Business Impact covers the big challenges facing global management education as the world asks more of its future business leaders.
ISSUE 4 2026 VOLUME 32
THE MAGAZINE OF THE BUSINESS GRADUATES ASSOCIATION (BGA)
LEADERS NEVER STOP LEARNING
The way forward UDP dean Mauricio Villena offers a framework for the future
• THE HUMAN FACTOR: PSYCHOLOGY AS A PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT TOOL • COLLECTIVE IMPACT: PARTNERING TO FUEL UNDERSTANDING OF AFRICA’S NUANCES • FOR THE JOURNEY: PERSONALISING & TRACKING THE EXPERIENCE AT KJSIM
INSIDE
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Contents ISSUE 4 • 2026 • VOLUME 32
05 EDITOR’S LETTER Why the student experience is such a key factor in all aspects of management education 06 BUSINESS BRIEFING News and research from across BGA’s global network 10 COVER STORY COMPETING ON CREDIBILITY UDP dean Mauricio Villena offers a guide to the strategic choices, governance and institutional design needed to thrive in an evolving landscape
30 MIND THE GAP Bridging the divide between academia and industry at the AUC Onsi Sawiris School of Business 34 IN FOCUS The UK’s Manchester Metropolitan University Business School in profile 36 GUEST COLUMN Why today’s leadership must focus on regeneration, not resilience 38 DIRECTOR’S DESPATCH Building on employers’ confidence in the value of business education
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22 ADVANTAGE AFRICA How international immersion programmes co-designed with local institutions can give students the strongest insights into Africa’s expanding opportunities and the realities of business across the continent’s diverse markets 26 BREAKING THE CYCLE OF PSYCHOPATHY To curb the prevalence of toxic leadership and unethical organisational cultures, business schools must recognise psychology as a practical management tool,
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16 A PICTURE OF PROGRESS The innovative Parivartan
framework at KJ Somaiya Institute of Management charts students’ progress against key competencies and helps them lead their own transformation journeys, says dean and director Raman Ramachandran
argues Open Academy founder Daniel Tůma
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THE ACCREDITATION EXPERTS
EDITOR’S LETTER
EDITORIAL
Content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@amba-bga.com Head of editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@amba-bga.com Art editor Sam Price
ELEVATING THE EXPERIENCE
Elements such as student support, personalised development plans, psychology lessons and carefully curated experiential learning can all help boost a school’s offering
I n a context of growing competition encompasses everything from participants’ day-to-day interactions with instructors, staff and fellow students to the look and feel of teaching techniques, resources and services offered. As such, it is a hugely open-ended area of focus but one that is consistently linked to a prospective student’s choice of school and their academic and advancing technology, the student experience is becoming ever more central to business schools’ value proposition and efforts to meet learners’ changing expectations. “Experience” performance, retention and wellbeing once enrolled, as well as their relationship with an institution post‑graduation. In this issue of Business Impact , features on school strategy, pedagogy and programme initiatives all attest to the overriding importance of getting the student experience right. In our cover story, reimagining student support as a lynchpin of institutional strategy forms part of Mauricio Villena’s guide to the future of higher education. “The physical campus is justified not by the delivery of lectures but by the curation of demanding and formative experiences that foster professional, intellectual and personal development,” writes Villena, dean at the Faculty of Administration and Economics, Diego Portales University, Chile. Meanwhile, in our feature from KJ Somaiya Institute of Management in Mumbai, India, dean and director Raman Ramachandran tells us about the development of a framework designed specifically to provide
Sub-editor Heather Ford
Insight, content & PR manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@amba-bga.com CORPORATE Director of business school engagement Debbie Kemp d.kemp@amba-bga.com Head of business development – BGA Richard Turner r.turner@amba-bga.com Senior marketing executive – digital lead Shareen Pennington
students with a personalised experience and ramp up their role as protagonists in their own stories of continued development. “We wanted a process that would maximise student outcomes, go beyond the predominant lens for return on investment and help us fulfil our purpose of enabling transformative journeys,” he explains. Elsewhere, Ahmed Abdel-Meguid at The American University in Cairo’s Onsi Sawiris School of Business emphasises the value of providing effective, experiential learning experiences that bridge the gap between academic models and industry realities. “Market engagement and corporate partnerships act as a powerful means for transforming management education from mere theoretical concepts into lived experiences,” he declares. Lastly, Open Academy founder Daniel Tůma makes the case for broadening students’ programme experience to encompass psychology and the study of human behaviour. Through simulations, group reflection, coaching exercises and psychological profiling, Tůma highlights the benefits of developing participants’ understanding of themselves and the people they lead. “By integrating teaching in these areas into management education, business schools can offer their students a more holistic perspective that will enable them to build healthier, more ethical and more sustainable organisations.”
s.pennington@amba-bga.com Membership administrator Georgia Herbert g.herbert@amba-bga.com Commercial relations director Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@amba-bga.com Finance & commercial director Catherine Walke r Director of accreditation & director of BGA services Mark Stoddard Chief executive officer Andrew Main Wilson
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Tim Banerjee Dhoul Editor , Business Impact
Copyright 2026 by The Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association . All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is independent, accurate, objective and relevant for our readers, BGA accepts no responsibility for reader dissatisfaction rising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed and advice given are the views of individual commentators and do not necessarily represent the views of BGA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. BGA makes every opportunity to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor.
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THE LATEST NEWS FROM ACROSS BGA’S NETWORK Business
BRIEFING Challenging companies on how they measure the merits of employment, the factors that fuel political polarisation and assessing the success of agricultural policies using satellite data all feature in this round-up of news and research from BGA schools. Tim Banerjee Dhoul , Ellen Buchan and Colette Doyle report
RESEARCH CHALLENGES TRADITIONAL EFFICIENCY PERSPECTIVE ON EMPLOYMENT
his co-authors. They found that ventures with closer ties to the community tended to hire more people and survive longer. “Employment, in this context, functions as both strategy and signal. It signals alignment with community values. It builds legitimacy and it invites the kinds of reciprocal relationships that stabilise young firms,” Eberhart wrote in an article for the USD website. The idea is that when new ventures are more engaged with their communities and enjoy overlapping local relationships, they are able to draw on the kind of support that helps sustain them over time, such as trust, partnerships and local resources. The paper also found that founder origin, venture location and local multiplex relationships determine which new ventures recognise the contribution,
or valorise, employment in this way and make it central to their purpose and strategic orientation. This is as opposed to viewing employment from a traditional efficiency perspective, where firms hire to meet demand and reduce headcount to protect margins. In big cities, for example, firms face fewer social consequences for reducing employment and it becomes easier for new ventures to treat labour as being interchangeable. Conversely, social ties run deeper in more community- oriented settings. The Valorisation of Employment , published in the Journal of Business Venturing , aims to widen awareness of employment’s dual nature, wherein employees not only serve as essential inputs but also as core outcomes. TBD
SCHOOL Knauss School of Business University of San Diego (USD), US
T he conventional notion that employees are simply costs to be managed is challenged in new research led by Knauss School of Business associate professor Robert Eberhart. Instead, greater consideration should be given to the benefits of a firm’s commitment to community stakeholders, the research argues, particularly in the context of entrepreneurship. A total of almost 26,000 ventures founded in Japan between 1998 and 2007 were analysed by Eberhart and
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NEWS DIGEST
One central aim was to test whether misperceptions about opponents’ views fuel this hostility. Participants were asked to estimate the positions of opposing-group supporters on sensitive issues including abortion, Amazon deforestation and affirmative action. The results demonstrate that participants often overestimated how extreme the other side’s views were. However, when people were given accurate information about what opponents believed, hostility fell significantly. For example, supporters of Bolsonaro estimated that more than 81 per cent of Lula supporters backed legalising abortion in the first trimester, whereas the study found the actual figure was 46 per cent. “Affective polarisation is not a fixed characteristic of a population. It rises and falls – and it responds to information. When we show people real data on what the other side actually believes, rejection tends to decrease,” noted Goldszmidt, who specialises in quantitative methods applied to the social sciences, behavioural change and policy evaluation. The study was published in Nature Communications and carried out in collaboration with researchers from Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government and Imperial Business School, among others. CD “Affective polarisation is not a fixed characteristic of a population. It rises and falls – and it responds to information”
NEW STUDY DEMONSTRATES HOW MISPERCEPTIONS FUEL POLITICAL POLARISATION
five survey waves between April 2022 and February 2023, covering the period before, during and after Brazil’s 2022 presidential election between Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It found that negative feelings between political groups intensified as the election approached, peaked during the campaign and declined afterwards. Goldszmidt and his co-authors focused on affective polarisation: rejection, distrust and hostility towards people associated with rival political groups, which can weaken social co-existence, hinder co‑operation and deepen divisions.
SCHOOL Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EBAPE), Brazil
study co-authored by FGV EBAPE professor Rafael Goldszmidt has
A
examined how sociopolitical polarisation changes around the time of elections and how mistaken beliefs about opposing political groups deepen hostility. The research followed citizens with different political views through
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NARROWING THE GAP BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
SCHOOL Kühne Logistics University (KLU), Germany
he gap between research into humanitarian logistics and its influence on real-world practice is
T
explored in a new study involving KLU professor Maria Besiou. It argues that current research tends to oversimplify real-world problems and often overlooks the practitioners’ perspective. Access is also a problem, with research not reaching those in a position to influence practice. However, the study demonstrates how humanitarian research can impact practice, for example by improving processes, affecting discussions within organisations or enabling new strategic approaches. “Humanitarian research should not only create impact within academia, but help people make better decisions in crisis situations,” stated Besiou, who is also academic director of KLU’s Centre for Humanitarian Logistics and Regional Development. Together with co-author Erica Gralla from George Washington University, Besiou has created a framework for understanding a research project’s reach in the real world. “Research becomes particularly powerful when science and practice work together on solutions from the very beginning,” Besiou added. The study encompasses a review of 640 scientific abstracts, an analysis of more than 130 practitioner conference contributions, a survey of the research community and 18 interviews with practitioners from the humanitarian sector. Entitled From the Ivory Tower to the Field, it was published in the European Journal of Operational Research . EB
HOW SATELLITE DATA CAN BE USED TO DETERMINE EFFICACY OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY INTERVENTION
The researchers focused their attention on a financial assistance programme launched in 2018 to support crop investments among farmers in the state of Telangana. A lack of pre‑implementation survey data previously made it difficult to independently measure its impact. Using satellite imagery across almost 100,000 agricultural locations along a 10km strip of Telangana’s border with neighbouring states, however, yielded a clearer picture. The study found that agricultural productivity during the primary monsoon cropping period (known as Kharif season) increased by around 1.47 to 2.05 per cent more in areas that received the financial support. Timely assessment of agricultural interventions, the researchers say, is becoming critical for governments at both the state and national level because of the increasing influence of climate change and erratic monsoons. TBD
SCHOOL Goa Institute of Management (GIM), India
new study led by GIM shines a light on the growing potential for using satellite
A
technology and data analytics in governance and policy evaluation. Looking specifically at the agricultural sector, the study demonstrates how the impact of government policies can be measured, even when there is a dearth of traditional survey data. “One of the biggest challenges in developing countries is that policies often remain unevaluated due to the absence of reliable baseline data. This study shows satellite data can fill that gap rigorously and at scale,” explained GIM’s Muddasir Ahmad Akhoon, lead author of the study.
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NEWS DIGEST
SCHOOL Johannesburg Business School, University of Johannesburg South Africa NEW OBSERVATORY SEEKS TO BOOST PUBLIC SERVICE A new research centre at Johannesburg Business School has launched with a view to strengthening data-driven skills planning in South Africa’s public service, building institutional capability and supporting more effective delivery. The PSETA–UJ Research Observatory is the result of a collaboration between the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA). Its launch was attended by leaders from government, academia, industry and the public sector, under the theme of credible, data-driven labour market intelligence and sectoral research. Speakers at the event emphasised the new observatory’s intended role as a bridge between policy, research and implementation. Delivering the opening address, PSETA accounting authority chairperson Kennedy Maimela said: “We are working to ensure that this evidence – and the strategies it informs – translates into meaningful impact for the country’s development and for public service delivery.” Buti Manamela, recently appointed as South Africa’s minister for higher education, science and technology (deputy minister at the time of the event) framed the observatory as a vital national development tool, arguing that South Africa must move from reactive compliance to anticipatory skills planning. Meanwhile, a panel session on reforming planning around public service skills encompassed the topics of leadership succession, responsible AI use, implementation gaps and accountability. CD
FLEXIBILITY FALLING SHORT FOR WORKING FATHERS, STUDY FINDS
Heejung Chung, director of the King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. “Without tackling the stigma associated with flexibility, fathers fear using it or feel forced to use it in ways that protect their image at work while damaging their and their family’s wellbeing.” Addressing this stigma and better supporting flexibility for fathers, the study suggests, can boost employee engagement, productivity and crucially, retention. According to the data analysed, for example, around 17 per cent of fathers who currently have some work-from-home arrangements would quit their jobs outright if they were required to return to the office full time. Supporting fathers’ ability to take on more family responsibilities, such as the school run and dinner
SCHOOL King’s Business School King’s College London, UK
hile fathers enjoy the benefits of work-from- home flexibility, it can often be accompanied with stigma, according to new research from King’s Business School (KBS). In its analysis of data from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes UK , the KBS report found that among 8,123 responding full-time working fathers, the preference would be to double their current working‑from-home arrangements, on average, from 1.1 days to 2.1 days per week. However, it also found that employees who work from home are rated less favourably for promotion by UK managers and that working fathers are the group most likely to be penalised for this. “Simply providing flexibility is not enough,” stressed report co-author W
time, can also help reframe narratives around gender, as
SHARE YOUR NEWS AND RESEARCH UPDATES by emailing Business Impact editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul at t.dhoul@amba-bga.com
Chung emphasised. “When men are involved, not only do their ideas of what it means to be a man change but so do those of their children.” EB
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Competing ON credibility
In the coming decade, business schools will not compete on who incorporates new technology fastest but rather on the capabilities and judgement they produce in their graduates, says Mauricio Villena , dean of the Faculty of Administration and Economics at Diego Portales University in Chile. Here, he presents a comprehensive framework for turning today’s market pressures into an opportunity to reignite higher education’s social contract and demonstrate public value
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INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGY
T he modern
credentials are expanding and there is increasing pressure to develop transferable skills that allow individuals to adapt across roles and sectors. • Technological: Advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) are making knowledge increasingly ubiquitous and personalised. As a result, the comparative advantage of universities is shifting away from the transmission of content and towards the formation of judgement, complex thinking, the ability to apply knowledge in real-world contexts and socio-professional capabilities. It is the last of these forces that is perhaps the most consequential. According to a 2025 student survey by the Higher Education Policy Institute, 88 per cent of UK undergraduates now use AI for their assessed work, up from 53 per cent the previous year. The primary issue is not that students are using these tools, it is what that usage reveals about the assessments themselves. In other words, if such a large proportion of assessed work can be produced by a machine, the assessment was probably not measuring what we thought it was.
university is often discussed in terms of campuses, degrees and technologies. Yet historically, the very notion of the university, or universitas in medieval Latin, did
not primarily refer to a physical place, but to a corporate body or community comprising masters and students organised around teaching, learning and the pursuit of knowledge. This origin matters because it reminds us that the university is, at its core, a social and institutional arrangement – and that its legitimacy depends on the value it creates for society. Consequently, debating the future of higher education should not only constitute questions around technology or pedagogical innovation. It is the very social contract of the university that is at stake: why it exists, whom it serves, how it is financed, how it demonstrates public value and how it sustains legitimacy in a context of fiscal pressure, political polarisation and rising expectations. In this sense, the future of higher education is not a predetermined destination. Instead, it is an ongoing transition, the direction of which rests on strategic choices, governance and institutional design. The shifting landscape At the level of the external environment, four structural forces are reshaping higher education systems, as detailed below: • Demographic: In many countries, tertiary systems are maturing, enrolment growth is slowing and school‑age cohorts are declining. This increases competition for students and forces institutions to rethink their value proposition, both in undergraduate and postgraduate education. • Financial and political-institutional: Funding models are becoming tighter, public scrutiny is increasing and there is growing demand for measurable outcomes. At the same time, the legitimacy of universities is being more openly debated. • Employment market transformation: Demand is shifting towards applied fields, professional
“The future of higher education is not a predetermined destination”
In search of verifiable judgement Over the next decade, therefore, universities will not compete primarily on their ability to deliver information. They will compete on their ability to form graduates with verifiable judgement, through their provision of demanding learning experiences, authentic assessment and credible credentials, supported by an appropriate governance of AI. This shift fundamentally reorders the logic
of education. When factual knowledge and first-layer explanations become widely accessible at low cost, the university’s distinctive contribution lies in the design
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of rigorous learning environments, communities of inquiry, research with student participation, project-based learning and educational trajectories that integrate general education, disciplinary depth and competencies suited to a world of high uncertainty. In this context, the relevant question is no longer “how much information do we deliver?” but rather “what kind of graduates do we form?” In other words, schools must ask themselves if they are nurturing individuals with judgement, agency, intellectual integrity, digital literacy and the capacity to collaborate in solving complex problems. Universities have long assessed students on outputs – essays, reports, examinations – that serve as proxies for underlying capabilities rather than direct demonstrations of them. Generative AI has exposed this limitation in full and while turning to more sophisticated detection tools is an understandable instinct, it is one that is misguided. The response must be a redesign of assessments, learning environments and of what counts as credible evidence of graduate capability. In teaching, this implies prioritising higher-order skills, such as those relating to analysis, the critical evaluation of evidence, application in real contexts and the ability to reconcile diverse perspectives. In assessment, this means moving away from easily automatable tasks towards observable performance, projects, data-driven work, portfolios, oral defences and experiential learning. At the same time, AI can underpin more timely and personalised support for learning, but this is something that requires governance, ethical frameworks, data protection, transparency and the institutional capacity to intervene effectively without undermining autonomy. The promise of AI, therefore, will only be realised if it is embedded in curricular design, standards and quality assurance. Student experience & programme architecture A second major shift concerns the student experience and its transformation from a complementary consideration to a core component of any institution’s value proposition. Increasingly, the physical campus is justified not by the delivery of lectures but by the curation of demanding and formative experiences that foster professional, intellectual and personal development.
REIMAGINING STUDENT SUPPORT
In the coming years, elements that were previously labelled as “student support” and considered as a separate service must move to the centre of an institution’s value proposition. The following shows how they can be integrated into curricula and the measurement of outcomes. Entry: Diagnosing participants’ aims, ambitions and abilities alongside a comprehensive induction of the school’s offerings and approach helps set clear expectations from the start. Progression: Tutoring, learning analytics and continuous
academic support enhance individuals’ educational experience and outcomes. Integration: Projects with the wider world, work placements and co-curricular activities help participants apply their learning and gain a deeper understanding of challenges in business and society.
Graduation and beyond: Developing graduate employability, facilitating
access to professional networks and providing evidence of performance boosts participants’ career progression and nurtures an ongoing relationship with their alma mater .
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INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGY
coherent and recognised manner that is compatible with working lives. In postgraduate and continuing education, these trends are even more pronounced, with growing demand for professional programmes,
In this context, what was previously labelled as “support” – encompassing wellbeing services, tutoring, academic advising, student life and employability – becomes strategic. These elements must also be integrated into the curriculum and the measurement of outcomes. The goal is not to add services but to systematically build the conditions for students’ progression, retention and the timely completion of their programmes ( see boxout on page 12 for more details ). A third transition concerns the architecture of credentials. It is likely that traditional degrees will increasingly combine with more flexible pathways, intermediate certifications, competency-based credentials, stackable programmes and greater articulation across levels, with more opportunities for exit and re-entry along the way. This does not imply a lowering of standards. On the contrary, it requires redesigning learning trajectories so that students can accumulate human capital in a
“Traditional degrees will increasingly combine with more flexible pathways”
hybrid formats and credentials offering clearer and more immediate returns. Here, the strategic question is not whether modularity will expand, but how institutions can ensure coherence, academic quality and differentiation in a more competitive and transparent environment. The risk of getting this wrong is concrete: without robust quality assurance and well‑defined learning outcomes, modularity produces a proliferation of credentials that employers cannot interpret and graduates cannot rely on. Justifying value & purpose At the same time, the university’s status as a centre of knowledge and trust is under pressure. Financial constraints, political polarisation, tensions around inclusion and evidence, challenges in peer-review processes, mental health issues in academia and frictions in international mobility all contribute to a more complex environment. In response, institutions must justify their social and economic value, sustain high-quality research and rebuild public trust. The challenge is not simply to produce more papers, but to strengthen quality, integrity and relevance, while deploying robust science and meaningful engagement with public policy and industry. Universities also need to have more honest conversations about metrics and ensure incentive systems are aligned with a broad conception of academic contribution. Alongside these pressures, sustainability has emerged as a central dimension – not as a standalone topic but as an institutional orientation.
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Sustainability is twofold: education for a sustainable world, equipping students to
address climate change, inequality and structural transformation; and education that sustains individuals over time, providing them with the capabilities to navigate an uncertain and contested world. There is a legitimate concern that the growing emphasis on lifelong learning may become purely instrumental if it is disconnected from purpose and citizenship. For this reason, institutional sustainability requires leadership, governance and coherence across strategy, curriculum and practice. The way forward Within this framework, one can suggest that the universities best positioned to navigate the coming decade will be those that are able to achieve alignment across the following four pillars, without losing their identity. • A distinctive educational offering: Combining general education, disciplinary knowledge and transversal skills • An integrated student experience: Linking curricular and co-curricular activities, making student support part of the core model • A substantive relationship with society: Through the use of projects, applied research, partnerships and real-world learning opportunities • Organisational modernisation: In relation to teaching capacity, institutional analytics, digital infrastructure and operating models capable of sustaining quality at scale This is not an agenda that implements itself. It requires curricular redesign with clear standards, mechanisms to create and close programmes, co‑ordination across units, aligned academic incentives and strategic investment in capabilities. It also requires an institutional policy that guides, rather than prohibits the use of AI, ensuring integrity, developing skills and protecting equity. In addition, internationalisation strategies must evolve beyond mobility for its own sake and towards meaningful academic networks, shared modules, internships and joint degrees that add real value, alongside a focus on “internationalisation at home” that permeates the educational experience. To enable more flexible learning pathways without compromising on quality, meanwhile,
“The growing emphasis on lifelong learning may
requires what might be called an “infrastructure of trust”. This encompasses qualification frameworks, quality assurance systems, transparent standards and mechanisms that make learning pathways legible, portable and comparable. The European discussion on microcredentials is illustrative, both in its desire to expand flexibility and lifelong learning, as well as its insistence on clarity, portability and verifiable standards. The institutional lesson is clear: modularity only creates value when anchored in well‑defined learning outcomes and credible recognition mechanisms. become purely instrumental if it is disconnected from purpose and citizenship”
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INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGY
qualification that certifies content consumption and one that certifies capability. In this sense, the MBA embodies the shift described in this article and has direct implications for how business schools design and position their programmes. Moreover, the most defensible MBA is one that makes its assessment model transparent – in other words, a programme where learning outcomes are specific, assessment tasks are demonstrably non-delegable and evidence of graduate capability is legible to employers. That is not a retreat from ambition, it is the clearest possible statement of what a business school education is for. From pressures to projects In the long run, higher education will not compete on who digitalises fastest or who launches more programmes. It will compete on credibility in forming capable graduates and generating public value. In a world where information becomes cheaper, prestige will rest on institutions’ ability to educate individuals with judgement, integrity and effective competencies. It will also depend on their capacity to produce reliable, relevant knowledge and sustain a university community capable of transforming life trajectories. For business schools and universities, the strategic challenge is to translate global pressures into institutional projects that are innovative, coherent, interdisciplinary, internationally connected and linked to the world of work. However, such projects must also remain anchored in the idea that a university is not reducible to market logic. By following this path, higher education’s future is likely to be defined by a demanding, yet achievable, combination of excellence, experience and purpose.
Embodying the shift: MBA competencies
As the most established model of postgraduate management education, the MBA makes for a useful reference point here. Already designed around the logic of verifiable judgement, it is a qualification that was never primarily about transmitting knowledge. Instead, it was about developing the capacity to apply learning in real organisational contexts. Employers do not pay a premium for MBA graduates because of what they know. They pay because of what they can do with what they know, from working across disciplines and leading diverse teams to diagnosing complex problems and making defensible decisions under uncertainty. That is verifiable judgement and it is precisely what AI cannot replicate. What AI changes, then, is not the MBA’s purpose but the pressure to demonstrate it. When AI can produce a competent case analysis in minutes, the MBA programme that assesses only the output has a problem. The programme that assesses the reasoning process, encompassing the defence of assumptions, evaluation of alternatives and calibration of evidence has an advantage. The distinction is between a
Mauricio Villena is dean and full professor of economics and public policy at the Faculty of Administration and Economics, Diego Portales University (UDP), Chile. Villena has also served as chief economist (2010–2013) and deputy director (2018–2020) of the Budget Office at Chile’s Ministry of Finance. He holds a PhD and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge
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As management education shifts from imparting knowledge to enabling lifelong growth, Mumbai’s KJ Somaiya Institute of Management has developed a framework that empowers students to take ownership of their professional development, chart their progress against key competencies and lead their own transformation journeys. Dean and director Raman Ramachandran introduces the Parivartan programme of progress A picture
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STUDENT EXPERIENCE
F or the longest time, an MBA was thought of as a passport to a high-powered corporate life, better opportunities and an astute showcase of one’s capabilities. But is this still true? Skill requirements have undergone significant disruption in recent years and there is often a glaring discrepancy between the perceptions of those in industry and academia with regards to new graduates’ career-readiness. The question of whether an MBA, in its current form, is sufficient certainly warrants consideration. In 2023, in the process of addressing this query, we laid the groundwork for a new competency‑based, personalised developmental framework that emphasises the importance of holistic development and empowers students to lead their own At the time, we were guided by the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report from that same year, which said that 44 per cent of workers’ skills would be disrupted in the next five years, necessitating continuous learning and adaptation. Adding to this, a 2023 Economic Times report revealed that only 53 per cent of graduates in India are employable for top non-technical jobs. Finally, a 2024 report from HirePro found that while 70 per cent of academic institutions transformation journeys. Bridging the gap
in India believe their graduates are well‑equipped for the corporate world from day one, only 16 per cent of corporations share this view. Taken together, these findings highlighted an inescapable fact – management education in India, at its core, had to change to meet the demands of industry and provide holistic value propositions. We wanted a process that would maximise student outcomes, go beyond the predominant lens for return on investment and help us fulfil the KJ Somaiya Institute of Management (KJSIM)’s purpose of enabling transformative journeys. The end result was the creation of the Parivartan programme (“ parivartan” translates from Hindi as “transformation”), a framework designed to enable students’ transformational journey and encourage them to take charge of their growth. Its overriding aim is to help students make judicious decisions in their choice of specialisation areas and career paths. It also seeks to develop habits, behaviours and a mindset of resilience that, collectively, facilitate constant learning and unlearning — a crucial skillset for any graduate. The framework is built on two key pillars: Nurturing Potential (NP) and the Student Progression Index (SPI) and is led by Nikhil Mahindroo and Seetha Pachchhapur, faculty members in the area of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources. Identifying areas for development Every meaningful journey begins with self-awareness. NP is designed to help students recognise their innate capabilities and take responsibility for their development. Our first step was to look at competencies valued by progressive organisations and insights from leading thought leaders, such as McKinsey, Deloitte, NASSCOM and GMAC. This was then complemented by an internal exercise where experienced faculty independently identified relevant competencies across different sectors and roles. At the convergence of these perspectives, we were able to finalise a set of seven core competencies that would provide a common foundation for all students. These are: • Adhering to principles & values • Working with people • Presenting & communicating information • Analysing • Learning & researching • Delivering results & meeting customer needs • Adapting & responding to change
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Additionally, we mapped three differentiating competencies across each of the five major specialisations that students pursue in their second year: finance, marketing, HR, operations and business analytics & data science. Personality and cognitive ability are established indicators of innate potential with high predictive validity. In other words, both are good predictors of future job performance – as demonstrated in research led by the University of Iowa’s Frank Schmidt – and in predicting how an individual is likely to perform in any given situation. For this reason, competency assessment is the foundation of NP. All students admitted to our MBA programmes undergo psychometric assessments (covering personality and cognitive ability) and spoken/written English assessments in collaboration with a leading consulting firm. From these, we produce personalised reports and indices for each student that underline their core competencies and differentiating competencies. The ensuing insight into their strengths and areas for development allows them to make more informed specialisation choices and plan a transformational journey that aligns with their personal aspirations, in the form of the “Parivartan Action Plan” (PAP). Guiding student progress KJSIM’s SPI, meanwhile, recognises that much of a student’s transformation happens beyond the classroom. It is a composite score that seeks to underpin a student’s multifaceted development across the following six parameters. • Cumulative GP A (50 per cent): Academic learning remains integral to the creation of strong theoretical foundations. • Deep reflective learning (15 per cent): Facilitated through articles from key business publications, such as India’s The Ken and The Economist in the UK, the intention here is to develop positive habits in students. Regular reading keeps them updated on geopolitical developments and assists in developing their ability to critically evaluate information and relate what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations. • Participation in competitions (10 per cent): Our research and experience has indicated that students’ probability of securing more sought-after employment and higher salary levels increases when they actively participate in competitions
such as case studies, simulations, business plans and hackathons. • Industry-led certifications (10 per cent): Industry- led certifications provide evidence of a student’s skill base, improving employability. It is also a sign of a student’s attitude towards learning. • Active sports participation (10 per cent): With abundant evidence that mental and physical wellbeing is critical to success, this parameter reflects the institute’s broader belief that student wellbeing through active participation in sports needs to be prioritised. • Careers & Conversations (five per cent): This initiative gives students regular opportunities to meet and listen to accomplished leaders from varied sectors and gain valuable life lessons from their careers and journeys.
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STUDENT EXPERIENCE
SPI scores are calculated biannually at the end of each term, allowing students to track their progress and realign their developmental goals with career objectives. Top scorers in each term are also recognised and rewarded to demonstrate the importance of holistic development and the significance of leading their own transformation journey. Lastly, the scores are used towards the development of personalised indices in the newly launched Parivartan Portal, alongside those relating to nurturing potential. These highlight sectors and career paths that might be a strong fit for students’ individual strengths. Faculty play a crucial role in enabling students’ transformation journeys. Termed “growth catalysts”, they mentor approximately seven students each, facilitating their deep reflective learning sessions and mentoring them within the CARE framework outlined as follows: • Clarity: Gained from the process of creating a Parivartan Action Plan • Align: Where competencies selected for development meld with aspirations and industry‑readiness • Review: The process of checking and reflecting regularly on progress • Examine: Through which students gain greater self-awareness and ownership of their development journey
During the induction at the start of her first year, Roshni learns about Parivartan, undergoes psychometric assessments and receives her personalised reports and competency indices. She then learns how to understand and interpret them by attending debriefing sessions, gaining awareness about her strengths and areas in need of development. She chooses marketing as her area of specialisation and creates a Parivartan Action Plan (PAP) with the help of her faculty mentor. She also begins to recognise how diverse components of the school’s Student Progression Index (SPI) will help in her targeted development. For example, Roshni identifies that she needs to develop two core competencies: Analysing and Adapting & Responding to Change. She partners with her classmate Ali, whose strength is Analysing, and together, they participate in a case study competition. Although they do not win, Ali is impressed by Roshni’s commitment to developing her Analysing competency and is inspired to create his own PAP; something he had delayed at the beginning of the programme. Both students then take up a new sport to work on a common area for development identified in their assessments: Adapting & Responding to Change, with these efforts recognised as a part of SPI. Separately, Roshni’s mentor helps her see how participation in external events will assist in the development of Relating & Networking, a differentiating competency for the marketing specialisation and a crucial part of the toolkit for the sales role to which she aspires in the fast-moving consumer goods sector. PERSONALISING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE An illustration of KJSIM’s growth and development framework in action
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STUDENT EXPERIENCE
• Industry trust: Two years after its inception, the Parivartan programme has achieved the backing of one of India’s leading public sector banks. The State Bank of India is currently sponsoring rewards for the top 25 performers on KJSIM’s Student Progression Index. Empowering transformation The Parivartan framework has helped the MBA at KJSIM evolve from a mere credential to a personalised, transformation journey owned by each student and enabled by the school’s ecosystem. Moreover, the initiative itself continues to develop with purpose and impact, from its introduction of the Parivartan Action Plan to the development of a dynamic portal offering real-time SPI updates, leaderboards and differentiated opportunities linked to student scores. The heart of the framework lies in its emphasis on self-awareness and taking ownership of your continuing development; something that can be leveraged beyond the MBA journey. In subsequent times of uncertainty or career pivots, graduates can lean back on this intervention to re-evaluate their skills and determine the best course of action to fulfil their aspirations. It also reinforces the need to learn and unlearn, as well as to evaluate contextual information critically at each turn and apply it to whatever challenges come their way. In this way, the programme has the potential to extend its impact beyond the individual. It enables alumni to catalyse transformation within their personal and professional spheres at the same time as they advance their journeys towards becoming value-based and purpose-driven leaders.
Measuring the impact The success of any framework rests on its impact and Parivartan’s effect on students, the institute and the broader university ecosystem is undeniable. This extends its effective integration into the programme experience and its positive impact on students’ progress, among other areas, as detailed below. • Integration: Competencies have been integrated across the entire student lifecycle, from the admissions process to industry-readiness, thereby creating a common language. • Engagement: Among the various SPI components, it is industry-led certifications and competitions that have reflected student autonomy and agency most strongly. During the last two cycles, participation among first-year students in certifications rose from 34 per cent to 73 per cent, while competition participation increased from 20 per cent to 77 per cent. • Placement readiness: Students with higher SPI scores have achieved better placement outcomes, including higher placement rates and salary benchmarks. This reflects the positive developmental impact of the framework over time. • Adoption: In the very first cycle, approximately 80 per cent of students successfully created their individual PAPs. • Curriculum enhancement: Based on insights from students’ competency assessments and recruiter feedback, we have been able to strengthen the curriculum. For example, we increased the focus on communication in a course taken by all first-year students and redesigned our half-credit course on people analytics as a full-credit, second-year course based on the specific needs of MBA students on the HR specialisation track.
Raman Ramachandran is the dean and director of the KJ Somaiya Institute of Management in Mumbai, India. His approach to academic leadership is shaped by more than three decades of corporate experience. This includes a 22‑year tenure at the German multinational chemicals firm BASF, where he held senior Asia Pacific roles, before serving as chairman and MD of BASF India. A certified executive coach, he holds a PhD in agriculture from the University of Adelaide
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