UJ NEWS
Digitalising JBS to create ‘ Fit For Future ’ Business Leaders
By Helen Grange
INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR RANDALL
its challenges. “Some executives continue to regard change management as a human resources function; this despite rapidly growing evidence from those companies that successfully traversed the digital migration that the extent of change required compels strategic shifts that must be driven from the office of the CEO. But despite this reluctance, most of our international partner schools are elated that an African school has embraced this challenge” “The Centre for Entrepreneurship in the JBS has become well known for its success in connecting SMME’s to big business and has embarked on a programme to link these companies to a digitally connected ecosystem, opening up opportunities for platforming and thus elevation up the economic ladder. We have included business leaders from successful technology companies as professors of practice into our faculty to ensure practical application of theory, with a focus on best practice.
Technical savvy is critical in the toolkit of business leaders today, and it’s this aspect of business training that Prof Randall Carolissen, appointed Dean of the Johannesburg Business School (JBS) in March 2021, has laser beamed his full attention on. “The University of Johannesburg has attained global recognition on the repositioning of itself to address the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). For the JBS, this translates into a mandate to create leaders fit for the future, empowered to effectively respond to the 4IR in general, and digital transformation in particular. Cognizant of the African context, JBS is primed to address the challenges of this continent and supersede the growing digital divide. Thus we have reconfigured and increased our suite of academic programmes up to doctoral level to reflect this transformation,” says Prof Carolissen. The departure from traditional leadership development pedagogy has not been without
CAROLISSEN, DEAN AT THE JOHANNESBURG BUSINESS SCHOOL (JBS)
ALUMNI IMPUMELELO 4
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