Ambition is AMBA’s thought leadership magazine, offering regular insights into the challenges and trends that matter most in global management education
The monthly magazine of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) BE IN BRILLIANT COMPANY Ambiti n Stop the brain drain
Issue 57 OCTOBER 2022
Strategies for retaining top talent
UP FOR DEBATE Decision-makers from across Europe discuss the issues surrounding personalisation and micro-credentialing
BUSINESS SIMULATIONS Henri Schildt, Professor of Strategy at Aalto University, on tools to provide interactive, experiential learning
RADICAL CULTURE John Davis, Chair of Brand New View, looks at how the best leaders recognise and appreciate employee contributions
14-15 November 2022 Hosted by ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, Spain
AMBA & BGA ACCREDITATION FORUM 2022 Designed specifically for accreditation professionals at Business Schools that are applying for AMBA and/or BGA accreditation or re-accreditation
BOOK NOW www.associationofmbas.com/ school-events/amba-bga- accreditation-forum-2022/
Issue 57 | OCTOBER 2022
STRATEGY
32 | THE GOLDEN AGE Business simulations provide interactive, experiential learning that engages students and facilitates creative problem-solving, says Henri Schildt, Professor of Strategy at Aalto University
18 | PERSONAL JOURNEYS? Decision-makers discuss key issues relating to transforming the structure and purpose of business schools
26 |NAVIGATING THE GREAT RESIGNATION Why curricula and cultures must reflect changing employee mindsets if business schools are to retain and recruit talent
The growing popularity of hybrid programmes is making it harder to attract and retain international faculty
xcellence E Awards AMBA&BGA
2022/23 & Gala Dinner
The AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards and Gala Dinner celebrates the quality and achievements of postgraduate business education at the forefront of leadership excellence, recognising the talents and contributions made by AMBA-accredited Business Schools, their students and graduates. Winning, or being shortlisted as a finalist, is a fantastic way to tell the world about the great initiatives your Business School has launched.
Join us at our Gala Dinner on 9 December 2022 as we reveal the winners in every category
www.associationofmbas.com/school-events/gala-dinner-2022-23/
Issue 57 | OCTOBER 2022
NEWS & INS IGHT
REGULARS
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07 | EDI TOR’ S LET TER A lesson in learning at the AMBA & BGA Latin America Conference 2022 44 | HUB HIGHLIGHTS Workforce planning, tackling the mental health crisis, the merits of digital transformation officers and more 46 | FROM THE CEO Looking back on a record year
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08 | ROUNDUP Business schools from across AMBA’s global network 12 | AWARDS The f inalists for the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2022/23 42 | AMBA & BGA EVENT PREVI EW The Accreditation Forum takes place in Barcelona from 14-15 November 2022
OPINION 38 | CULTURE
How the best leaders recognise and appreciate employee contributions 40 | INNOVATION How to foster an environment in which ideas turn into innovations
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EDITOR’S LETTER
A lesson IN EDUCATION
EDITORIAL Head of Editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@associationofmbas.com Content Editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@associationofmbas.com Art Editor Laura Tallon Insight, Content and PR Manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@associationofmbas.com CORPORATE Head of Commercial Relations Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@associationofmbas.com
The global corporate wellness market is predicted to reach $96.1bn by 2030
oing on a week-long business trip to Colombia only 10 days into a new job could have been a baptism of fire, but instead it turned out to be as refreshing as a cool drink of water on a hot day in Cartagena. The AMBA & BGA Latin America Conference 2022 was an illuminating introduction to the world of management education. The panel I chaired with Cristina Vélez Valencia
from Universidad EAFIT and Mario Giraldo from Universidad del Norte discussed opportunities for diversity in the region, pinpointing specific initiatives such as day care centres for those with young children and more help for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Each of the sessions had its own merits, but one or two particularly stand out in my mind. Lina Martínez from POLIS at the Universidad Icesi looked at wellbeing in the workplace, citing an article from the Harvard Business Review which reveals that 85% of respondents to a recent survey said their general health had declined since Covid-19. She noted that the global corporate wellness market is predicted to show annual growth of around 7% to reach $96.1bn by 2030 and advocated the use of soft skills such as empathy, resilience and inclusion. Leila Guerra from Imperial College Business School also made an impression on delegates with her presentation on partnerships and the development of student-centric innovations. She coined the acronym ADAPT, standing for asymmetry, disruption, age, polarisation and trust, to highlight the issues most affecting schools today, and used the term, ‘friendpetitors’ to indicate the importance of forging alliances with corporates to deliver real value. What struck me was the crossover of concepts from other industry sectors that I’ve previously covered, such as virtual reality and AI, the possibilities of the metaverse and the use of gamification as an educational tool. It seems the old adage, “Never too late to learn” really does ring true. Colette Doyle , Editor, Ambition
Head of Marketing and Communications Leonora Clement
Senior Marketing Executive Edward Holmes
Head of IT and Data Management Jack Villanueva
Head of Events Carolyn Armsby
HR and Employer Relations Manager Aarti Bhasin Finance and Commercial Director Catherine Walker
Chief Executive Officer Andrew Main Wilson
Executive Assistant to the CEO Sharon Sidaway s.sidaway@associationofmbas.com ACCREDITATION ENQUIRIES accreditation@associationofmbas.com
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
JOHN DAVIS
DINA DOMMETT
VLATKA ARIAANA HLUPIC
DENNIS KHOO
HENRI SCHILDT
Copyright 2022 by Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association ISSN 2631-6382 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, AMBA 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 AMBA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. AMBA 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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NEWS & INSIGHT
NEWS & RESEARCH
from across AMBA’s Global Network
Making monotonous jobs less boring, action learning, robots and more feature in Ambition ’s latest roundup. Compiled by Ellen Buchan and Tim Banerjee Dhoul
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EQUAL TREATMENT DOES
IN DEFENCE
NOT ALWAYS TRANSLATE TO EQUAL OUTCOMES COUNTRY: South Africa SCHOOL: Stellenbosch Business School, University of Stellenbosch
OF ROBOTS COUNTRY: Denmark SCHOOL: Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University Rather than causing humans to lose their jobs, robots lead to more employment and an upsurge in productivity, according to a study by the Aarhus University School of Business and Social Sciences (Aarhus BSS). “The myth of robots stealing our jobs is false”, said Michael Koch, an associate professor from the Department of Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus BSS. Robot-adopting companies among 5,500 manufacturing firms in Spain were found to increase their overall output by 20-25%, reduce the labour cost share by 5-7% and experience net job creation at a rate of 10% on average over four years. These were the findings of a paper penned by Koch, together with fellow researchers at Aarhus BSS and Europa-Universität Flensburg. The researchers argue that it is their unique dataset that offers new insights. “It gave us the opportunity to do something entirely new within research into the effect of automation: to investigate the microeconomic impact of robots all the way down to the level of individual firms, as opposed to the majority of existing research, which has been preoccupied with the overall macroeconomic effect”, Koch explained. The data in question stems from annual surveys covering the years 1990 to 2016, which allowed researchers to track the adoption of robots in individual firms against other measurements, such as productivity, costs and job numbers. Across the whole time period, firms adopting robots in their manufacturing processes increased the number of jobs by 50% on average. There was an average decrease of 20% in job numbers among firms which did not adopt robots at any point during the same period of 26 years. “We had expected the adoption of robots to cause employment to decrease, just like many other macro-level studies have shown”, said Koch. The study, published in The Economic Journal , has picked up a Royal Economic Society award for best paper. (TBD)
VAT and income tax have a disproportionate impact on women, especially single mothers. This was the conclusion reached by Lee-Ann Steenkamp, head of the Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning at Stellenbosch Business School and contributor to the 2022 Women’s Report . The report was released by the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) in partnership with Stellenbosch Business School. During the apartheid years in South Africa, women suffered discriminatory tax systems that especially disadvantaged working married women. When this was repealed after 1994, the law changed and both men and women were taxed the same, regardless of marital status. Now, single-earning households only benefit from one tax rebate, meaning they are disadvantaged by tax. This disproportionately impacts women, as the report found that more than 40% of South African households are headed by sole female breadwinners and that 41.7% of children live with single mothers; only 4.4% live with single fathers. The report also found that while women make up nearly half of taxpayers (46%), they only contribute one third of the total tax paid, signifying that they are concentrated in the lower tax brackets. Despite this, women were found to be left with higher costs; as primary caregivers they spend more on the collective household needs such as food, health and education, and therefore pay more VAT in general on these items. To allow for a more equal distribution of wealth, Steenkamp proposed that higher tax thresholds for women, tax breaks for female- owned businesses, reduced tax rates on property owned by women and tax deductions for childcare costs should be introduced. She also suggested that wider access to free or affordable healthcare, education, water and social protection would free up women’s income. (EB)
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NEWS & INSIGHT
MINDFULNESS MINIMISES MONOTONY COUNTRY: UK SCHOOL: University of Exeter Business School
DOES ACTION LEARNING WORK IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABILITY
TEACHING? COUNTRY: Brazil SCHOOL: Insper
While mindfulness initiatives are becoming commonplace in white-collar industries, what impact does mindfulness have on those working more manual jobs, often characterised by monotony? Research conducted with people who have ‘monotonous’ jobs in Mexico found that employees who were mindful found their jobs less boring and were less likely to quit than their co-workers. Mindful employees were more likely to produce higher-quality work, but interestingly, the quantity of work produced went down. The employees’ attitude to work also differed: those with higher levels of mindfulness displayed greater levels of job satisfaction. The findings suggest that employers should be investing in mindfulness initiatives for workers who do monotonous jobs. However, the researchers advised that employers should not wholly rely on mindfulness programmes to enhance employee satisfaction, instead focusing on issues that have been linked to monotonous jobs, such as poor pay and design. They suggested that the mindfulness training should be carried out in a way that is respectful of participants’ lives and founded on ethical intentions. The research was based on a study of 174 blue-collar workers at a Mexican manufacturing plant which makes discount coupons for US retailers – where employees received no additional incentives for preforming their tasks well. Researchers measured the workers mindfulness and boredom levels, as well as their attitudes to work. After four months, they collected data about the quality and quantity of the work these employees had produced. The study, entitled, It’s so boring – or is it? Examining the role of mindfulness for work performance and attitudes in monotonous jobs was published in the Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology . It was co-authored by Andreas Wihler of the University of Exeter Business School, Ute Regina Hülsheger of Maastricht University, Jochen Reb of Singapore Management University, and Jochen Menges of the University of Zurich and Cambridge Judge Business School. (EB)
What is the most effective way to help emerging leaders develop professional skills oriented towards sustainability? Priscila Claro, an associate professor at Insper who teaches courses on strategy, sustainability and social business, wanted to address concerns raised in previous studies that the learning process at many business schools fails to explore the complexity of real life. This is because it fails to use a teaching approach that favours the development of sustainability-oriented capabilities (SOCs). Together with Insper PhD candidate Nathalia Ramajo Esteves, Claro set out to analyse the impact of the active learning approach when teaching about sustainability. The main problem she identified was a lack of concrete results to support the idea that active learning methods are effective in leading students to engage in social and environmental questioning. Central to their findings, now published in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education , was that active learning yielded improved student engagement in a group project that called for learners to propose effective sustainability actions. This heightened engagement was shown to have a positive influence on grades. The project was undertaken by undergraduate students in business at Insper across two years. It drew on both active and more traditional teacher- led learning activities, with results measured both quantitatively (grades) and qualitatively (for example, through teacher notes). As the paper concluded: “Working with real problems was crucial for students to develop skills in sustainability. Implementing changes in the courses, focusing on collaboration among students and teachers, was also decisive for the success of the activity.” It also pointed to the value of involving external stakeholders in students’ projects, as they contributed to validating the applicability of the business models proposed by the students in the study. (TBD)
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CAR CUSHIONING CAUSES CASUALTIES
THE MULTIPLE ROLES OF INDIVIDUALS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES COUNTRY: Canada SCHOOL: Schulich School of Business, York University Parent, manager, activist, train enthusiast, gardener. All these are examples of the different roles an individual might play in their daily lives, either keeping them separate, or allowing the boundaries to blur. Research into the everyday roles people play has mainly focused on those in developed countries, finding that the more similar the associate behaviours of given roles, the more likely it is that individuals integrate them (and vice versa). However, the context is slightly different in developing countries, where time and money may be more important commodities and there is a heightened expectation that people will volunteer for the good of the local community. To test this, researchers collected data from 73 self-employed people in Tanzania, who also provide family planning counselling. They found that when working in their community role, participants were careful not to mix this with work, but that when they were performing their work role, they were happy to reference their family planning counselling. The researchers suggest that when at work, participants’ expected behaviour is straightforward, meaning they have the opportunity and flexibility to bring up their community role. However, when they are performing their family planning role, this is seen as more complex; they do not mention their paid work, to avoid any conflict or confusion. The findings were published in Can I sell you avocados and talk to you about contraception? , slated for publication in the Academy of Management Journal. The paper was co-authored by Geoffrey Kistruck, Professor and RBC Chair in Social Innovation and Impact at Schulich; Patrick Shulist, Assistant Professor of Sustainability in Business at Aalto University School of Business’s Entrepreneurship Unit; Miguel Rivera-Santos, an Associate Professor of Strategy and International Business at Babson College, and Winnie Nguni, Assistant Lecturer at University of Dar es Salaam Business School. (EB)
COUNTRY: Norway SCHOOL: BI Norwegian Business School
To reduce the societal and public health impact of road accidents, policymakers should incentivise against bigger cars, according to BI Norwegian Business School’s Luk Warlop. This is because bigger cars serve as a ‘cushion’, making drivers feel more secure and inducing them to take more risk, according to recently published research from Warlop, in conjunction with Bart Claus from IÉSEG School of Management in France. Prior research has shown that people tend to choose bigger cars because they make them feel more secure, and conversely, that bigger cars are more likely to be involved in accidents than their smaller counterparts. Warlop and Claus’ research is designed to show the link between the two. Across two experiments, they found that an association with a bigger car caused participants to take more risks, both on the road itself and in a simple risk test. The personalities of those involved were simply not a factor in what they term “car cushion hypothesis”, which is why the researchers believe it has strong relevance for policymakers looking to improve public health through road safety. In the first experiment, participants drove either a small or large Toyota (Yaris or Avensis) along the same route in a simulator, with their behaviour monitored. Results showed that those in the large car displayed more reckless behaviour – they drove faster, accelerated more, decelerated later, and used their brakes more than those in the smaller cars. In a second experiment, the researchers set out to take the underlying principles beyond driving, using a BART (Balloon Analog Risk Task) test. Participants were asked to imagine themselves driving either a small (A-class) or large (C-class) Mercedes and then to inflate a balloon by pushing a button. The more the balloon was inflated, the greater the monetary reward on offer but the drivers stood to lose everything if the balloon popped. In this test, those who were shown the larger car beforehand were more likely to inflate their balloon more. The suggestion here is that the perceived increase in safety on the road that comes from a larger car can be linked with generalised risk-taking. (TBD)
SHARE YOUR NEWS AND RESEARCH UPDATES by emailing AMBA & BGA’s Content Editor, Tim Banerjee Dhoul, at t.dhoul@associationofmbas.com
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NEWS & INSIGHT xcellence E Awards AMBA&BGA 2022/23 SHORTLIST
Discover which business schools – as well as which of their students and
graduates – are in line for potential victory in AMBA & BGA’s annual business education awards. Ellen Buchan and Tim Banerjee Dhoul report
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The Best CSR and Sustainability Initiative award honours schools that are leading the way in creating a sustainable future and teaching students about social values
I t’s time to reveal the finalists for the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2022/23. Designed to recognise industry excellence worldwide, this year’s AMBA & BGA’s annual business education awards are open to AMBA-accredited business schools in nine different categories. Five of these categories recognise the work of business schools in areas that include diversity, innovation and CSR. The remaining four categories are individual awards recognising the achievements and potential of those who have studied, or are still studying, at an AMBA-accredited business school, including the renowned MBA Student of the Year award. The winners of the awards will be announced at the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards and Gala Dinner, to be held on 9 December 2022 at the Biltmore Mayfair, overlooking Grosvenor Square in the heart of London. You can book your place at the event by visiting the AMBA website: www.associationofmbas. com/school-events/the-amba-bga-excellence-awards-2022-23/
BEST CULTURE, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE 2022/23
The Best Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative award recognises business schools and the work they have been doing to create, incorporate and develop culture, diversity and inclusion practices, while balancing and involving fair working environments. • Essex Business School, University of Essex (UK) for Open to All: Essex Business School’s Inclusive Events Guide • Graduate School of Business, Almaty Management University (AlmaU) (Kazakhstan) for GSB AlmaU Limitlessly Capable project • School of Business, the American University in Cairo (AUC) (Egypt) for AUC Egypt Women on Boards (WoB) Observatory • Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (China) for Centre for Female Leadership and Student Career Development
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NEWS & INSIGHT
BEST BUSINESS SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP 2022/23
The Best Business School Partnership award recognises organisations that have adopted a proactive and innovative approach to strategic collaboration. Partnerships can be with another business school/group of schools, an employer, a consultant, an education partner or technology provider, a social impact group, an individual, a charity, or another organisation. • AESE Business School (Portugal) with PwC Portugal • UPF Barcelona School of Management, Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) (Spain) with CaixaBank • Dongwu Business School, Soochow University (China) with Soochow Securities • POLIMI Graduate School of Management (Italy) with The Mind at Work • Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands) with Dutch Brazilian Chamber of Commerce • Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa (Canada) with Kinaxis
BEST CSR AND SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE 2022/23
The Best CSR and Sustainability Initiative award honours business schools that are leading the way when it comes to creating a sustainable future and teaching students about social values, as well as making a positive impact in practical and measurable ways. This award gives schools a chance to showcase their innovative and original CSR and sustainability initiatives on a global stage. • Audencia Business School (France) for Gaïa by Audencia: a school for social and ecological transition • POLIMI Graduate School of Management (Italy) for Training initiatives to support Ukrainian students in dealing with these difficult times and to be prepared to rebuild their country • MCI The Entrepreneurial School (Austria) for MCI Earth Day 2022 • School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (China) for Training Global Talent with CSR Competency and a Sense of Sustainability • School of Business, the American University in Cairo (Egypt) for Hack 22
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BEST LIFELONG LEARNING INITIATIVE 2022/23
MBA STARTUP OF THE YEAR 2022/23
The MBA Startup of the Year award encourages and promotes the value of start-up business strategy and innovation in the current competitive climate and showcases its importance in the global market. This award is open both to private and public sectors. It is designed to celebrate innovative business strategy – taking something from idea to action. Entries are judged on the idea and potential of the venture and its plans, rather than any financial or monetary results in the early stage. • Brian Marrinan, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin (Ireland) for Team ABC Ventures • Damien Demoor, Audencia Business School (France) for GREENOV • Ingrid Briggiler, School of Business, Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina) for NUME: Nuevo Método • Luca Renzi, POLIMI Graduate School of Management (Italy) for iZ Renewable Luxury – Società Benefit • Ravi Ranjan, Aston Business School, Aston University (UK) for Voilo • William Clarke, Graduate School of Management, University of Auckland Business School (New Zealand) for Learn English Live
The Best Lifelong Learning Initiative award recognises the efforts of those schools that are reinventing teaching and learning among students, graduates, alumni networks, and custom and executive education. • Berlin School of Business and Innovation (BSBI) (Germany) for Learning outside the classroom: events and initiative, and the Synthetic Hybrid Online Model • School of Business, the American University in Cairo (Egypt) for Community-based learning Econ 3071 • Shantou University Business School (China) for The lifelong learning platform of the MBA Education Center • Universidad Externado de Colombia (Colombia) for Privilegios Program BEST INNOVATION STRATEGY 2022/23 The Best Innovation Strategy award is a celebration of innovation and radical thinking in business education delivery across all areas of the business school and has been developed to recognise and reward game-changing new practices, risks and creativity. • Shantou University Business School (China) for Innovation in Teaching, Assessment and Social Responsibility • TBS Education (France) for The Blind Search (TBS) • University of Leicester School of Business (UK) for Online Sustainability Challenge (OSC) • Wrexham Glyndŵr University (UK) for North Wales Business School Simulation Suite
The MBA Entrepreneur of the Year award is a fantastic way to highlight the success of schools that promote entrepreneurship in their MBA cohorts
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NEWS & INSIGHT
MBA LEADERSHIP AWARD 2022/23
The MBA Leadership Award will honour alumni from AMBA-accredited business schools who have been making an impact in the business world following their graduation. The award will recognise the achievements of these graduates through their acomplishments, performance and recognition. • Che Jianxing, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (China) • Dalia Mohamed Ibrahim, School of Business,
the American University in Cairo (Egypt) • Erik Hiep, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow (UK)
• Kerry McLaverty, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin (Ireland) • Kush Kanodia, Kent Business School, University of Kent (UK)
MBA ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR 2022/23
The MBA Entrepreneur of the Year award celebrates the achievements of successful alumni in innovative world- class business strategy, but also showcases business schools that are nurturing a spirit of enterprise and ambition. This award is a fantastic way to highlight the success of accredited schools that promote entrepreneurship in their MBA cohorts. It is also a chance for individuals to impress high-profile judges who are already at the forefront of global entrepreneurship. AMBA has developed the MBA Entrepreneur of the Year award to encourage and promote the value of entrepreneurship in the current competitive climate and to highlight its importance in the global market. • Isabel Sousa Pereira, Porto Business School, University of Porto (Portugal) for LAKS • Oluwaseun Funmilayo Alley, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University (Nigeria) for Fez Delivery Co • Michael John Magdongon, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands) for Strabo • Vishal Tilak, Milpark Business School (South Africa) for Avapro • Jinlong Ming, School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China) for Anhui Conch New Materials Technology • Jérôme Pasquet, Audencia Business School (France) for PEEK’IN
The MBA Student of the Year award recognises students who AMBA believes can act as ambassadors for the high quality of accredited MBAs
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MBA STUDENT OF THE YEAR 2022
AMBA’s MBA Student of the Year award plays a pivotal role in supporting AMBA’s pledge to promote the MBA as the leading international business qualification. The award recognises students who have shown exceptional career potential and who AMBA believes can act as ambassadors for the high quality of accredited MBAs and the opportunities these programmes provide for students from a wide range of different personal and professional backgrounds. It doesn’t just reward ‘straight-A’ students, but also focuses on leadership potential and career progression. • Aveek Choudhury, Indian Institute of Management Indore (India) • Chiamaka Ibeh, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University (Nigeria) • Darren Evans, Kent Business School, University of Kent (UK) • Fardod O’Kelly, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin (Ireland) • Miriam Bazan Peregrino, ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University (Spain) • Nkem Marian Igwe, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester (UK)
Book your place... ... at the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards and Gala Dinner, to be held on 9 December 2022 at the Biltmore Mayfair in London, by visiting the AMBA website: www.associationofmbas.com/school-events/ the-amba-bga-excellence-awards-2022-23/
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STRATEGY
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Transforming the structure and purpose of business schools Personal journeys?
Business school decision-makers from across Europe discuss personalisation, micro-credentialing, and other aspects of business education’s emerging model shift, drawing on AMBA & BGA’s research in association with Salesforce.org. Ellen Buchan reports
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I n a world packed with billions of people with different – and conflicting – needs, technology has been a driving force in allowing us to feel ‘individual’. Our lives are tailored, curated and personalised for us. This is evident from the personalised information we receive from search engines, as well as our reading recommendations. Even our television sets know what we want to watch and when. Those handy little suggestions have become commonplace. STRATEGY
80% of these business school leaders believe that their schools are under pressure to change their value proposition and business model. This suggests that the sector may see further changes in the short term as business school models shift to enhance the personalisation of learning offered. To gain insightful quantitative findings, in June this year AMBA & BGA and Salesforce.org brought together a group of decision-makers from schools across Europe to delve deeper into topics highlighted in the report: the purpose of the business school; user experience of business schools; personalisation; online and hybrid learning; microcredentials; and professional lifelong learning. Here are some highlights of this fascinating conversation, which discussed these opportunities and challenges.
Part One: Who is the main customer of a business school?
Jacqueline Bagnall , MBA Programme Director, University of Exeter Business School “There is a tension between the term ‘customer’ and ‘student’ . As a customer, someone may expect more passive engagement with the education that they receive, expecting simply to receive the goods or services that have been purchased. But as a “student”, there is an expectation that the learning comes from active effort and engagement with what is taught. We liken education to a gym membership; you get from it what you are prepared to put in. Learning requires some sweat.” Dan Pearson , Director of Academic Services, Warwick Business School “I think that ‘customer’ and ‘consumer’ represent a bit of a false narrative. In my institution, we see it much more as a partnership. Students are there to progress their own learning and development, but there’s also a process of collaboration; they are also contributing towards the development of their programme and their community.
But arguably, business education is playing catch- up in this hyper-personalised arena. The topics our students learn about, and how they learn about them, are beginning to become more tailored to individual needs and preferences. Regular readers of Ambition will have seen the results of the AMBA & BGA research into transformation and the emerging business model shift in business education, in association with Salesforce.org, which was published in last month’s edition. This report, based on a survey of 144 business school decision-makers, found that 72% of business school leaders believe their institution provides a personalised experience for their students. This trend is only set to advance, with 88% agreeing that personalising the learning experience of their students is something that will grow in importance over the next five years. A staggering
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We often fall into the narrative that there is a transaction taking place, but there is a much more developmental journey on both sides.” Sofia Brito Ramos , Academic Director, Global MBA, ESSEC Business School “I agree that the school works for the community and society, but the student is at the centre. It is for them that we provide the learning experience and the learning transformation. In saying that, we have seen more companies in France contacting us, looking for specific training, and they are a growing stakeholder for us.” Dieter Vanwalleghem , Director, iMBA programme, Rennes School of Business “Our institution runs primarily from a stakeholder- management perspective, where the customer really is the customer; and that customer is the student. We view all the other actors in our ecosystem, such as the local community or corporations, as stakeholders in support of our single customer: the student. That doesn’t mean, of course, that the other stakeholders are not important to us, but we approach them in different ways, tailored to their needs. We essentially seek to collaborate with the other stakeholders primarily to deliver value to the end customer – the student. For instance, we nurture our corporate network so that it enhances the employability of our students, and to gain input on how we should form our courses.” Jane Usher , Head of Department: Postgraduate Studies, Milpark Business School “Before Covid-19, most of our students were sponsored by their employer, but now we’ve got more people funding themselves because they are going on a personal journey. For us, the development of the student into a (lifelong) client is what we want. We need to make sure that our influence is positive in organisations, and in wider society. We are developing people who are going to be leaders in these areas, so we need to be cognisant of what organisations require, in order to adapt and be agile. But, ultimately, our students need to be our focus, so that they have a fantastic student experience and then become lifelong clients.”
We liken education to a gym membership;
you get from it what you are prepared to put in. Learning requires some sweat
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STRATEGY
David Kalisz , Dean of Expert programmes, Paris School of Business
“We must think about students first, but I do think that companies and society also play an important role because we have to create programmes that are linked to the jobs market. In France, we have a lot of partnerships, a lot of programmes that the employer still pays for, so of course they have the chance to impact the programme. We have a philosophy of lifelong learning, so students may be of any age. We have also a policy at school which is called 'Happy Student Maker’ where society and the companies take participative action to make sure what we teach makes students happy and will give them access to the jobs that are out there, now and in the future.” Part Two: Are business schools under pressure to change their fundamental value proposition to become more commercial? Dieter Vanwalleghem , Director, iMBA programme, Rennes School of Business “You can be commercial in the sense that you can try to deliver a product that adds value for your customer in the long term. Whether you’re a private school or a public one, if you’re creating a product that is valuable to your customer, you are commercial – and that’s not a negative. I fear that what can be negative about being commercial is that sometimes academic standards come under threat due to competitive and commercial pressures. It’s basically the constant struggle to attract the best students, and that can sometimes jeopardise the value that you deliver.”
If the whole paradigm of education is about to change to skills-driven education, I see an additional level of (tough) competition for business schools
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ROUNDTABLE ATTENDEES
Sofia Brito Ramos , Academic Director, Global MBA, ESSEC Business School “I have a slightly negative outlook in terms of this competition because it’s very related to the switch to skills-driven education (the skills that you perhaps don’t need the traditional university to teach you). For example, if a student wants to gain skills in Excel, they can go to LinkedIn or YouTube. In skills-driven education, we are seeing more and more competition because providers do not have the research background that is very expensive to provide. And we know that some students don’t care about research, they just want to learn practical things, and go to work in an investment bank. So, if the whole paradigm of education is about to change to skills-driven education, I see an additional level of (tough) competition for business schools.” Julio Villalobos , Director, EMEA CXO Strategic Industry Advisor for Education, Salesforce.org “One of the major challenges we all agree on is addressing the challenges and opportunities of the trend towards lifelong learning. This includes lifelong learning not only for individuals, but also for companies to re-skill their employees. Another important challenge we all observe is hybrid learning. This impacts where we teach, where the students learn (in class or online), plus how we, as institutions, have to change the way we teach, and how we deliver the learning experience in terms of content, format, platform, credential validation, and the necessary networking. We have mentioned the importance of keeping students’ and professors’ wellbeing front of mind, since we all agree that learning and teaching in a hybrid ecosystem (anytime, anywhere) is a lot more complex and stressful.” Dieter Vanwalleghem , Director, iMBA programme, Rennes School of Business “There’s a dangerous trend in business education that everyone is looking for the short-term application of learning,
and microcredentials are in line with that trend. We focus overly on what is important for the paradigms of the world we’re currently living in, but education should also give people the tools to move and change these paradigms, otherwise they will never be able to move forward along paths of sustainable transformation and digital transformation. In business schools, the customer sometimes wishes to gain immediately applicable skills, and things that can be valued in the jobs market. This is where business schools perhaps must try to educate customers and say “we might know something you don’t know”, taking a paternalistic approach in terms of saying that students should devote a quarter or a third of the curriculum to courses of a more fundamental nature. This will help students to change paradigms, not just to be employable in existing paradigms.’” Jane Usher , Head of Department: Postgraduate Studies, Milpark Business School “I think there needs to be a balance between the quick, stackable microcredentialing, and an underlying foundation of long-term critical thinking. There is a role for short courses, but what we do is make sure that these have assessment which allow the student to evaluate their degree of learning. I think we need to balance going completely to what the market thinks it wants with having people who can think systematically and critically – skills which come from longer-term degrees.” Donald Lancaster , MBA Director, University of Bath School of Management “The world in which we live must be coloured by context – and that context is changing fast. Can we imagine a scenario in which strongly research-based, highly regarded, highly accredited institutions will carry on pretty much offering learning the way they are now – because they are respected in the MBA world, and they educate rather than just accredit the students?
CHAIR Andrew Main Wilson , CEO, AMBA & BGA
DELEGATES Julio Villalobos , Director, EMEA CXO Strategic Industry Advisor for Education, Salesforce.org Donald Lancaster, MBA Director, University of Bath School of Management David Kalisz , Dean of Expert Programmes, Paris School of Business Jenny Britton, Head of Executive Development, University of Edinburgh Business School
Dan Pearson , Director of Academic Services, Warwick Business School
Jacqueline Bagnall , MBA Programme Director, University of Exeter Business School Jane Usher , Head of Department: Postgraduate Studies, Milpark Business School Dieter Vanwalleghem , Director, iMBA programme, Rennes School of Business Sofia Brito Ramos, Academic Director, Global MBA, ESSEC Business School
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STRATEGY
KEY FINDINGS The purpose of the business school • 58% of business school leaders believe their primary customer to be students, and 33% think the main customer is society itself. • 65% say teaching and learning is their priority for students at their institution. • 80% believe business schools are under pressure to change their value proposition and business model. • 54% believe the role of business schools is to develop and nurture responsible managers. User experience of business schools • 58% of business school leaders believe their business school’s offering meets student expectations to a great extent. • 29% of business school leaders who use a learning management system (LMS) believe the user experience of their online platform should match, to a great extent, those of commercial websites such as social media platforms or online shopping websites. • 24% of business school leaders who use an LMS think that their online platform matches the user experience of these platforms to a great extent. • 29% think that students expect LMS’s to meet the standards of commercial platforms to a great extent, and 50% think students only somewhat expect LMS platforms to meet the standards of social media platforms or e-commerce websites. Personalisation • 72% of business school leaders believe their institution provides a personalised experience for their students. A quarter (25%) believe this is not the case, and 3% are unsure. • 43% say that the most personalisation currently on offer to their institution’s students is in the area of teaching and learning, while 21% say that the most personalisation is in the area of careers support. • 88% agree that personalising the learning experience of their students is something that will grow in importance over the next five years. • 88% think the most important outcome of personalisation is enabling students to achieve the most from their business school experience. Online and hybrid learning • 80% of business school leaders said their institution offers online courses and degrees, while 18% say they do not currently offer any online learning. • 38% strongly agree that offering online courses and degrees will be the norm in the next five years. • 86% of leaders’ schools are offering a combination of in-person instruction and online instruction (some in-person and some online). Micro-credentials and professional lifelong learning • 50% of business school leaders say their school offers micro-credentials. • 79% say their school offers micro-credentials for standalone modules; 39% offer them for stackable modules which lead to a degree, and 32% offer them for attending events or webinars. • 25% of business school leaders would go so far as to say that micro-credentials represent the future of business education, while 6% believe micro-credentials are just a passing phase. • 35% see micro-credentials provided by companies such as LinkedIn as a threat to how their business school will operate in the next five years.
You might see a second layer, where people experiment much more with microcredentials and other forms of skills-based learning. And there might be a third layer of institutions which stop doing MBA-level programmes altogether because the technology companies that offer freebies are going to take away that stuff from them. It could be an interesting schism for the business that we’re all in.” “As a university, we don’t want or need to be all things to all men, we want to know what we are good at and how we add value for our clients. Our strength is in developing the critical thinking needed to make decisions and solve complex problems. We purchase from platforms such as LinkedIn Jacqueline Bagnall , MBA Programme Director, University of Exeter Business School learning, and provide all of our students with access to that short-course platform. This enhances the academic teaching, and allows us to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours. We very much see ourselves as skilled curators of multiple strands of learning. If I’m teaching something around leadership, and I know there’s some technical skill that a student might need, I can direct the students to YouTube or LinkedIn to find something of relevance. It seems that in a busy, digital world, people now want “just-in-time” learning because that’s the point at which it’s most absorbed and applicable. Part of my role is to be the curator that brings multiple sources of knowledge together, and to help executives put meaning around it. I think that’s where we’re adding the value: asking questions, using critical thinking tools and
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that’s not to say that we won’t have different levels of service or provision for different audiences.” David Kalisz , Dean of Expert Programmes, Paris School of Business “We’re not planning to change the programme completely to make it online, but we are thinking about developing a parallel programme that, in some form, would be a hybrid programme; a part of it would be in online mode and a part of it would be face to face. We see this change in education and there is no turning back to 2019; some modes of education will stay with us for a longer time. Some skills could be acquired online. It’s doable at a much lower cost, but obviously there are some competencies that cannot be done through the internet.” Donald Lancaster , MBA Director, University of Bath School of Management “We have a brand-new School of Management building on campus, and I am creating a metaverse version of that building. We will use this metaverse building for conferences, open days and for recruitment, but we don’t see it as a replacement for in-person learning. Although we will keep an open mind, we are not planning on doing any teaching in the metaverse.” Julio Villalobos , Director, EMEA CXO Strategic Industry Advisor for Education, Salesforce.org “As an industry, we have moved from being almost 100% on a physical campus before Covid-19, to suddenly having to move to a 100% online mode. Now we are evolving and shifting towards a hybrid model. Each institution is developing this “hybrid concept” with a unique approach. However, what we all agreed on is the concept that we all have to provide a seamless student experience throughout the entire student journey and lifelong learning path. In this hybrid ecosystem, technology will be a key enabler to generate this experience.”
creating debate and discussion. It is a case of knowing where you fit in the picture, that’s the key.” Dan Pearson , Director of Academic Services, Warwick Business School “One thing we decided on a number of years ago is that any MBA alumni can come back and undertake two MBA modules with us. This enables us to provide them with an opportunity to continue learning and applying their knowledge back into the workplace, expand their networks with our current MBAs, and exposes them to further opportunities for learning in our suite of post-experience programmes.” Part Three: Will more schools be investing in virtual campuses in the coming five years? Jenny Britton , Head of Executive Development, University of Edinburgh Business School “I’m going to be a bit provocative, but if we fast-forward a decade, will we have the luxury of being able to afford to be in-person all the time, particularly for short courses? In the context of national and institutional commitments to reduce carbon emissions, we might have to accept the need to concentrate more of our in-person efforts on local audiences, and make the most of technology and partnerships to help us achieve our global reach. It will depend on what the world looks like, and I think it’s very easy to plan for the world that we have now, but I wonder if, as a sector, we need to be thinking about what is the world going to look like in 2050; what’s our role in that and work back from there? We have a lot of virtual presence but we don’t have plans to create a separate virtual campus at the moment. We don’t make a distinction in terms of who is physically present on campus, and who is not, I think partly for reasons of networking, and building a unified sense of community, but
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