The Future MBA

100 Ideas for Making Sustainability the Business of Business Education

Giselle Weybrecht

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351284783
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

The Future MBA brings together 100 ideas on how to rethink management education in order to embed sustainability. This book acts as a creative toolkit for individuals working in management education on how to design new and innovative products, services, and experiences for the business school community with a focus on sustainability. What if we took a moment to stand back and look at the bigger picture? What would the business school of the future look like? Rather than a roadmap, the 100 ideas presented in this book are meant to be a source of inspiration in responding to these questions. Some ideas could be put into practice tomorrow, some would require a complete reassessment of the way we view business education, and others are meant to encourage more ideas… and more action, to turn management education into a key player in moving the sustainability agenda forward.

The ideas

The following 100 ideas are meant to provide inspiration to help shape the business degree of the future. While the original 100 ideas were posted as they were conceived, these have been organized to make it easier to follow. As previously mentioned, these ideas do not necessarily provide a specific roadmap forward, but rather inspiration about where we could go.

They start from the core, the student, training and developing that student into the best-prepared graduate possible. Second, the ideas look at the skills that the student will develop; third, the kind of curriculum they will be exposed to; and, fourth, the classroom environment within which they will be learning. How schools will actively engage in the sustainability agenda through their own programmes and operations is explored in Sections 5 and 6. Shaping a wider management education system that is more accessible and responsive is the focus of Section 7, and how schools engage in the local and international community are covered in Sections 8 and 9.

1 The student

Sustainability needs management education to become a space where true leaders are trained, leaders who have a better understanding of the world in which they do business, the people they do business with, their role within that environment, and can make better decisions because of it – for business, the planet and for society. What business school students look for and expect from business programmes will change dramatically. They will differ in the experiences they bring, connections they want to make, the careers they are building, and impacts they want to have in the world.

Idea 1. Suits

Put a suit on someone and they look more respectable, smarter, more prepared. There is plenty of room in the world for a well-made, tailored suit. But a dark suit with a light-coloured shirt (the typical business-school uniform) also makes everyone in the room look similar. One could argue that the act of requiring students to wear suits to certain functions also encourages them to act, maybe even think, in a certain, similar way. It adds an element of formality that can stop students from speaking up, saying or asking what they want to say or ask, being open to discussion and exploration. It may even discourage those who don't own, have never worn, or are not interested in careers that require suits from applying in the first place.

If business schools are about bringing together a diverse group of people, sharing and connecting those differences to create a future workforce that can strengthen and innovate the business sector and make it more sustainable, then differences should be celebrated within the school. Creating a more casual dress environment (within reason) may provide a better setting for the sharing of information and insights, drawn both from successes and failures. It may give students the opportunity to focus on being what they are and not what the sector wants them to be.

This may seem like a small thing, but sometimes it is the small things that make the biggest difference.

Idea 2. Checking progress

When it comes to educational and personal development, students will want to have a better understanding of where they stand when they start the programme and how they progress throughout it. Students will have access to a tool, updated in real time, which gives them insight as to where they are doing well and where they need to develop more. At the beginning of the programme the tool is populated with information related to the careers they are interested in, their strengths and weaknesses, the opinions of their past supervisors and colleagues. During the year, professors and fellow students will provide inputs. Students would use the tool to review their progress regularly, to help them choose which electives to take or activities to be engaged in to help strengthen some of the areas they are weak in or might need for their desired post-graduation job. Students will opt in to enable faculty to use their information to personalize their education. The tool would also connect students with other students, faculty and even alumni with similar strengths or weaknesses to collaborate with and learn from.

Such feedback could continue post-degree, providing continuous support for graduates at various stages of their careers. Schools could provide graduates with access to confidential assessments and provide data they can use themselves to develop and offer relevant educational programmes and assistance to their graduates.

Idea 3. Flexible course structure

A typical degree programme includes a range of three-to four-month courses organized in terms. Students meet for a few hours a week or a day to discuss that one topic. The future business degree could have a range of different, more flexible course formats. A few could be three months long, some could last the whole programme, and there could be a wide range of short courses that last just one week, or even 24 or 48 hours based on the topic and learning objectives. There could be traditional courses where you sit back, listen and participate, and others that are hands-on entrepreneurial sprints where you take an idea and put it into practice in one week or even 24 hours. A month could be dedicated just to looking at one topic in-depth across all courses. The curriculum will be flexible enough that new sections can be added based on demand throughout the year. This provides various ways to introduce materials and more importantly to engage students in business and sustainability discussions.

Idea 4. Reflection

Much of the time spent in business school is spent learning about and analysing the decisions that others have made, the numbers that others generated and the cases that others built. Although students are encouraged to bring their experiences into their studies, they aren't really given the time to reflect deeply on questions related to their own leadership style and the role they want to play, their values and what is important to them. But for education to be transformative and shape future sustainability leaders, reflection time is crucial.

Business schools will provide more structured space and time for students themselves to reflect and further develop their own self-awareness skills as future employees, managers and leaders by tapping into and using their own experiences as a key part of the learning process. Many assignments and opportunities will focus on giving students the chance to develop new habits and reflect at various levels on the work that they have done in the past and how the new knowledge they are learning in the classroom helps them to better understand decisions they made both before and during the degree. This will also help students to be able to reflect on their actions moving forward and continue to learn from their experiences throughout their careers.

Idea 5. Something different

Taking time out of a career to study is a unique opportunity not just to learn, but also to explore topics you have always wanted to explore but have never had the time for. These help us see the world from different perspectives.

Future students could take part in a class called "Something Different". In this class, each student will choose something unrelated to the work that they are doing in the business degree to focus on. This could be a passion such as baking or surfing, learning about indigenous medicines or archaeology, exploring the world of salsa clubs or literature, or a side project such as a blog or creating a community garden. Once they choose their topic they will be asked to immerse themselves in that topic for the duration of the class based on the goal they have set themselves: for example, to learn ballroom dancing by the end of the class or even write a novel. The students will then present what they have done and share some of the lessons learnt with fellow students. Many may find that their new business ideas, or even career directions, are inspired by their Something Different focus.

Idea 6. Life–work balance

The environment in which we work in the future will be very different to what it is today. Fixed working days, long hours and short vacations will be replaced with more flexible options that see productivity and innovation increase substantially. There will be a renewed focus on what is important – a balance between work, life, family, friends, community—none of which come at the expense of any of the others. We will work smarter.

In order for this necessary change to happen, we will need our future leaders to have a better understanding and respect for the importance of life in the life–work balance and how they can help to create a business environment that accepts, supports and thrives on this shift in balance. Business schools will provide a range of experiences throughout the programme that will challenge students to think differently about balancing work and life at different stages of their career. They will expose students to a range of issues that those who work around them or eventually for them may experience throughout their working lives and how to deal with these. This includes, for example, the changes that having a family can have on your career, and how to provide a space to enable parents to be more successful at both roles.

Having a better understanding of these topics will enable students to create a work environment that brings out the best in those working within it.

Idea 7. Meditation

In an environment where individuals are constantly bombarded with information, how can future leaders be trained to focus and be more effective?

Meditation and business school are not two words that are usually heard together. However, a growing number of studies show that meditation can change the structure of the brain, leading to a boost in intelligence, that it helps people stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions, improves data retention, reduces stress, increases working memory and fosters creativity.

Future business programmes could integrate a range of meditation experiences and opportunities within the programme, to assist students in using this or other related techniques to focus and become more effective and mindful. They will, in turn, be more conscious of their impact on others as managers.

Idea 8. The portfolio

What is a CV? A CV is a short document that attempts to sum up your experience so far. But how effective is it at really communicating who you are, what you are capable of doing and what you bring to a job? Considering that most MBA applicants have CVs full of pretty lofty job titles; vice president of this, director of that, all by their mid-twenties, does communicating job titles really mean anything anymore? How do you best present your past, present and future abilities?

Career services within business degrees will also change in the future business school. One of the changes will be the way that students prepare their CVs. The CV itself will be redesigned, drawing inspiration from other fields, to become a stronger tool for communicating who you are, what you can bring to a job and what you want from a job. Formats will be drawn from a range of industries. Artists may inspire through their creation of visual portfolios of past projects, CVs could be arranged around specific skills (ones that the applicant has and wants) or based around proof of those competencies. They could involve videos or hands-on demonstrations. Whatever the format, they will aim to better represent the uniqueness and abilities of the individual.

Idea 9. Mentors

Mentors are becoming an increasingly important tool for future leaders of all ages, both having a mentor of one's own and being one. Mentors can act as a sounding board for advice and recommendations, provide support and, when needed, a good kick to get going.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Looking ahead
• The ideas
• 50 questions
• Index: The 100 Ideas