WHEN it comes to producing leaders of the future MBA programmes have long been recognised as a vital pipeline. MBA graduates are expected to quickly take on leadership roles. But what was hailed as great leadership in 1980 is no longer regarded as such.
If business schools are to produce the leaders the world demands, they need to get in touch with the marketplace. So, at least, thinks London Business School, which has conducted more than 100 interviews with executives from global companies.
The result was a list of 39 global business capabilities — everything from understanding macroeconomics to being demanding of colleagues. At the highest level, in the LBS’s research, are “attributes” — individual qualities, characteristics or behaviour focused on leadership. “Flexibility, cultural sensitivity and integrity are key attributes of tomorrow’s global business leaders. In the evolution of business education we must equip the managers of tomorrow with the global business capabilities required for success,” says the LBS dean, Laura Tyson.
The skills required of leaders are not those typically acquired on traditional MBA programmes. Leadership is personal and social as much as strategic and analytical.
“As business is increasingly based on knowledge and service, a leader needs to be able to understand organisational and personal dynamics rather than pure business expertise . . . it is about getting things done with other people,” says Kai Peters, head of Ashridge Management College. “To meet this need, business schools need to place greater emphasis on the personalities of MBAs and less on purely quantitative skills. ”
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Santiago Iñíguez, the dean of the Spanish business school, Instituto de Empresa, says leadership is not just having innate skills and taking command when opportunity arises. “Business school educators have an important function: to help potential leaders rethink their basic assumptions and enlarge their vision of the future.”
Paul Croney, dean of Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University, argues that MBA programmes face three challenges. First, he believes that business leaders must be able to make sense of the increasingly complex business environment. “Providing knowledge is not enough. MBA programmes must show business leaders of the future how to apply this knowledge.”
The second challenge is to develop globally responsible leaders. Thirdly, Croney says, the MBA must be a vehicle for personal leadership development, with “opportunities to confront and challenge issues, explore difficult scenarios, develop teams and present charismatic leadership”.
A similar emphasis comes from Henley Management College’s principal, Chris Bones. “The major challenge is being able to deal with linking themes, such as the managing of reputation and relationships, change, growth and innovation, projects and processes, and knowledge,” he says.
“This calls for leaders with drive, judgment and great influencing skills, who understand the dilemmas facing modern business and the difference between making the right choices and the wrong ones.”