AMBA & BGA DEANS & DIRECTORS GLOBAL CONFERENCE
Summing up, Barthélemy used three words to describe the best way to future-proof an MBA programme: relevance, personalisation and embeddedness. He also cautioned against being overly audacious in business, giving the example of the Apple III’s failed launch in 1980: “You need to be bold to be successful, but not too much”. A data-driven approach to the future of work “In the past 10 years, we’ve quadrupled our audience and LinkedIn now has one billion members,” said Linus Wellén, a government and academics lead at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, in a keynote session on the future of work. Wellén detailed how LinkedIn’s scale can help people understand the changing global job market and support students as they seek to progress in their careers. Alongside its individual members, the site hosts roughly 67 million company profiles and 134,000 educational institutions, spanning everything from vocational schools to traditional degree-awarding universities. “As all these millions of members update their profiles, we see that reflected in our economic graph. This data can be used to understand talent flows and what’s happening in the economy.” There are now also 41,000 skills listed on the site, following a drive to classify the evolving attributes sought by employers and held by candidates. Wellén explained how this ties into the
this is one less thing to worry about,” the MBA director continued. Rodgers went on to emphasise how the school’s use of a digital platform benefits learners from different backgrounds. “The vast majority of our students are international and English is their second language. The platform’s provision of instantaneous translation is powerful and takes away a lot of the anxiety associated with specific words that might not be in somebody’s vocabulary.” Looking to the future of business education How to future-proof the MBA was the theme of the presentation given by Jérôme Barthélemy, dean of post-experience and corporate programmes at Essec Business School. The imperative to redesign the MBA curriculum at Essec was built on the need to capitalise on its deep expertise, align with the needs of international job markets, create an integrated focus for the programme and provide agile career-portfolio building. The new structure will be based around three specialisations and a series of labs: the centre for social and sustainable innovation; a meta lab for digital leadership and strategy; the centre for entrepreneurship and innovation; and career- learning labs. The latter involves executive workshops to build competency in a specific role or industry, as well as company visits and networking and learning expeditions.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
DE&I initiatives Aarti Bhasin, HR and employer relations manager at AMBA & BGA, chaired a panel on award-winning diversity and inclusion initiatives that featured Josep Franch, dean of Esade executive education, Sandro Alberto Sánchez Paredes, director of MBA programmes at Centrum PUCP Business School and Samer Atallah, associate dean for graduate studies and research at the American University in Cairo’s School of Business. Franch began the discussion by pointing out that, with 50 different nationalities in play, Esade students and faculty “come from a fairly diverse background”. He explained that the school’s Racial (in) Justice initiative was co-created by students, faculty and staff, describing it as having “transformed attitudes”. Atallah noted that there is still a lot of work to be done in the Middle East: “We are trying to develop leaders who are aware of the challenges posed by DE&I”.
However, he explained that this is not easy to achieve given that only 25 per cent of employees in Egypt are female and they mainly work in the public sector. And yet, progress has been made: whereas previously there were only around 100 female board members, they now number some 400. This is something that Atallah attributed to a “coalition of the willing”, meaning a collaboration between the private sector and NGOs. The country suffers from wealth inequality too and the American University in Cairo representative spoke about the need to “address the bottom of the pyramid”, with a focus on financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills. Sánchez highlighted the need for access to quality education, noting that while women establish companies, they do not tend to last due to a skills gap, so Centrum PUCP is committed to providing better training for female entrepreneurs. Helping people to become more productive will,
in turn, “allow the country to grow”, he stated. His school is currently working in partnership with a number of micro-finance providers in Peru, enabling the channel to reach aspiring female entrepreneurs. Franch then touched on the need to create a safe space for students to express themselves and referenced the Black Lives Matter movement. He urged schools to “be courageous”, affirming that the way to make an impact is to “empower people to become agents of change”. Bhasin asked the panel how they were getting on in terms of moving their initiatives to the next stage. Atallah acknowledged that changing people’s mindsets has been a huge challenge as Egypt is a society with “patriarchal misconceptions”. He described the country as “lucky” in terms of having UN goals to achieve but noted that state-owned enterprises are very male-dominated, “so it is hard to break through”. He added that the challenge now is to extend the initiative
beyond Egypt and expand it throughout the MEA region – “like a runner, once you start the first mile, it’s easier to carry on”. Franch noted that Esade has run its DE&I initiative as an elective course within the MBA curriculum for three years; it will soon become part of the core programme. This will enable it to have a greater impact and will involve bringing in diversity and belonging consultants to present real-life case studies and foster tighter connections with the corporate world. Sánchez emphasised the importance of the circular economy and the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. His school has branched out to work with a Colombian micro-finance company in this regard and there is also a project based in Uganda trying to replicate the scheme. There has been a “positive response from faculty, students and alumni” alike, noted the Centrum PUCP MBA director, adding that the school often holds networking events to canvas opinion on what can be improved.
Ambition | JULY/AUGUST 2024 | 21
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