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Category: course design

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Five fundamentals of experiential learning

Experiential learning teaches MBAs how to continue acquiring new skills and knowledge throughout their careers, writes Stuart Robinson

To succeed in a world of rapid and turbulent change, MBA graduates need to have learned how to learn.  In Business School classrooms, we present knowledge in packaged, and hopefully accessible, forms as part of a structured learning product; the MBA. On graduation, when students proceed to corporate, public sector or startup life, that structure of institutionally based education is largely lost.

The MBA graduate who wants to remain relevant in the workplace must find a way of continually learning and cannot rely on thoughtfully built slide packs, well-organised seminar discussions and integrated assessments. Experiential learning on an MBA programme has a big part to play.

In the 1980s, David Kolb described experiential learning as a process that brings education and personal development together with workplace experience. He expressed this as a cycle of experience, observation and reflection. Effective learners and managers may fulfil this process naturally as a part of their daily practice. However, others may need help to recognise the value of the interplay between different activities in the cycle, or to ensure they cover it all.    

A key question for MBA programme designers is how they can structure experiential learning not only for the benefit of students’ immediate learning but also as a way of teaching them how to learn continually, building a skill that will serve them throughout their future careers. I believe there are five fundamental aspects that are key to successfully planning and delivering experiential learning in MBA-level education. 

1. Authenticity

Any experiential learning must be real and relevant to MBA students and the challenges they face both during the programme and afterwards. This is part of the student’s process of learning to recognise significant learning opportunities in the future.  We often seem to look back on our past experiences and recognise them as important learning milestones. Part of learning how to learn is getting to this recognition earlier, ideally as the experience is happening. In the slightly artificial environment of an MBA it is easy, but often overlooked, for a tutor to point out to students that they are in the midst of an important learning experience.

2. Integration throughout an MBA programme

Experiential learning events should be used to build a student’s ability to learn by complementing other sessions and modules, to encourage them to reflect repeatedly on the results of action and the development of appropriate responses. Careful integration can provide multiple and developing cycles of experience, reflection and experimentation. 

Experiential learning focused on leadership, for example, can be set up as part of the overall pedagogical approach to core leadership topics in the curriculum. In planning the MBA programme at the University of Exeter Business School, we put in milestone events throughout the academic year where students come together around a specific challenge. 

Examples include learning to work in teams on a full-day outdoor exercise, co-operating with others on innovative designs and a corporate challenge where students work together under time pressure to address a problem posed by a large organisation. Each event is integrated with the year-long leadership module. 

Students’ individual achievements in these challenges are used as a basis for their personal learning about leadership. Surveys, questionnaires, videos, and photographs from the events provide the raw material for reflection and modification of approaches at an individual level.

3. Ensuring all students can take part

Experiential learning needs to be accessible and flexible enough to accommodate the learning needs of different MBA students. In some cases, experiential learning can be physically challenging or demanding as it takes students out of their comfort zones. This risks isolating those who will not or cannot take part. The design of learning must therefore take the varying needs and abilities of the whole cohort of students into account.

When we took a group of students on our first leadership expedition last year, the need for accessibility was very clear. We asked them to spend a week trekking across a high plateau in Norway with heavy packs, dried food and in weather conditions that were, at times, very challenging. Students came along with different levels of fitness and aptitude for the personal discomforts that come with a week in the wilderness. Although all ended well in our case, it was clear that personal physical capability should not be a barrier to gaining the educational value that an experience like this offers. Our plan for the future is to offer different ways of tackling the expedition; for example, using huts as an alternative to tents or adapting the targets for distance to be covered. These steps will broaden accessibility without affecting the opportunities for personal development that the experience brings.

4. Effective measurement

Experiential learning should be designed so the overall impact on the student and the performance of individual students can be analysed. Without effective measurement and reflection, experiential learning can sometimes be viewed as a gimmick or a bit of fun, and not a true part of the overall educational process. 

Incorporating elements of reflective work into different modules and other learning activities across the MBA helps both students and staff to measure progress. This must be seen to be valuable by the student, however. Asking for deep and thoughtful reflection on different aspects of improvement (‘what would you do differently?’) and not simply a description of what happened is very important. For example, we ask students to describe themselves and their goals at the outset of the programme and then to reflect on the experience at the end, setting out specific next steps that they intend to follow.

Extending this from the individual to the wider group is also helpful. Much MBA work is group based, with the key aim of teaching students not only how to deal with the task at hand but also to practise the skills and behaviours needed to work and interact with others. This has much experiential value but can be overlooked when measuring results. Peer assessment can play a role, but is sometimes a blunt-edged tool if there is conflict in groups. If there is time, a more structured approach, using surveys to capture students’ thoughts and feelings at planned points in a group exercise, can provide a useful basis for productive group-based reflection and action planning.

5. Memorability 

Finally, effective experiential learning needs to be highly memorable. The learning experiences we create for students during an MBA should be remembered long after graduation. Memory of specific MBA experiences can form the basis of templates for action in the future. Students will recall some experiences more than others, reflecting their individual interests and the achievements they value. Building a rope bridge across a river, leading a team through a snowy wilderness, overcoming their own nerves to make a successful client presentation are all examples of the type of experience we try to create during our MBA. These form the basis of the good stories we want our alumni to tell, cementing their learning from the MBA and, in the end, enthusing others to embark upon it.

Effective experiential learning not only helps students to learn, it can bring renewed vigour and energy to an MBA programme, helping to build its reputation and that of the wider Business School.

Experiential learning at the University of Exeter Business School

Experiential learning runs across the Exeter MBA’s 12-month curriculum, developing from abstract through to real experiences and from a group focus to an individual one.

For example, in the first week, students are asked to work in teams to deliver a group result. This is not a classroom exercise – we ask them to build a bridge across a local river. Sometimes they get wet.

Afterwards, we ask them to reflect on the experience and integrate this with our more academic leadership module. The experience of working in a new and diverse team, the subsequent reflection, and the opportunities this gives us for the building of teams in term one of the MBA, helps establish an approach to effective teamwork with the students. This culminates in a term-two exercise in which students are asked to work in their now-established teams to prepare and deliver a proposal to a client. We work with large organisations (Unilever and Ikea are recent examples) which bring a problem to the class. 

Students have a week to integrate their knowledge from the core MBA programme into a reasoned response and proposal. On the final day, they present their ideas to the organisation’s managers who are facing the problem in the real world. This simulates an authentic consultancy exercise calling for analytical rigour, creativity and persuasion skills.

The experience of this challenge is then taken forward into an individual consultancy exercise that the student carries out with a client. Building on skills they have developed or that have been pointed out to them through peer feedback, they must figure out and agree a project brief that will deliver client value when carried out. This is then implemented in the client’s organisation, forcing the student to overcome barriers, be creative, talk to and work with a range of professionals. The project is a memorable and authentic experience which rounds off the student’s MBA journey.

Stuart Robinson is MBA Director, University of Exeter Business School.

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Should MBA degrees come with an expiry date?

Business Schools must adopt alternative business models and embrace technology, or risk becoming a casualty of the paradigmatic changes in business, argues Professor Bodo Schlegelmilch in a call for action

When AMBA accredits an MBA programme, it does so for a maximum of five years, because in five years, a lot can change. A Business School has to apply for re-accreditation and demonstrate that the content of its programme(s), its teaching methods and quality standards remain current and up to date.

When Business Schools award degrees, they do this for life – but is there a genuinely good reason for doing so?

What MBAs learned five, 10 or 15 years ago is certainly not current, often irrelevant and sometimes even wrong. Business Schools need to change their business model. For example, in sync with the sharing economy, future Business Schools could move from ownership to renting. Under this,  Schools would not award their MBA degrees forever (the ownership model), but would grant the degree for a limited number of years (subscription model). 

Unless MBA graduates demonstrated a commitment to continuous professional development, their degrees would expire. 

However, degrees for rent are not the only potential change in store for Business Schools. There are a number of developments that suggest the end of ‘business as usual’. 

I want to focus on four change catalysts: 

  • New paradigms of success 
  • The growing influence of Asia 
  • An unprecedented speed of technological development  
  • An increasing demand for sustainability.

New paradigms of success

Traditional Business Schools rely on their full-time professors for teaching. These professors  spend most of their time on research and are often also tasked with administrative duties. According to Kai Peters, Richard Smith and Howard Thomas’ 2018 book Rethinking the Business Models of Business Schools, depending on the particular type of university, the seniority of the professor and the country, the time such professors spend in class is no more than 120-300 hours per year. 

This model makes teaching expensive. In 2011, Howard Thomas and I wrote a paper for the Journal of Management Development entitled ‘The MBA in 2020: Will there still be one?’ and reported that, for all but the top 13,000 institutions that offer business degrees worldwide, this teaching model is probably unsustainable. With some MBA and executive MBA (EMBA) fees now well in excess of €100,000, this also raises serious questions of social equity and fairness. 

Most Business Schools are therefore looking for ways  to reduce teaching costs, and various options exist. Most Schools employ clinical or practice-based faculty (essentially lecturers free of research obligations) to bring down costs. Blended learning or flipped classrooms can further boost the bottom line, if less-costly tutors can replace expensive full time faculty. In such models, students work through a variety of tasks and teaching materials outside the class and only return to the Business School campus for a substantially reduced number of face-to-face teaching hours. 

While these cost reductions seek efficiencies within the existing Business School model, they fail to question the rationale of the model itself. This is akin to Blockbuster Video looking for cost savings when Netflix changed the rules of the game. We  all know what happened to Blockbuster: it  went bust. 

The real competition for many Business Schools comes from drastically different business models. First, there are the so-called massive open online courses (MOOCs) aimed at open access via the internet. These courses bring a new competitive dynamic to Business Schools. Some large, financially well-off universities produce their own MOOCS, while the majority scramble to partner with a heterogeneous group of providers. 

Other eLearning platforms work independent of traditional Business Schools. MOOCs have shifted the competition from being  between Business Schools to between networks. These networks include a range of companies that team up to design and distribute educational content. 

To add another level of complexity to the competitive landscape, international consulting companies are expanding their digital learning offerings. While these companies do not (yet) have the right to grant degrees and typically offer a certificate on completion of their courses, it is ultimately arguable whether a certificate from a prestigious consulting company such as McKinsey or PwC or a degree from a relatively unknown university has more currency. In addition, some MBAs offered by traditional Business Schools are already giving credits for a variety of MOOC certificates.   

Finally, corporate universities and system integrators are encroaching on the traditional Business School market. Some corporations, such as Sberbank Corporate University in Russia, have built large and highly impressive campuses, where they not only train their own employees but also those of selected partner companies. 

Sberbank Corporate University has teamed up with INSEAD and London Business School (strong brands obviously still count) and makes use of learning material from Khan Academy. Sberbank and other non-conventional Business Schools use a fly-in faculty model, which saves them having expensive full-time professors on their books. Students at such institutions may well be taught by excellent professors with up-to-date research records; but other Business Schools pay for the research time of these professors.

Thus, traditional Business Schools face a myriad of competitive challenges. There are new, mostly technology-driven market entries; increasing competition from outside the industry by consultants, publishers and IT companies; increasingly competitive corporate universities, and there are Business Schools that are system integrators with minimal overheads and no research expenditures. 

All of this suggests that the time for ‘business as usual’ is over. A few cosmetic changes to the existing business model will not be enough to secure survival. In particular, Business Schools that are not among the top aspirational brands will need to adopt alternative business models or risk becoming a casualty of the paradigmatic changes in the business environment.

Growing influence of Asia

A brief look at the history of Business Schools, and the development of MBAs in particular, helps us to appreciate the startling emergence of Asian MBA programmes in recent years. 

Business Schools were initially founded in Europe, but quickly became a hallmark of the US.  According to a 2004 article in Accounting History by academics Lúcia Lima Rodrigues, Delfina Gomes, and Russell Craig, Aula do Comércio (School of Commerce) in Lisbon, Portugal, is believed to be the world’s first government-sponsored School to specialise in the teaching of commerce, including accounting. It was established in 1759 and closed in 1844. 

Meanwhile, ESCP Paris, founded in 1819 in France, regards itself as the world’s oldest fully fledged Business School. More than 60 years later, in 1881, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was established in the US (according to its website as ‘the world’s first collegiate school of business’).

Next, in 1900, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College was established as the first graduate school of management in the US. Tuck is noteworthy because it conferred the first advanced degree in business – a master of commercial science. This is widely regarded as the predecessor of the MBA.

In 1908, the first MBA programme was established by the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and in 1943, the first EMBA was established at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. At this time, only US universities offered MBAs and it took until 1948 for MBAs to become popular at Business Schools elsewhere. 

The first MBA programme outside the US was offered by the Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada. One year later, this was followed by the University of Pretoria in South Africa. In 1957, INSEAD in France became the first European Business School to offer an MBA. During the following decade, a burst of new Business Schools and MBA programmes took place, including the founding of renowned institutions in the UK such as London Business School (in 1964)  and Manchester Business School and (in 1965). Unfortunately, the market was also entered by some less-sound competitors. To provide quality guidance to potential Business School students, AMBA was founded in 1967.

The first MBA degree in Asia can be traced back to 1955. The Institute of Business Administration at the University of Karachi, Pakistan, offered the MBA with technical support from Wharton and, later the University of Southern California. In 1963, Korea University established the Graduate School of Business Administration and recruited the first MBA students. In China, the MBA has a short history: the first nine MBA programmes were launched in 1991; today, there are more than 230 MBA programmes in the country.

Despite the late adoption of MBAs in Asia, the 2018 Financial Times full-time global MBA ranking included 15 Asian MBAs in the top 100; seven of them from China. In its 2018 EMBA Ranking, 28 Asian EMBAs are among the top 100, all of the top eight involving Business Schools from China.

A decade ago, the Financial Times ranked only four Asian MBAs among the top 100 in its full-time global MBA ranking, and only nine in its EMBA ranking. Sceptical readers who point to the widely criticised reliance on financial criteria in the Financial Times rankings may, instead, look to accreditation: AMBA now accredits more than 50 Business Schools with MBA programmes in Asia, 35 in China alone. This provides further evidence of the importance of Asia’s Business Schools gained in just over two decades.

The phenomenal rise of MBA programmes in Asia reflects the region’s transformation into a hive of global business. As Pavida Pananond, Associate Professor of Thammasat University in Bangkok, aptly commented in February 2018, in an article in the Bankok Post: ‘If you are sitting in London or Boston, you might not really feel the action as much as if you were sitting in Shanghai, to see how business is growing in China. So one of the first advantages of these Asian Schools is that you are located where the action is.’  

In 2017, China surpassed the UK and Germany for the first time in terms of the number of citations of international science papers (according to China Daily in 2017). In summary, the evidence suggests the dominance of US and European Business Schools is reducing and the emergence of top Asian Business Schools as formidable competitors has become yet another indicator of the end of business as usual.

Speed of technological change

The impact of MOOCs on traditional Business Schools only scratches the surface of a vast range of developments that will revolutionise the way students learn and Business Schools teach in the future. 

Already, students want to learn where, when and how best fits their individual needs; for example, watching a video while on board a plane at 5am in the morning. They also want learning to be a stimulating and enjoyable experience. Commuting to a Business School located in a city, finding a parking space, and listening to a traditional lecture hardly fits this picture. 

Just imagine the potential of using Microsoft’s HoloLens for teaching. Students could learn about consumer behaviour in emerging markets by immersing themselves in a souk in Marrakesh or a bazaar in Kolkata. On an operations management course, students could embark on a virtual tour through the shop floor of a robotics manufacturer. The technology could be used to make them feel that they were really there, without ever leaving their living room. 

The technology (such as Microsoft HoloLens) already exists and the applications are only limited by our imagination. 

Meanwhile, augmented reality holographic technology is also set to change our teaching approach. Instead of flying expensive faculty around the world, they could be beamed into a classroom via holographic telepresence and give lectures or deliver entire courses in different continents. 

During AMBA’s 2018 Global Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, a live two-way discussion took place between the audience and the digital human hologram of the CEO of ARHT Media, Larry O’Reilly, who was thousands of miles away in Toronto, Canada. Delegates had the impression that O’Reilly was actually in Stockholm. The entire discussion could be stored for playback on-demand. In fact, according to ARHT Media, the hologram can also be ‘captured, transmitted and displayed directly to multiple stages simultaneously with complete live two-way interactivity’. This challenges the age-old wisdom that one cannot be in two places at the same time.

While these technological advances are impressive, they are not the only ones. Other innovations, such as adaptive learning and artificial intelligence (AI), are already emerging. Collectively, these rapid technological changes indicate the end of ‘business as usual’. Traditional Business Schools will not be able to survive without embracing fundamental changes in technology. 

Demand for sustainability

The increasing demand for sustainability will have a profound influence on Business Schools. But what does demand for sustainability mean and where does it come from? 

At a rudimentary level, according to the UN, sustainability refers to our concern that human activities should meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. At a more detailed level, sustainability calls for the balancing of three fundamental dimensions: environmental protection, societal progress and economic growth. While Business School teaching has traditionally focused on economic growth – the profit part of the three sustainability dimensions – the other two dimensions, often labelled as ‘people and planet’, are increasingly gaining centre stage. 

However, most case discussions and lectures do not even question the primacy of profit as an outcome variable of corporate value creation. Typically, Business School teaching centres around how various elements of the value chain can be optimised to increase profits. Students debate how employees can become more profit-orientated. They research how the supply chain can be optimised to increase profits. Professors teach how customer touch points should be designed to increase profits. And classes debate the most profitable pricing strategy. 

Even when corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability issues are addressed, they are usually also cast into a model that focuses on profit outcomes. For example, we may investigate how our CSR measures impact on profits. Likewise, we debate whether support of local causes is more profitable than support of international causes; and we examine whether supporting a children’s charity has a higher profit impact than supporting a local art gallery.

Non-financial outcomes

While these and similar questions are undoubtedly important for both teaching and research in Business Schools, it is the virtually exclusive focus on profit as outcome that is the problem. What about non-financial outcomes, such as customer safety, reduction of waste or health of employees? What about organisations that have other purposes, such as social enterprises or ‘B-corporations’ which balance purpose and profit?  

In a paper I wrote with Magdalena Öberseder and Patrick Murphy in 2013 for the Journal of Business Research entitled ‘CSR Practices and Consumer Perceptions’, we concluded that MBA students – in their roles as consumers, employees, employers and entrepreneurs – are increasingly concerned about a multitude of sustainability issues, such as food quality, their own biological footprint and working conditions. Legislators also focus increasingly on issues such as environmental degradation or recycling. And corporations themselves are not only reacting to shifting consumer demands and legal requirements, but explore sustainability issues such as recycling and energy conservation. 

Business Schools cannot ignore these value changes. Instead, the increasing demand for sustainability needs to translate into a widening curriculum for Business Schools, in which much more debate on the purpose of the enterprise will have to take place. 

Current faculty is ill-equipped to tackle such fundamental debates. Typically, faculty has a strong grounding in particular subject areas, such as finance, operations or statistics. This is necessary but not sufficient. Faculty needs to adopt more holistic viewpoints. Perhaps Business Schools of the future, in whatever shape or form they may still exist, will employ philosophers to lead discussions on the purpose of business.

The futures of Business Schools 

Are the developments discussed above hailing the end of Business Schools and, hence, the end of MBAs? It depends which future trajectory a Business School will choose.

If a Business School opts to continue with business as usual, it will soon encounter a substantial drop in its MBA enrolment. A knee-jerk boost in advertising spend, increase in scholarships, and reduction in teaching costs by bringing less-qualified instructors into MBA classrooms, will be insufficient.

Such measures are unlikely to stop the downward spiral of fewer qualified students, lower income and a restricted ability to make necessary investments. 

Instead, Business Schools need to go beyond cosmetic adjustments and consider fundamental changes to their business models. This starts with a realistic assessment of their resources and capabilities. Few Schools have massive endowments, strong brands or the unquestioning support of taxpayers, enabling them to run a costly, campus-centric system. 

These Schools will be able to continue attracting MBA students into classrooms where they can interact with expensive faculty. While we are living in a hyper-connected world, this is often accompanied by social isolation. To this end, personal networking with influential peers and alumni will continue to play a key role at these Schools. And having an MBA from XYZ (please insert a top-brand Business School of your choice) is as much a rite of passage en route to a desirable corporate career as it is an opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills. 

Less fortunate Business Schools – the majority – will have to think carefully about their resources, capabilities and, in particular, purpose. Before they settle on a business model, Schools need to gain clarity on a host of soul-searching questions: what constitutes success, both for the Business Schools and for the MBA programme? (See box, left). 

Of course, any Business School dean will easily be able to add another few dozen pertinent questions. Coming up with truthful answers that guide future strategies is more challenging.

Many deans appear to be in a state of denial, hoping that the Business School world, and with it the MBA programmes, will somehow be unaffected by the paradigmatic changes occurring in our environment. And if fundamental changes are required, the hope is that they can be tackled by the next dean.

The uncomfortable truth is that this may already be too late for many MBA programmes and, indeed, many Business Schools.

This article, therefore, is a call to action. Its objective is to encourage Business Schools to embrace the environmental turbulences we are experiencing. Not every change is a threat. Changes can also open up opportunities, but taking advantage of changes requires the courage to chart new routes. And these routes may be very different for Business Schools with varying resources, capabilities and purposes. 

Not all Business Schools will be able to serve their students in comfortable campuses with full-time faculty who spend the majority of their time on research. Some will use blended systems, both in terms of mixing teaching by practitioners and traditional academics, and in terms of programme delivery, using online and offline modes of instructions. Some will try to work with a modicum of their own faculty and become systems integrators. Some may not offer traditional degrees any longer but certify short, focused interventions, which keep managers abreast of new developments. 

There may be Business Schools that work on a subscription basis, offering MBA graduates the opportunity for continuous professional development as they advance and make changes throughout their career paths. And even after the active career of a manager comes to an end, a Business School may reach out to older learners and offer them attractive reasons to keep engaged with the School. 

A one-time intervention which finishes with the award of an MBA degree would give way to a lifelong relationship which starts with an MBA degree. Of course, this brings us back to the beginning of the article: degrees for rent. 

Arguably, MBA degrees with expiry dates that require proof of continuous professional development to keep the degree valid do have some merit.  

Professor Bodo Schlegelmilch is Chair of AMBA & BGA’s Board. He was the Founding Dean of WU Executive Academy at Vienna University of Economics and Business from 2004 until 2015 and remains Professor of International Management and Marketing at the School. 

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Exploring Business Schools’ challenges in Latin America

Latin America, Argentina, Buenos Aires downtown with traffic cars at night around the Obelisco.

We share insights from leading Business School professors who attended AMBA’s 2018 Latin America Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, about their Schools’ current strategies, challenges and opportunities. Interviews by Jack Villanueva

Alejandra Falco, Strategic Management Professor, Universidad del CEMA

What challenges do teachers, instructors and professors face when using online technologies in their courses?

The main challenge is to understand that teaching online is not the same thing as teaching face to face. You have to think about the course and your class in a different way. When you teach face to face, you are between the student and the materials so you can see what’s going on in the class, you can see the reactions of the students to what you are saying and the material you are using. This does not happen in the online environment so you can’t make decisions on the spot. 

Schools need to help instructors understand that [online learning] is different [to classroom learning] and make sure that they don’t reproduce what they do face to face in an online environment. It needs a transformation. 

In terms of the online MBA and studying from distance, do you think the experience, learning and the outcome for these students is the same as for those who learn face to face?

It’s an interesting question because the challenge we face in an online environment is to foster learner-to-learner interaction. It is easy to interact between instructor and learner, but the challenge is the learner-to-learner interaction. 

There is something that happens naturally in a face to face environment, so if we can manage this interaction adequately and develop tools to allow the students to interact among themselves, the online option will be richer than the face-to-face option. If we can have the same attributes in an online environment, we add much more flexibility for the student to choose when and how and where he or she wants to study.

Ignacio Alperín, Professor of Creativity and Innovation, Pontificia Universidad Católica

How is business thinking changing around creativity?

Creativity is a process that involves more than one person, it is never an individual idea; it is a communal kind of work. Creativity is the step prior to innovation. Creativity is putting together the correct ideas, innovation is putting together the correct product or service and making it happen in real life. 

Every company expects their graduate or postgraduate students to be open to the idea of being creative, working in a different way, of accepting different manners of work ethics that are not traditional. This not only involves those who come in to work for a company, it has a lot to do with leadership as well. 

Perhaps there is an issue with expectations versus what actually happens in companies. There are too many bosses and too few leaders. There are a lot of people who tell you what to do but very few people who inspire others to do things. In that regard, creative leadership is also a major subject and companies are slowly coming around to the idea that they need to change their leadership style.

Do you think Business Schools are sufficiently inspiring to instil creativity in their students?

When we’re children, we’re extremely creative and we don’t have limits. We like to explore and ask about everything. In Schools as it stands, the creative spirit is squashed by a system that requires students to be right or wrong. 

Creativity is a gift and should be developed like any other talent. We have all been provided with the talent of creativity but when people get to university or Master’s level, they have been kept so far away from their creative juices and, in many cases, it is very difficult to bring them back in touch with themselves and give them inner strength because creativity is a strength. 

We are completely and constantly improvising our lives. Companies, for a long time, tended to squash this, but today, organisations realise that they need to be open and think laterally. If the education system can change enough, many of the problems we face today will be gone because people will come up line already living their creative ability throughout their careers.

In your role, are you trying to unlock existing creativity or teach the creativity?

It’s a bit of both. When I find a master’s class with 30 students, most of them are professional people. They think they know everything and have already made it, and in some respects they are right. 

They will be future leaders, but it’s sometimes difficult to tell them: ‘I am teaching you and I don’t know everything; perhaps you should relax a bit and question yourself about the facts you thought were correct.’ 

By unlocking that vault they will find another Pandora’s Box of issues and problems, but if they learn how to handle them, they may find a way to make their work more effective, their company profitable, their life more exciting and more enjoyable; they may go home and feel like having fun with family instead of taking their troubles with them and feeling miserable when they’re not at work. 

Part of my job is unlocking those talents, it has to do a lot with people’s fear of being wrong in front of other people. After that, we teach processes, ideas and concepts that can help students unleash creativity in themselves and the people with whom they work.

Is it the Business School’s responsibility to lead students towards an uncertain path?

Many students believe the world is divided into creative and non-creative people. We try to erase all this and explain we are all creative – different types of creative but all creative. 

Sebastián Auguste, Director Executive MBA, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella

What are your views on the current global MBA market?

The MBA is the most popular programme within the Business School: about 79% of the applications we receive are for the MBA programme. Demand is growing in Asia, Europe and the US, and it’s increasing in Latin America. The full-time MBA is declining and numbers are increasing in executive and part-time MBA programmes. There is also strong demand for some Master’s degrees such as business analytics. 

How is the EMBA faring?

The EMBA is small but it’s growing in many regions. Many students finish at university graduate level and decide to do a speciality such as a masters in analytics or finance, and then they go for the MBA later when they’re older. Young people are trying to gain more technical abilities; older people are trying to gain more general skills.

How popular is the online MBA?

The numbers show that the online MBA is growing. I previously expected the number to grow, but the increase isn’t as great as I expected. There has been a strong increase in the blended format, even in EMBA programmes. Online is coming very strongly but I don’t see the online MBA replacing the experience of the EMBA or the part-time MBA. You have to learn and you have to be there to learn. It’s quite difficult to learn online.

What’s the effect of specialist programmes on the MBA and on
Business Schools?

Specialist programmes are going to relegate the [generalist] MBA. There is going to be a fall in demand from young people wanting to do an MBA, but an increase in older people wanting to do one. 

In Latin America, you have very technical and specialised degrees so there is less demand for special programmes. Many universities are moving in this direction of having more general graduate-level study, so you’ll need more specialisation later on.

Carla Adriana Arruda Vasseur, Associate Dean, FDC – Fundação Dom Cabra

Why do you think Business Schools should have a role in social development? 

We are the ones who are transforming the leaders of our society. We are working with business managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, company owners, and people who really run the economy of the country. If we don’t have this kind of focus, we will continue to live in a country with a lot of inequalities so it needs to start with us.

How can Business Schools leverage an impact on society? 

All Business Schools have some sort of social impact and development in their value prepositions. Talking is one thing, leading by example is another. We need to provoke students to think differently and to do differently. We need to provoke them to really make a change. And it won’t be just about talking and showing them our mission. It has to be in every single class we give, in the projects that we send them on, it has to be included in all our initiatives.

How can Business Schools help students have a more impactful role in the world of tomorrow?

If you look at Business Schools, most of their students are from the upper portion of the social pyramid and we need to show them how they can really make a difference – in every single class and in every single project. 

A lot of our students come to us because they want management tools. They want to increase profit in their corporations, they want to better themselves in their careers. And, from day one, they realise we’re concerned about economic development but we’re also very concerned about social development. 

Do you work with other Schools to push this idea forward?

We have a partner we’ve been working with on modules and we’re putting an emphasis on that. But I think we can do more. I’ve been talking a lot about that [during this conference] with partners. We need stop considering ourselves as competitors [with other Business Schools] and consider ourselves as ‘co-petitors’ and cooperate more with each other.

Is it a case of starting locally or looking at the bigger picture and effecting change at the top?

Begin with what’s feasible and build up. 

We’re starting to shape the leaders of tomorrow. We’re starting with the students of today to [help them] have a deeper understanding of social development and a deeper understating that there are larger problems in the world. But is there an issue with the bigger businesses themselves not recognising it or not recognising it fast enough and therefore the student not having an outlet for what they want to do?

A lot of the boards require their corporations to think about the social side. Some suppliers refuse to supply to organisations that don’t care about these issues and clients are not buying from them. 

We, as professors of business corporations, need to set the example. 

Michel Hermans, Professor of Human Behaviour and Human Resources, IAE Business School – Universidad Austral

How can Business Schools help students develop skills beyond the analytical tools in the curriculum through action learning?

It’s not only about teaching rational decision making. It’s about helping students anticipate risks and [influence] people who are especially relevant in certain contexts. That’s what we do and this is the added value we consider action learning has. This reflection part is a very important role faculty have. 

One thing is to think about is how to evaluate a company in turbulence. Another is to think how a company can actually use what it has – its resources – to transform its strategy for much broader markets. Think about internationalisation and the acquisition of companies in emerging markets, and then present this analysis to senior managers. 

Can students themselves better prepare for their careers through action learning?

It depends on the student themselves. 

Especially in the Latin American job market, recruiters are looking for ‘plug-and-play’ students so when they roll out of their programme they want students who need little time to be fully functional within the context of their companies. 

If they are able to find students who are proactive, and have used this productivity to actually do something within the context of their programme and learn something from that, it’s highly valued. 

How important is action learning in fast-tracking understanding around the need for adaptability and evolution within businesses? It’s like moving house. If you don’t lay foundations in the MBA programme (which would be knowledge and analytical skills) it’s hard to start thinking about action learning in the first place. 

You have to lay a solid foundation in the first part of the programme and then build on this with follow-up courses. That gives us, as faculty, the confidence that teams are able to benefit from action leaning. We launch most of our projects towards the end of the programme because that’s when students take advantage of the projects they are being offered that they themselves propose. 

We’ve seen many students use their action learning projects to move into new career tracks or to find a different job in companies with whom they collaborated for their action learning projects. 

If you do a full-time MBA programme and you are away from the job market for a full year, gaining contact with the job market again – with employers and organisational life – is fundamental to a follow-up career. 

Juan Pablo Manzuoli, Strategic Marketing Professor and Director of MBA, UCA Business School

What do you consider to be the main disruptive trends students are facing?  

I have highlighted deep trends that are not often evident. For example, millennials want the earth, but they don’t have special powers. Loneliness is another powerful trend, as is self-exploration.

What’s next for the MBA? 

We have to have a convergence between the needs of people and technology and make an improvement. Make things better. We need to adapt and be flexible in how we think and in our business models. This generation is teaching us how to make improvements in different ways not only with the technology, but with emotions. 

Luciana Pagani, Professor of Strategy and Competitiveness, Saint Andrews University

How is the digital age transforming the MBA experience?

Changing behaviours in individuals as learners, and technology, are providing opportunities to deliver a different experience [to students], enabling people to access courses no matter where they are. 

What challenges is the digital age presenting to the way Business Schools teach?

The digital age is creating a new world of opportunities for businesses, while also causing a lot of pressure and setting very different type of challenges. Businesses need to change the way they lead. 

Technologies have to be implemented and customer experiences are transforming, so at the company level, transformation is amazing but very challenging. 

Business Schools have to rethink their value proposition massively. They must consider how they are going to offer something of vital importance to their students to enable them to learn and access the best faculties all over the world, offering a unique experience that blends the best from the physical world and the digital world. 

It’s an enormous strategic and operational challenge for universities.

Schools are transforming in terms of content, so all the strategies and management content required to lead in the digital area is being added to traditional content. They are also adding a broader spectrum of elective courses to meet the specific needs of students. 

They are forming partnerships with industries, with other universities worldwide and with governments.  

They are also transforming their infrastructures in order to provide space for innovation, creativity, and experimentation and they are working across platforms to collaborate, and to enhance their value proposition, with the best faculty, the best universities and the best companies as partners.

Do you think Business Schools rising to the challenges sufficiently quickly, given the current economy? 

The challenge of the fourth industrial revolution is too aggressive for everyone. Universities are moving forward, but it would be nicer if they could move faster. However, it’s not easy. 

I hope the pace will increase and we will have more and more examples of convergence to the new value proposition in the near future.

Melani Machinea, Professor and Business Development Director, UTDT Business School

Tell us about the development of your specialised master’s degree?

A few years ago, we realised we didn’t have an offering for recent graduates who wanted to pursue a career in business. Either they had to do a Master’s in finance or they had to wait five or six years before they could do an MBA. At the same time, we discovered a need for very specific skills, so we designed a Master’s in management which merges the two sides of the story: business for those who come here from a science background and, for those with a business background the skill set they need for the new corporate world. 

We looked at the world. In Europe, there were a lot masters in management programmes which were launched by Business Schools, in addition to their MBAs which are still their flagship programme. In the US, we have seen the emergence of master’s in business analytics programmes. We decided we would have a competitive advantage if we could offer both management and analytics in the same programme.

The first challenge was the type of students we wanted to sign up. We decided early on that we wanted recent graduates or people with little analytical experience who could learn about areas such as  programming and coding through the courses that we were going to teach. When we launched, we realised that there were a lot of men in mid-to-higher management, people with 10-15 years of experience, who said they were lacking this expertise and wanted to do the degree. We had to make a decision at this point and we decided to stick to our initial plan of targeting younger professionals, while just offering short courses for more mature professionals. 

Do you think the MBA is evolving fast enough or do you think there is so much more that could be done?

I think the MBA is still a flagship programme in Business Schools, and the challenge is to maintain and update it to make it relevant. Our hope is that our students from the Master’s in management and other programmes will come back in five or six years to do their MBAs when they realise they need other skills related to management and strategic leadership.

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Creating responsible citizens to lead organisations to sustainable success

Preparing MBAs to lead sustainable economic growth is the core task of Business Schools, argues Professor Percy Marquina, Director General, CENTRUM PUCP, the Graduate Business School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Interview by David Woods-Hale

What do you think differentiates the MBA at CENTRUM PUCP?

When students search for a Business School at which to study their MBA, they look for prestige, a high-quality academic programme and networks. At CENTRUM PUCP, we possess and offer these elements to students. But we offer more than that.

We prepare our students for the future by creating responsible and socially committed leaders, who think, decide, and act based on principles. We believe in an holistic form of education that enables students to assimilate the knowledge they require to lead companies based on the experiences they have shared in our classrooms and in their lives. 

Our programme also provides students with the human skills demanded by companies, such as time management, task prioritisation, complex problem solving, the ability to train others and to build sustainable networks.

With reference to Latin America in particular, why is it still vital to develop world-class business education? 

Globalisation and interconnectedness are growing at an exponential rate; every day it becomes evermore important to understand that our actions have far-reaching impacts. As technology advances, it will become easier to reach new audiences, but it will be more important for professionals to acknowledge that competition is no longer local, but international as well.

What innovative teaching methods have you come across that are used to create the leaders of tomorrow?

Emerging, disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and machine learning are changing teaching methods in Business Schools and can help us to adapt teaching to each student’s learning needs. For example, at CENTRUM PUCP, we use IBM Watson Personality Insights analytics to understand and predict the personality characteristics of our students. Using these results, we take a more humanistic approach to our MBA programme.

How important is sustainability, and in what ways have Schools adapted this into their programmes? What does sustainable leadership looks like?

Sustainability is crucial nowadays and we try to instil this in our students. By sustainability, we mean that professionals should meet society’s needs, preserve humanity, increase opportunities for others and make their organisations’ marketing, finance and human resources departments sustainable. We guide students to take decisions that put society’s needs ahead of profits. 

What are the biggest challenges facing global Business Schools today?

The biggest challenge for Business Schools is helping to create responsible citizens. We must be able to develop competent professionals while guiding students through a process of social sensibility. And we must also be competitive. 

When facing global competition, we find that every School that has been able to obtain good results and trained their professional workforce is making a name for itself in the areas in which it excels. 

Gone are the days when professors used to teach traditional subjects in a static way; the time is ripe for a new model of professor who is able to inspire students’, teaching and learning from them in a constantly evolving environment that demands greater skills and vision in order to develop social innovators. 

At CENTRUM PUCP we have developed the NeuroManagement-Lab initiative, with the objective of identifying students’ main leadership competences and areas of development. Through this programme, we enhance the user experience, helping to personalise education, shaping skills and helping students to discover their strengths and work on their weaknesses.

How do you instil the thirst for global mobility and an international mindset in your students? 

Whenever I step into a classroom or I encounter a student, the message I always try to communicate is a simple one: do what makes you happy and you will lead the way. Having visited so many places, I have confirmed this theory: students overachieve when they are able to work and pursue their goals in something that makes them happy. 

If you are able to identify and understand your passions, your thirst and commitment towards your goals will increase every day and your competition will become global. 

You will innovate, search and look for solutions to questions that have never been asked before because your thirst for knowledge will push you to think more broadly. During their MBA, our students are exposed to global experiences such as international faculty, peers, global case studies, international study stages, business programmes abroad and so on.

You urge your students not to put limits on their goals – can you share some insight into how MBAs can take theory into practice? 

Through many case studies, we teach students the ways firms and managers have faced and solved unexpected problems. I advise them to stick to their principles and the message of their organisation. 

If your organisation has a distinctive characteristic or stands for something, wear it as your own personal badge of honour. 

One story that people can relate to is Apple’s. Steve Jobs, former Co-Founder and CEO of Apple, believed in innovation and in the superior quality and practicality of products. He used to say: ‘Apple products should be easy to understand. Everyone should know how to use them’.  

His team believed this, too – at a time when this was not expected – and created products accordingly. Acting in line with the beliefs of your organisation can help it differentiate itself in a saturated or extremely competitive market. 

At CENTRUM PUCP we promote entrepreneurship as a way of creating innovative business models. Several start-ups are created every year by our students, and have a great impact on society. For example, three graduates from CENTRUM PUCP and three from the faculty of engineering PUCP were among the 15 finalists in the Cisoc Global Problem Solver Challenge. The talented Peruvians developed Pukio, an intelligent mechatronic system that generates clean water through the condensation of water vapour in the air. Collaboration is vital in an uncertain climate. 

How does your Business School link and work with other Schools, employers and alumni? 

Relationships are about co-operation, and co-operation is about progress. We challenge ourselves to establish partnerships with other Business Schools to provide the best each School can offer in a combined MBA or specialised master’s programme. 

We promote co-operation between our departments to allow the ideas and innovation to flow through the veins of our School. We create opportunities for alumni to collaborate with us so that we benefit from the skills and experiences of the professionals we create in our classrooms. Co-operation has grown in importance among Business Schools and it is yielding better results.

What would your advice be to other Business School leaders operating in such a volatile and uncertain world?

Education is not about outcomes. It is about the impact. At CENTRUM PUCP, we have a mission: educate to serve. We serve academia, the business world and wider society. But we are also here to educate people about sustainable development. 

We want people to learn to thrive in a competitive world. Business Schools should also follow suit: educating people to allow them to see the bigger picture and teaching professionals how to lead the departments within their organisations.

Do you feel optimistic about the future of business, Business Schools, and the economy?

I believe we are all more aware of the global challenges ahead than we were a couple years ago. We are in the process of acknowledging the impacts of our actions and the dangers of not doing so over the long term. 

Business Schools have taken advantage of this. We teach students to think about impacts on society and how our actions can be turned into positive outcomes for the greater good. 

Sustainability is both an individual responsibility and about teamwork: we all have to engage in the right actions to produce a positive impact. I believe Business Schools are preparing people to provide sustainable and egalitarian economic growth.

Professor Percy Marquina is Director General at CENTRUM PUCP, the Graduate Business School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He was previously General Manager of Rhone Poulenc and General Manager, Commercial Manager and Marketing Manager of companies related to the Richard O’ Custer group. Marquina holds PhDs from the Maastricht School of Management and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in business administration and strategic business administration, respectively.

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Perspectives on Asia Pacific business education

Business School leaders from across Asia Pacific talk exclusively about the challenges and opportunities facing them. Interviews by Jack Villanueva and Kevin Lee-Simion

Yang Yang, CEO and co-founder of iPIN

Can you introduce yourself?

I am a founder of an AI company in China, which is developing a platform that will allow people to make applications to help college and high-school students in their personal career development plans, and also help students complete applications for Schools. 

A big challenge of AI is that machines cannot understand highly abstract words such as the US or AMBA. However, all the business areas people need AI to understand, relate to these words.

In order to overcome that, we built a social-economic graph and used it to model the whole economic development of China. This way, machines can understand highly abstract words such as ‘companies’, ‘Schools’, ‘majors’, ‘occupations’, and ‘cities’. Because of this, we can provide some applications to help people plan their career path or help recruiters to recruit people by quickly finding the best candidates among millions of applicants.

How can AI help foster innovation and entrepreneurship in tomorrow’s leaders?

AI gives innovators a lot of new tools. For example, there were a lot of people who wanted to do something before, but they couldn’t because they were lacking AI technology. Now, because of things like deep learning, machines can do many different kinds of work, especially classification work, better than human beings. This has created many new opportunities in many business areas.

How has the use of AI changed the business landscape in China?

AI in China is growing very fast. Many companies in China are using AI to solve different kinds of problems in areas such as finance, education, manufacturing and e-commerce. China has a huge population and can generate large quantities of data, especially data around personal behaviour, and this can help businesses and entrepreneurs in China. This can also help machines better understand people’s behaviour in many different dimensions.

Suresh Mony, Director of the Bangalore Campus of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS)

In your mind, what does a ‘great’ Business School programme look like?

Educators have a big role to play in creating jobs in society. With the advent of AI, jobs are really being threatened. World Bank research finds 69% of the jobs in India and more than 70% of the jobs in China will disappear within the coming decade. So we must do something drastic. It is SMEs that will create the most jobs per unit of capital invested. The world before 1820 was known as an entrepreneurial society, but everyone had small businesses. With the advent of the large-scale enterprises, it became a society of employees. If jobs are going to become scarce, we need more enterprises and Business Schools should be more instrumental in that. 

The great programmes generate graduates who are analytical, who can synthesise ideas and manage businesses. They are probably not the best at creating businesses.

Entrepreneurship requires people who have critical thinking skills, tolerate ambiguity, and can create. The curricula and pedagogy will have to be tuned to help students create value.

Pedagogy is still classroom orientated. We’ll have to have less of the classroom and more action in terms of enabling students to observe, be apprentices, go out in the market, make their own studies, and make their own decisions. This will help them create a value proposition for the customer.

Do you think today’s students and subsequent graduates are being taught the skills they need to succeed?

Sadly, no. A recent US survey found only 11% of Business School graduates set up their enterprise and of those, only 7% raised capital. 

The mind set for Business Schools is to train students for industry and capture low-hanging fruit. This makes students more job orientated. And the fact that Schools are able to land students good jobs in industry means the hunger is missing in students. 

Business Schools have to have a different structure for entrepreneurship and education, and for faculty. They should not be judged by the workloads or research output, but by how they can create entrepreneurs.

How can Business Schools work to support students’ development of knowledge of entrepreneurship?

A Masters in Entrepreneurship Education, would be a distinct programme and Business Schools should develop it as a two-year long programme with sufficient focus on the action learning part of it; action learning for innovation, and action learning for entrepreneurship.

It would need to be seperate to the conventional MBA, which supplies talent to industry so graduates can become executives. You have to have a different pool of students for entrepreneurship. If you have a creative outlook and innovative ability, I think you will go for entrepreneurship education.

Those who come from business families, even if they do an MBA, after one or two years go back to their businesses, or they go and set up their own enterprise.

Sherry Fu, Director, University of Manchester China Centre

How can Business Schools better support students to participate actively in their own futures?

Business Schools need to provide systematic business knowledge which should build a solid foundation for students. This requires curricula to be continually updated so they keep up with social and economic developments.

Schools need to pay more attention to extra-curricular activities that support students’ career aspirations. The extra-curricular activities and career support are vital. 

In terms of career development, we need the right people to be career advisors. These people don’t have to be academically strong, but should be practical, have real industry experience, and insight into specific sectors that they can share.

We should manage students’ career expectations. Career support doesn’t mean holding the student’s hand; it’s about giving the right advice. We don’t guarantee students a job, secure a job for them, or find a job for them. However, some students will have those expectations that when they sign up to the MBA programme; they will get their ideal job, a promotion in their company, or a better paid role. Students need to take ownership of their own career development.

What we do as Business School educators is support, give advice and make sure we work with students to help make things happen so they can achieve their career goals.

Do you think it’s also about pushing students to become entrepreneurs rather than just employees?

Entrepreneurship is a trend in China because society is encouraging young people to run start-ups and the government has policies to support start-up companies.

We encourage students to have an entrepreneurial spirit so they can be more passionate, but I think Business Schools also provide career support so that students can become more senior within big organisations. 

On the one hand, we encourage students to move forward to gain senior roles, but for those people who want to run their own companies, we can give them more ideas or more education on innovation
and entrepreneurship.

At Manchester Business School, we have an enterprise centre and an incubator for students who want to set up their own companies. The School will invest in them, financially support them, and give them an education in entrepreneurship and innovation.

How can Business Schools nurture the skill sets employees need to succeed?

There are four key areas around which we nurture our students’ skills. The first area is about core skills and the core employability sessions that we deliver via webinars. These webinars are about careers and are given
by industry speakers, practitioners, and our professors. 

Second, we make sure each centre has dedicated staff to tailor sessions to our students with the right information to fit in the local market. 

Third, we provide tailored one-to-one sessions and employ career advisors to provide consulting to students. We ensure the people working for us have real business knowledge and an understanding of the jobs market.

The fourth way in which we nurture our students’ skills is by running events to which we invite industry speakers and we make sure our current students and alumni attend. This means students can learn and get opportunities from their peers, get the right skills sets for career development, and build networks.

We don’t want students just to master the main theories of business. The key is whether they can use these theories to
handle the challenges in the workplace and make a contribution.

As a Business School, we should make sure our students are socially responsible. They shouldn’t just care about making money, they should contribute to their organisation and the wider community.

Robert Yu, Head of China, Lego Education

What’s the concept of Lego Education?

Lego Education believes in learning through play. We empower students and teachers to become lifelong learners through playful learning experiences with our digital and physical education solutions.

Education is about empowerment. At Lego Education we’re very fortunate that we started a journey of this empowerment in 1980. Over the past 37 years, we have learned a lot, experimented a lot, and gained a lot.

Delivering playful experiences at Lego Education is about four things. These are encouraging cultivation of computational thinking; encouraging the building of STEM curriculums; helping and investing in the professional development of teachers globally; and investing in the ecosystem
with global partners.

How does playful learning fit into the Business School?

A playful learning experience should be joyful and socially engaing so that, students find meaning in it. That’s how we define ‘playful’. 

We feel Business School students are facing too many challenges in finding a job, stepping into a career, and solving real-life business problems.  

Can you explain some of your work in encouraging students to be more creative?

We help teachers learn what it means to be a lifelong learner, to be creative, and actively engaged in the classroom. Only when teachers are empowered to deliver a creative classroom can any of type learning happen and that kind of study habit can be cultivated through the teaching process.

We encourage teachers to design a lesson plan, promote different solutions in the classroom, and encourage them to ask students to come up with different solutions and communicate them and in the process, evaluate and reconsider options. Through these processes, students develop computational thinking. They learn to deconstruct tasks, to generalise, and come up with solutions which they will evaluate. At the end, they learn to look objectively at their conclusions which is what we want out of a creative experience.

Does learning in a more creative and playful way lead to innovation?

We have research showing that playful experiences induce deep learning. It’s not just about engaging or creating learning spaces to encourage creativity, it’s about the playful experience itself that includes deep learning which will help learners develop different kinds of skill sets.

Why do you think it’s important for MBAs to collaborate and be lifelong learners?

We live in a world of change and we adapt to this by continuing to learn, being curious, being innovative in the process of solving problems, and coming up with solutions that can help build abstractions. These are all things we are trying to promote, and encouraging learners and teachers to develop throughout the learning experience. 

I feel Business School leaders realise that learning is an experience, and this can be enhanced through different approaches; whether that’s action learning, playful learning, case studies or internships. Once we look at holistic learning in this way, students can benefit immensely.

Why is it important to have that balance between the digital and physical approach to creative and playful learning?

We integrate a digital experience into our entire solution because we know that students are using digital technologies every day, and they will face more digital options in the future.

We believe it is important to give them an understanding and a framework blending physical and digital experiences in a leaning scenario, early on.

Peter Helis, CEO, Helis & Associates

Why is it important for Business Schools to collaborate and build partnerships?

The difference between partnerships and competition is that one is positive and the other is negative. Partnerships are about talking with each other and competition is more about organisations assuming, or not knowing, what is going on in their markets, and not dealing directly with each other.

I would always prefer a partnership because one plus one becomes a lot more than two. We’ve seen that in China, where corporates are very keen to have partnerships with the Western world. Sometimes this is viewed as a joke because people in the West still see China as a competitor, instead of a place for potential partnerships.

In terms of China and Asia Pacific, do you have any examples of exciting and interesting partnerships that you’ve worked on or are working on?

Think of our company as a platform. We don’t build the partnerships directly, we build a platform where people can meet and exchange ideas.

We organise conferences, matchmaking and delegation trips for both sides. We’ve organised very large conferences in southern China and western China. We’ve also organised conferences in Munich and Berlin.

Through these conferences, or platforms, people meet. And then once they meet we can follow up on this. 

When we look at APAC, Vietnam and Myanmar are doing very well, but China is really like a continent, and there are so many untapped areas with huge potential. We can basically copy and paste some of the principles that you’ve already applied in the region in which you’re based.

If you venture to central, western, or southern China, you still have a lot to do before you go to the other APAC countries.

How can a Business School begin to work out a partnership?

Start by doing some research at home and see what areas are interesting. Then, if you don’t have a plan for China in motion, engage with a company such as ours and explore how you can approach potential customers or business partners. If you already have a business in China, take the next step. 

Look beyond your current surroundings and try to set up businesses in southern or western China.

Martin Lockett, Dean of the Nottingham University Business School in Ningbo, China

What are the main elements of evolution for the MBA?

It’s about improving the skills of people who come as students onto the MBA. Some of that will be about deepening knowledge, but a lot of MBAs spend too much time on knowledge and not enough on attitude.

You can give people learning experiences that enable them to experiment safely with new ideas, so they learn the skills needed.

At a Business School where I used to work, we asked students to develop a new business idea. Then we reflected afterwards to get people to think about questions such as ‘what did this mean for me?’ and ‘what can I learn from this?’

In our MBA we ask students to develop a business plan, and we hope they will take that forward. They can experiment and learn in a safe environment and develop their skills as a leader – whether that’s for their own business, developing innovate ideas in an organisation, or for a more general role in an established business.

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Meeting India’s demand for business education with responsibility

Meeting India’s demand for business education with responsibility

Athena Singh Profile Pic(2)
Athena Singh Profile Pic(2)
How Mumbai’s Athena School of Management aims to change the parameters of traditional management education in India

India’s burgeoning young and aspirational population ensures an ‘insatiable’ demand for quality business education, according to Aditya Singh, Director of Athena School of Management in Mumbai.

This underlines the importance of the place held by the country’s business schools in society, their responsibility towards it, and their potential to make an impact.

‘A good business programme is not only about a qualification,’ says Singh, cautioning   against the ‘commoditisation of business education’.

In the following interview, with Business Impact’s Content Editor Tim Dhoul, Singh outlines the approach and ambitions of Athena School of Management, encompassing the importance it attaches to internships and experiential learning as well as the value of community work.   

Demand for places at top business schools in India is high. Are there any particular qualities Athena looks for among its applicants?   

The phrase we use constantly is ‘marks don’t make a business leader!’. While we do give weightage to academics and scores, we follow a profile-based admissions process.

We evaluate applicants equally on the basis of their extra-curricular achievements, including achievements in sport, social impact projects and volunteering activities, as well as their work experience and any prior international exposure. Most importantly, we evaluate their desire and hunger to succeed in making a positive and sustainable impact both in business and society.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing business schools in India and the surrounding region, in your opinion?

Indian business schools have to be extremely careful to avoid commoditisation of business education. A good business programme is not only about a qualification!

With a huge young and aspirational population below the age of 25, there is an insatiable demand for good education [in India]. However, it is critical that business schools keep their eye on the ball and realise that the final measure of our success is going to be borne out by the number of our graduates that excel in the corporate world and the world of business.

How many entrepreneurs are we truly able to create?! business schools have to create actual and tangible management and leadership skills among their students.

What do you think makes Athena’s Post-Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) programme stand out from others that are available in India?

The Athena PGPM is designed to be an experiential-based pedagogy with a focus on real-world and practical learning. Our goal is to ‘positively impact the world through our students’.

The programme’s key features include: multiple internships with some of India’s top companies and startups; international immersion programmes across Europe, Asia and Canada; a faculty that includes top corporate leaders at CEO, Director and VP levels; a campus in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India; and small class sizes to ensure quality teaching and a keen focus on the students’ personality and soft skills.

Students at the Athena School of Management

Can you tell me how internships are incorporated into Athena’s PGPM programme and why the school places so much importance in them?

Internships are an integral and important part of the Athena PGPM. The programme includes a two-month long internship in each semester, which works out at a total of six to seven months of internships during the whole programme.

Interns are expected to implement their learnings from class, and to improvise and execute on a real-time basis. Each intern has a mentor attached from the company who guides them.

Alternatively, some students choose to pursue an international internship where they work with organisations in different geographies, along with understanding and appreciating different cultures and societies. Athena students have interned in different countries in Europe and Asia, including Italy, Turkey, Germany and Nepal.

Aside from internships, how else does the school facilitate experiential learning?

Experiential learning is a constant form of learning where the student is the ‘centre of gravity’ and the faculty are enablers and facilitators of learning rather disseminators of information. In order to facilitate, we include design thinking, action learning and project-based learning. 

Students pursue live projects with companies and NGOs, case study competitions, multiple internships along with consulting assignments. Students also have to work with projects in the social sector and with non-profits in order to truly understand business impact at all levels of society.

Do you think that PGPM/MBA curricula should be developed in collaboration with employers?

At Athena, we believe that potential employers have an extremely important role to play in the design and implementation of our programme. We follow the end-user process of curriculum design in order to keep our modules relevant and at the cutting edge of business practice and innovation.

Inputs and guidance are taken from senior stakeholders representing potential recruiters along with roundtables and conclaves that are held to discuss the changing and rapidly evolving business environment.

Can you tell me a little bit about Athena’s international immersion modules?

Global exposure and cross-border learning experiences go a long way towards creating future global leaders. While the international immersions are not mandatory, an increasing number of students are embracing the opportunity.

This year, we have students travelling to Singapore, Germany, Canada and the US for modules on topics ranging from leadership and entrepreneurship to analytics and Industrial Revolution 4.0. The experience of studying at these global institutions as well as interacting and living with students from across the world is a truly life-enhancing experience.

Students at Athena School of Management

I note that community service and personal development initiatives are actively encouraged at the school. Can you tell me of any programme requirements here and/or what options are available to students during the programme?

While prior experience in community and/or social development is not mandatory, it is preferred. At the school itself, we actively partner with organisations such as Rotary International, AIESEC, Rotaract and other NGOs to make a positive impact on society.

Athena is also an academic partner of the United Nations Global Compact which reinforces our vision to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It is mandatory for all Athena students to complete at least one live project towards community/social development.

What are your hopes for the school in the next five years – what do you want to see happen?

Our vision is to challenge the limits and change the parameters of what traditional management education has been in India. We see trending areas in business education that include entrepreneurship, analytics and design thinking, and we wish to establish a centre of excellence in each of these.

We also hope to increase the trend of international students studying with us in Mumbai. The hope is that, in the next five years, an Athena business graduate can create value for their organisations or create their own venture anywhere in the world equipped with experiential and innovative learning, international exposure, and a desire to excel and contribute to society.

Is there anything you’d like to see change among business schools both in India and in the rest of the world?

In a rapidly changing socioeconomic context, we have to become nimbler and more flexible in delivering solutions to our students which are relevant to the business environment.

We need to be able to predict change effectively and stay ahead of the curve rather than playing catch up. Business schools also need to shift focus from extremely theory-centric learning to practical and real-world learning while encouraging students to become change agents in their future organisations. We have to harness new technologies so that they can complement and, in some cases, supplement current learning methodologies.

Aditya Singh, Director of Athena School of Management

Aditya Singh, Director of Athena School of Management, Mumbai, India

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Focus on business education in Latin America

Heads of Business Schools from Latin America discuss Business School programmes in their region and how these are developing and interacting with business. Interviews by Jack Villanueva and Kevin Lee-Simion

Jorge Talavera 
President, ESAN Graduate School of Business, Peru


What does a ‘great’ MBA programme look like?

Great MBA programmes support the best product – students. To support them, we need to provide them with the key factors for success which include knowledge, soft skills, leadership and team work.

How has international business developed in Latin America? 

To develop international business, we developed our students. We established very good connections with the business sector. We provided them with the leaders, and they told us what we have to teach in order to be relevant. 

How are MBA programmes similar across the world, and how do they differ?

In the past they were quite similar. People in developing countries followed the programmes in the US and Europe, but MBA programmers try to solve the problems in the region. So now we have to adapt programmes and develop our own, to give our students the ability to solve problems in our society. 

Do you think the MBA mindset has changed?

I don’t think so. People have always studied for MBAs because they want to lead institutions, and Schools have provided students with knowledge to lead institutions.

What are the main challenges Business Schools face? 

Coping with change in terms of technology, and dealing with competition due to globalisation. We have to compete to provide solutions for society, and good quality professionals.

Should there still be a focus on local businesses and local economies as well as the international business economy?

You have to be good in your own country first. Then you can take your success abroad and provide other societies with solutions.

How important is it for Business Schools to continue to innovate in order to compete with businesses around the globe?

Innovation is important but sometimes innovation is confused with change. Organisations change and say they are innovative because they changed – but then go bankrupt. You need to innovate and it needs to be successful, otherwise it doesn’t mean anything.

Xavier Gimbert
General Director of the Graduate Business School of Universidad del Pacifico, Professor of the GBS of Universidad del Pacifico and Professor of ESADE Business School 


How do you see the decision-making process changing over the next few years?

The decision-making process has to be strategically ongoing, because the environment is changing every day. Also, decision making is becoming more collaborative.

Decision making is the most important process in managing an organisation. If you don’t have the best people and a good process, it will be a disaster.

How are strategic models beneficial to a business?

Models are guides and their objective is to help you to think, reflect, and make decisions. In a decision process, a model gives you different steps you have to think about in order to make decisions.

How important is innovation in strategic management? 

Innovation is one of the key elements of strategic management. But do you have to innovate in order to be successful? Innovation is something a company should have the option of doing, but doesn’t always have to do. 

Do you think MBAs are learning the skills required to succeed in the future? Or do Business Schools need to evolve?

I think the content of the MBA is evolving as there are more soft skills, which are fundamental to getting a good job, managing companies, reading changes in the environment, making fast decisions, and adapting to change. These areas can’t be taught though ‘real’ content.

Why is it arguably more important than ever to create alliances?

We are in a global world and can’t do everything alone. In Latin America, it’s a way to improve, in terms of businesses and Business Schools. Alliances provide knowledge from abroad. It’s a very powerful tool. Nowadays, alliances are key and we have to see others not just as competitors, but as potential allies.

Martin Santana
Professor of Information Systems, ESAN Graduate School of Business, Peru

Should there be a greater emphasis on technology in MBA programmes?

I think there is an emphasis but it’s not significant. We are dealing with millennials, 75% of whom interact through technology. Our MBA programmes are not prepared for that, as technology is used more as a learning platform. But this is a different dimension we are talking about with the technologicalically savvy guys from the millennial generation.

How important is the role technology for Schools? 

I think technology is key and Schools are using it to gain connections around the world, to provide a leaning environment, create alliances, and persuade prospective MBAs and faculty to come to their School. 

What innovations have you seen in the world of digital business?

Change in the learning environment. It’s now an open environment with different technologies, but they are converging into one purpose for Business Schools – enhancing learning opportunities
for students. We are under pressure to create a learning environment for the millennial generation.

What are your thoughts on e-learning? How beneficial do you think it is to an MBA?

It’s very important, but I believe in a more blended methodology. A 100% online programme is not yet well accepted in Latin America as employers believe these are low-quality programmes. I believe blended programmes will be the solution but I’m not against having a 100% virtual programme.

In what ways could Business Schools use technology to
their advantage?

I think technology should be used to attract, retain, and train our students, and change the mindset of professors who are using technology for basic things.  Technology is a key component of being successful.

Do you think technology and millennials are essential for Peruvian Business?

I believe so because more than 40% of the population is made up of millennials. In the near future, the majority of the workforce will be millennials, they will be future entrepreneurs and will be running most companies.

How will millennial leadership compare to traditional leadership?

Millennials care about a lot more than just being managers. For one, they expect to have good mentors, and this will be the model they use in the companies of the future. They will become mentors and transformational leaders – focused on the person rather than the activity.

Do you think millennials lack soft skills when you compare them to previous students?

Yes, remember we are still talking about young people and they are in the process of developing. They lack social skills but it’s our job to teach them these. We can change their mindsets and help shape them so they can be successful. 

What do you think the future holds for the MBA?

There will be many different varieties of MBA programme, and they will come together with a blended methodology. This means you will be able to connect with anybody around the world, but we will have to change our methods of teaching, and our professors. 

Matthew Bird
Professor, Universidad del Pacífico Graduate School, Peru

Is there a big difference between how businesses are run and how the government is run?

There is in Latin America. There is a distrust between the government and the private sector. I believe many countries’ societies understand that they need one another, but the hard thing to do is to build the foundation for trust and identify those shared spaces for collaboration.

How important is innovation in solving social challenges?

Very important: innovation can be anything that is different and creates value. Understanding social systems creates opportunities to identify those small interventions where the government and private sector can work together.

To solve social challenges, do you think it is a one-size-fits-all solution all or is it case-by-case?

There are elements that are cross-cutting, and once you know how to tackle social issues, it’s down to harvesting local solutions to shared problems. This is one of the reasons I believe in design thinking because it really focuses people to listen, empathising first. Through that empathy, you can understand where the gaps are, and what people want, so you can collaborate better to deliver that.

In what ways will harvesting local innovative interventions solve common social challenges?

People look at social issues as problems, but people should see them as solutions. Take the informal economy. People originally viewed the informal economy as a problem. However, people were working in the informal economy. This means they were creating value through jobs, and therefore creating  income. It was a solution.

How do you think the rise in digital technologies is affecting Business Schools?

Digital technologies are already transforming the way we teach and interact with students. Technologies are creating challenges, but also opportunities. For example, with virtual education, you are creating competition between Schools, but there are also opportunities for people to overcome historical geographic barriers and push education into areas that have been traditionally harder to reach.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing Business Schools in Latin America?

The biggest challenge for Business Schools in the region is to move away from a strong focus on teaching, as there are opportunities for research. Research can still contribute to value creation, but its potential has still not been tapped.

How much of an impact does cultural influence play in economic decisions?

You define decisions and use certain frames – influenced by social cultural backgrounds – to justify them. Then you identify decision criteria, and then the choices. These choices are permeated by your culture.

Oscar Muartua de Romaña
Director de la Escuela de RR.II. y Gobierno de la UTP en Universidad Tecnologica del Peru (UTP)

How important is it for countries to work together?

It is an obligation and we have always demanded that the international community resolve these problems. The UN means there is an international community of 200 nations, and stability has a path through hard times.

Do you think volatility makes collaboration more difficult?

It is more challenging, but we can provide more effective reactions. One of the biggest challenges, but also the most fundamental aspect, is to have dialogue, because only through this will countries understand each other. Also, science and technology are providing us with enough arguments to build our future to benefit all humanity.

Do you think international relations impact business education?

Business Schools need international relations to prepare future professionals. MBAs have a moral function – they are embodying the values of society while trying to benefit society.

will it be difficult for Schools to implement the UN’s sustainable development goals?

It will be difficult to adapt to reform. But these principles are nothing new. So it is about doing as much as we can through investment in education and generalised development.

How do international relations impact Latin America? 

International relations have helped us create Schools, bring in faculty, and establish MBAs. We’ve learned how development can create good results for a country, and we made this into a reality. International relations have also helped us become aware of innovation and entrepreneurship. Business has played an important role in the growth of Latin America. 

How are Schools in Latin America preparing MBAs for the future? 

Business Schools are preparing MBAs for an open economy, and everything that has been done by Business Schools is an investment in Latin America. MBAs are also learning about the linkage between the Business School, industry, and government, and the importance of moral values.

Racheli Gabel Shemueli
Research Fellow and Professor in the Graduate School of Business of the Pacific University in Lima, Peru

What do you look for in a prospective MBA student?

We want people who are different and who acquire knowledge and implement it. They have to be responsible leaders who want to create change. We are looking to the kind of person that makes a difference. 

What are the challenges in attracting these students?

The challenge is to state that our Business School is different. We say we are looking for quality, and we are very demanding.

How important is it for MBAs to have cross-cultural experience?

When we think about inter-cultural experience, we also think about local experience because Peru is very diverse. Cross-cultural experience is not just about travelling the world, but about working with diverse people. For an MBA to be exposed to cross-cultural experiences, and know how to work with this is important, in order for them to lead.

In what ways can cross-cultural issues be addressed in the future?

In-house learning is important so we can see what our students understand. Then it is a matter of doing the exercise, and doing it in your own life.

Why is innovation important?

Learning is interactive. I am learning from my students and they are learning from me. 

Professors are now just facilitators of limited information, and as a result, knowledge comes from both sides, the students and the professor.

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