whereas today it has shrunk to just two. We must “transcend” concluded the Essec dean, “opening the world and fostering shared progress”. Some of the elements to help achieve this include stackable and tailor-made solutions for lifelong learning; reinvented management; cutting-edge research; multi-cultural leadership; and agile operational business models. India’s exponential growth opportunities A panel of deans presented compelling reasons for collaborating with business schools in India, in a session chaired by AMBA & BGA’s in-country regional relationship manager, Shikha Taunk. First among these is the demand for management education in the world’s fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. Director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore Himanshu Rai highlighted that there are 320,000 test takers of India’s Common Admission Test (CAT) annually, but only around 10,000 places available in the country’s business schools. This number is set to rise further, as Rai underlined: “We will have 450 million people enter the middle class in the next 10 years.” Goa Institute of Management director Ajit Arun Parulekar then pinpointed education’s potential market growth. “The ratio of those eligible for undergraduate higher education is currently 29 per cent. This is very low and the government is targeting 50 per cent in about 10 years. As I see it, it’s impossible for us to serve that demand.” Yet, interest in partnering with Indian institutions need not be driven by numbers alone. IIM Sambalpur director Mahadeo Jaiswal noted the opportunities that accompany the country’s explosive growth in digital infrastructure and entrepreneurship, remarking on the latter that “start-up ecosystems are where the talent is required”, with around 460,000 start-ups and 150 ‘unicorns’ now operating in India. At the same time, there may be fewer students looking to move abroad to study, as they become more informed about their options and analyse the expected return on investment (ROI). “People are looking at the ROI of going abroad because of what is happening geopolitically, with many more open to the idea of pursuing
GMAC CEO Joy Jones looked at seismic shifts in demographics and politics impacting student mobility
Essec Business School dean and president Vincenzo Vinzi outlined new thinking in future-fit education
AMBA & BGA chair Wendy Loretto moderated a breakout session focusing on school deans’ concerns
18-year-olds in Germany by 2038 and 38 million in Africa by 2035. Turning to skills learned at business school, the GMAC CEO cited company research demonstrating that 63 per cent of global employers believe that skills such as strategic thinking and problem-solving are more important than ever before because organisations are adopting new technologies. Meanwhile, 56 per cent agree that strategic leadership is of vital significance given that an increasing number of businesses are using remote and hybrid working arrangements. Featuring future-fit education The topic chosen by Vincenzo Vinzi, dean and president of Essec Business School, for his presentation was future-fit education. “The business landscape is changing rapidly – management education needs to evolve,” he advised.
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Ambition • ISSUE 4 • 2025 21
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