ROUNDTABLE REVIEW
software. I wonder whether a strategic approach will ever be possible, given that the pace of change is so rapid it seems like we’ll always be in this state of evaluating, adopting, dismissing and changing. “Soft skills are going to be so important for those leaders who come out of business schools, who will need to have the ability to cope in an increasingly fast-paced environment. Now that we can analyse data in real time, absorbing that information is going to be critical, as well as managing your wellbeing, meaning we will need leaders who are resilient and also able to manage in those environments and find strategy within chaos. “The one thing I would like to flag up is around ethics and the importance of instilling in leaders the ability to behave ethically when it comes to the use of AI. Human interaction will revolve around the authentic leader; when much of what we do will become driven by technology, then the role of a leader will be to purposefully develop those human relationships in the spaces where we still have the opportunity to do so. Good communication, relationship development and a strong ethical compass will be what leaders in the future are going to have to be really mindful of to succeed.” Tessa Melkonian: “I would reinforce the point raised by Munish about mental health. For me, the real question is how can our students assure themselves that they will have the sufficient cognitive resources to address the challenges ahead [posed by AI]? Many business leaders are depleted in terms of their cognitive resources; I think our role is to assist them with navigating this challenge, trying to figure out a way to help them use the technology to their best advantage. Again, ethical decision-making is linked to the availability of cognitive resources. That means it’s our job to help them get through this, so that the use of this technology doesn’t have such a detrimental effect on their mental health, something that is a huge challenge.” How effectively are business schools teaching essential soft skills? Where are the gaps and what are the biggest challenges to improvement? Hannah Holmes: “I think gaps probably remain in some of the more difficult soft skill areas because they’re hard to assess – it’s not necessarily that they’re not there, but it’s difficult to pinpoint them. For instance, how adaptable people are and their emotional intelligence. We also need to consciously think about managing in a world where people work more remotely – that’s possibly a particular soft skill that hasn’t been fully developed yet. How you effectively build a team who may only rarely meet physically and how to make those occasions especially purposeful and intentional.” Munish Thakur: “One of the challenges we’re facing is how we’ve made our grading system increasingly quantitative in order to justify our evaluation to students, but that means we probably end up leaving less room for soft skills.
thinking] is going to become essential and schools have a vital role to play in this regard. We are entering a world where the difference between communication and technology is going to become less pronounced. “We also need to be able to manage mental stress – this is going to increase exponentially once more technology enters our lives. Are students ready to disengage and take a healthy approach to mental health? There’s a fear of missing out when it comes to AI – we worry that if we don’t know, then we’re going to be irrelevant; we need [to get past] this fear.” Hannah Holmes: “I totally get the FOMO thing – that drives the number of requests I receive for licences for the latest
Ambition • ISSUE 2 • 2025 23
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