BSPC 2024 REVIEW
To this end, Hult has developed a new curriculum and is attempting to teach in a different way using challenge learning. However, the school’s director used a quote from automotive industry pioneer Henry Ford to illustrate why it had decided not to ask students about how the new curriculum should be developed: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. The school did not canvas the opinion of faculty either, he remarked, noting that there was a danger of “a siege mentality”. Instead, Hult asked employers what they wanted in terms of a new type of programme and the findings showed that some 74 per cent of CEOs are concerned about the skills gap of employees, identifying two key skills as communication and collaboration. This led to Hult redesigning its postgraduate programmes, including the MBA and the MiM. Picking up on the research they had carried out with employers, each postgraduate programme has mandatory courses on teamwork and collaboration, communicating with impact and influencing others. In terms of the concept of challenge learning, each programme has one large challenge per term: for instance, Boston MBA students were expected to research consumer motivation when it comes to choosing a particular hotel and the connection to the guest’s own lifestyle; create a guest journey and decision‑making on eating in hotel restaurants versus external outlets; and undertake competitor analysis on loyalty for competing hotel chains. Meanwhile, MBA students in Dubai were asked to develop new market strategies and growth plans for electric vehicles in the region; and in London, master’s students were requested to analyse and evaluate the brand extension opportunities available for luxury Italian car manufacturer Ferrari, building new revenue streams and exploring strategic partnerships. Encapsulating the SDGs into exec programmes Christine Baldy Ngayo, associate dean for executive education at France’s Emlyon Business School, talked delegates through the SDG Inside initiative, or how to encapsulate the United Nations’ SDGs into executive education programmes. She began by explaining the raison d’être behind doing so: there is an increased awareness of the impact of business on climate change and society at large, along with a growing need to equip executives with the knowledge, skills and values that will enable them to lead in today’s environment. The SDG framework is composed of seven key competencies. These cover technical skills in the form of system futures and strategic thinking, as well as implementation. They also cover intra-/interpersonal skills in the categories of self-awareness and collaboration, as well
Andrew Main Wilson, AMBA & BGA CEO, addressing the delegates
Attendees made the most of the opportunity to network with other business school professionals
Learning Mate’s Geeta Chandolia revealed how the demand for online learning is once again on the rise
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Learning Mate Geeta Chandolia, director of partnerships and marketing at Learning Mate, noted that interest in online executive education has picked up again, with companies asking for “a growing share of courses online in a reversal of the post-pandemic trend to return to in-person training”. In fact, the proportion of tailored custom programmes provided online by schools to corporate clients rose sharply from 19 per cent in 2022 to 30 per cent last year. A further 22 per cent of courses were offered in blended formats featuring both in-person and online components. Chandolia elaborated on how Learning Mate’s curriculum and content services can help schools scale and develop their blended and online learning delivery, including curriculum and content development. She gave an example of a case study
from the Southern New Hampshire University involving course mapping and instructional design across nine different courses. Learning Mate streamlined the development and management of metadata and taxonomic relationships, recommending improvements to increase efficiency, maintain quality and reduce the time required to launch new programmes or revise existing ones. In addition, it redefined the university’s workflow to optimise time and resources, as well as curating, authoring and editing learning resources. This resulted in the development of 34 media elements. “Online learning is here to stay,” remarked Chandolia. “It continues to be on the rise with a particular push from companies. Students continue to demand richer online learning experiences, with competition coming from private providers and other means of learning.”
Ambition | SEPTEMBER 2024 | 23
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