An MBA fit for purpose… and the future
Modernising the world’s business degree of choice is possible without dulling its lustre. The secret is creating a practical MBA that challenges leaders to build relevant, future-fit, socially impactful organisations.
Executive education was evolving to embrace innovations like micro-courses, online and blended learning, and fast-paced technological shifts such as big data, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality.
No aspect of business education can afford to ignore these groundbreaking developments, especially the stalwart MBA degree.
The MBA has more to prove than most, given that many detractors have criticised the general management qualification for failing to sufficiently prepare leaders to tackle the profound and practical challenges they will inevitably encounter.
A few years ago, the UK’s Guardian newspaper headline declared: “Why we should bulldoze the business school”.
Perhaps a little harsh, but one point worth considering was the call for business schools to restructure their approach and educational offerings.
On this, we can agree.
The problem is that some business schools still regard this process as a once-off exercise. However, it is not.
The evolution of the MBA must keep pace with the business world it serves, which means constant and sustained improvement.
At least, that’s been GIBS’ experience as one of the most innovative MBA programmes in the world.
Seven streams, one quality MBA
In May 2024, I took up the position of MBA Director at GIBS, in addition to my existing role as a faculty member with teaching commitments on the MBA and PGDip programmes.
While I am still the lead faculty member for Innovation and Design, a core module in the MBA, this new position also gave me the scope to make my imprint on the structure of our MBA offering.
Working closely with colleagues like Abdullah Verachia, the lead faculty of the core Environment of Business module on our MBA, and Professor Charlene Lew in the decision-making space, our MBA already boasted a world-first innovation whereby leadership was incorporated across all qualification modules as a golden thread.
This underlined the importance of considering leadership from all angles of the business ecosystem.
That wasn’t the only innovation already in place. Several years ago, GIBS introduced the notion of ‘learning tracks’ to our MBA structure.
This enabled students to get the General Management basics and then, if they chose, specialise in focus areas like Consulting, Entrepreneurship, or—in partnership with the Toyota Wessels Institute of Manufacturing Studies in KwaZulu-Natal—the Manufacturing focus required by automotive executives.
About two years ago, we launched a healthcare track, and in 2023, we launched Climate Leadership as a focus area.
Climate Leadership was very much in tune with our strategy as a business school to embed sustainability. Still, a Digital Leadership focus was missing from the six learning tracks we had put in place.
As a school, we recognised that in these technologically transformative times, the ability to harness leadership in the digital sphere was the latest – and most challenging – frontier for both emerging and existing leaders. Recognising this, we put our heads together to create a Digital Leadership focus area for the MBA.
We wanted to equip our leaders to envisage the future develop relevant strategies, and effectively execute those plans.
Critically, within their role as leaders, we encouraged students to take accountability and assume responsibility.
Speak the language of digital innovation
Central to this new curriculum is a clear intention to help leaders steer their organisations through the uncertainty and ambiguity of a new digital world.
The challenge for students who might be attracted to this MBA focus area – the Chief Technology Officers, Chief Digital Officers and Chief Data Officers of this world – is the need to understand the technology that enables this digital tomorrow.
They must harness these innovations to solve contemporary social and business challenges. These are interlinked and highly practical skills you cannot learn in isolation.
Once students start thinking in practical terms, collaborating and stepping into the role of innovation facilitator and supporter, they can adapt, innovate, strategise and take action to transform themselves, their organisations and, ultimately, their countries by solving real needs.
That’s the level of depth and sophistication you want from a quality MBA graduate.
From a business school perspective, we believe the inclusion of Digital Leadership as our seventh MBA focus area is the genesis of GIBS’s transformational thinking.
We are confident that we have the winning recipe for ensuring the longevity and relevance of the go-to MBA degree, but we are not finished yet. Pushing ourselves to innovate in our education sector and the particular context of an African business school underlines the GIBS way and the University of Pretoria’s strategy.
After all, if we demand this level of innovation and forward-thinking from our future digital leaders, then it’s best to back up our own words with straightforward actions.
By Prof Manoj Chiba
At GIBS, Prof Manoj Chiba is the MBA Director, Associate Professor, and faculty member, lecturing Research, Statistics, Predictive Analytics, Digitisation, Intersection of Business, Society and Technology, Artificial Intelligence and leading faculty for Innovation and Design.
For more info on the GIBS MBA, visit Master of Business Administration (MBA) (gibs.co.za)
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