Preparing students for leadership roles

AUTHOR: Carmel Dwyer   DATE: 01.05.05   ISSUE 1, 2005

Since joining AGSM as Dean in October 2003, I have been working to develop strategies for a market that has seen important shifts in what business wants from MBA graduates, and what students want in terms of course delivery.

We are also working to identify potential new markets and new specialties within the MBA, and continually enhancing the core degree courses.

For most of the past three decades AGSM has consistently been the leading business school in Australia and Asia.

Our intention is to retain that position by continuing to innovate in course design and structure, in modes of course delivery and by improving our already impressive record of attracting the best students and faculty in the region.

"Cultivating a global perspective is critical for business executives."

ILLUSTRATION: Gregory Baldwin

CLASS SNAPSHOT - TODAY AND TOMORROW

AGSM has around 450 students, 300 of them studying part-time. Of the full-time group, half are from overseas.

Our location is a great advantage and we are seen internationally as an attractive option for doing an MBA in Asia.

The average age of our student body is 30 and about half the class are career changers. The other half, particularly in the MBA (Executive) program, are people who want to boost or accelerate their careers.

"...about half the class are career changers. The other half want to boost or accelerate their careers."

They want to be able to make a shift from being a good functional manager to being seen as a general manager with a perspective across finance, marketing and strategy.

"AGSM continues to innovate and set the pace."

PHOTO: GREG NEWINGTON (Rob McLean)

With no growth expected in the 25 to 34-year-old population, most business schools, including AGSM, are looking for ways to expand their catchment of students. We are mapping several strategies to meet this challenge. I believe we have to reinvent the MBA as a career starter for younger people, as it was for people like myself.

We need to reach out to the professional schools like law, medicine and engineering and look at the fact that in areas like biosciences and management of intellectual property you really need to have a strong technical discipline as well as business knowledge and management skills.

I would also like us to address the issue of women being able to do an MBA while they’re taking maternity leave, working part-time and so forth. That’s certainly been raised by a number of businesswomen we’ve spoken to.

PREPARING STUDENTS TO BE BUSINESS LEADERS

Business schools serve two intertwined sets of clients: students and the organisations that employ those students.

The mission is to prepare students in ways that meet the needs of business and equip students with lifelong skills and enable them to address ambiguous problems and get things done.

In my conversations with senior executives they want graduates to come out with more than functional business management knowledge. They want people who have an ability to take a global perspective, and who can answer the question, “Where is the money in this business?”

They want managers who are adept and capable of working in teams and they especially value people who know how to work with people.

Cultivating a global perspective is becoming a critical tool for senior business executives. The people who will do well as global managers are those who are able to adapt and have the flexibility to operate in environments outside their own.

We are teaching these skills in a number of ways. An example is our marketing group where several of the faculty are studying consumer brands in China and India. One of those same faculty members is taking his class to India for a field trip to build understanding of the marketing issues in that environment.

"The people who will do well as global managers are those who are able to adapt and have the flexibility to operate in environments outside their own."

We offer courses in leadership, managerial skills and decision-making, corporate governance, development of interpersonal skills, negotiation and working in teams. None of these were part of the original MBA courses, focused on functional knowledge.

While the majority of MBA students are either working in major businesses or heading in that direction, around 20% of our graduates will start or build their own businesses. I was delighted when nine of our alumni who have set up their own businesses were recently included among the top 40 fastest growing companies in Australia. AGSM’s strong representation in this list of innovators and market leaders demonstrates the value these graduates gained from their MBA. Several have indicated our programs could have been better shaped to their needs as entrepreneurs.

"Around 20% of our graduates will start or build their own businesses."

I like the Harvard idea of re-crafting the second year of the MBA with a focus on entrepreneurship. There are a number of dimensions of entrepreneurship that are important to graduates - such as private equity, being able to develop a business plan for yourself or for an intrepreneurial venture, and in learning how to be CEO of your own career, as alumna Julie Perigo puts it. I’d like to see us head down that path.

MANY PATHS, ONE DESTINATION

One of AGSM’s particular strengths is its willingness to review and fine-tune the way it delivers the MBA program. AGSM continues to innovate and set the pace in this area. The shift toward part-time MBA study in the 1980s was picked up earlier in Australia than in other countries. AGSM was at the leading edge of the trend when it launched the MBA (Executive) in 1987. A further innovation was the national delivery by adjunct faculty who present identical class material simultaneously in five capital cities, providing flexibility for students who travel or move interstate.

In the final year MBA (Executive) students come to Sydney for four one-week residentials taught by AGSM’s core faculty.

We haven’t seen this model anywhere else. It is a world-class model, which others are looking at and saying, “Wow, how did you develop that? ”

"We are looking at a number of pathways for management education."

Demand is growing for customised degrees. Corporates are now saying to us that when they put people through a leadership management development program, which might consist of two one-week modules, they would like participants to take an exam at the end of the module with a view to gaining accreditation if they want to pursue an MBA down the track.

So, we are looking at a number of pathways for management education.

The pathway may have a person starting with a short course in a company and then find them enrolling in the MBA (Executive) and then coming to do the last three semesters in the full-time MBA because they seek the intensity of the experience.

"Talent retention is a major issue today."

Another scenario involves undertaking study while on a ‘sabbatical.’ Increasingly as I talk to CEO’s and senior executives they are saying their major issue is talent retention.

They’re looking at ways of making it worthwhile for valued individuals to stay. It’s why you’re starting to see ideas like the six-month sabbatical after working three years.

That’s going to be a terrific time for people mid-career to re-tool and think about doing combinations of short courses, some sort of foundations of management certificate program or even the last part of an MBA.

INNER STRENGTH

The day-to-day face of the school is about offering excellent teaching and courses, something that is made possible by our talented faculty.

Our inner strength is our faculty and the research they conduct. They’re writing and being published in the best academic journals globally and they are the people we have teaching our students.

I am excited we have faculty members who are doing some of the best thinking internationally about organisation, strategy and marketing.

Three of our faculty are internationally acclaimed for their organisational behaviour theories that are rated amongst the world’s most influential.

One of these faculty members, Professor Lex Donaldson, has been asked to write in a prestigious series of articles entitled Vita Contemplativa, in which distinguished scholars describe their life’s work in the context of their personal history.

The series is published by Organization Studies, the leading academic journal on organizations in Europe.

Lex will follow articles by renowned Harvard Business School psychologist, Professor Chris Argyris, and the doyen of organisational behaviour, Professor Karl Weick.

Dr Anna Gunnthorsdottir, AGSM senior lecturer in strategic management, is working on the subject of trust. She is collaborating with Professor Vernon Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics, and she also teaches Managerial Decision Making. Knowing that she’s working with the best people internationally and they’re doing their research together - that’s my idea of what the excitement of a business school ought to be.

LEADERSHIP – BY EXAMPLE

Business schools globally have been through a tough period in recent years. There are a plethora of MBA degrees now on offer, a factor that both creates awareness but dilutes the idea of a special degree. I am confident that the market will differentiate students and schools around quality and learning outcomes. It is our job to ensure our brand, reputation and selection processes convey an experience of the highest quality.

The challenge for the best schools is to lead by example: to be willing to understand changing demand, to invigorate courses with fresh thinking, to nurture innovation and academic excellence and to work with a global perspective.

AGSM has always been a leading edge school and our intention is to remain at the forefront of management education in the region.