“How valid today is what we were taught”

1. Class of 2000/2001 Reunion “How valid today is what we were taught” Professor Emeritus Stuart Sanderson 17th September 2011 University of Bradford School of Management

2. What were you taught in 2001 • A standard mixture of general subjects and some specialisms which had been around for some time and were assumed to be the right things to learn. • The course assumed a fairly neutral international business environment • The assumption was that there was a well defined and steady market for MBA graduates • A strong emphasis on knowledge and its application rather than personal managerial skills.

3. My evidence or how do I know • Since 2004 I have been an AMBA assessor thus I have validated or re-validated MBA and Masters programmes in 20 European Business Schools. • I have been an external examiner in a number of Business Schools including Warwick Business School and Hull University Business School. • I addition to teaching at Bradford up to December 2006 I have taught for Sheffield University Business School up to this year.

4. What do you find in various European Business Schools • Very similar content to that which you went through during your year in Bradford. • Some local differences imposed by different governments. Russia three times the number of class contact hours. • Still heavily producer driven and designed for cohorts of assumed to be similar students with common learning styles and needs.

5. What are the drivers of change • Changes in the business environment • Changes in the composition of the student body • Perceptions of senior staff in Business Schools • Changes in Business Schools which influence revenue generation • Growth of pre-experience general management programmes

6. Has the world changed since 2001 • And How !!!!!!!!!!!!!! • Accelerating changes in communications technology • Social networks • More economic, political and social interdependency • Demographics now a reality not a debate • Companies repudiating social agendas such as pensions

7. Has the world changed since 2001 • China – growth of trade from the Pacific, demise of the Atlantic • BRICS • Demise of manufacturing, growth of financial services • PaxAmericana • Financial crises and recession

8. Case study: The 2008 recession. How we got here • Macro causes • Indebtedness of key economies • Imbalances in liquidity, huge balances from China • Attraction of the housing market as a target for investment • A belief that growth elsewhere will make good local problems • Loss of consumer confidence . Fear • Imbalance in economic policies • Overvalued currencies

9. How we got here • Micro causes • Firms having deeply etched recipes • Failure of governance • Short-term opportunism • Complacency • Assets a substitute for creativity • Unparalleled growth • No gap between performance and • expectations

10. How we got here • Symptoms • Declining consumer demand • Consumer hostility • Erosion of Brand values • Psychological changes from affluence • to thrift. • Distrust of big business • Move from passion to compassion • New media

11. How we got here • Failure to contemplate a different future • Contingency planning not done 17th out of 25 • techniques 30% of managers don’t do it • Poor use of techniques such as scenarios • Cultures of growth in assets and sales rather • than long-term profits • Poor control • Cultures of quantity rather than quality of • business • Inability to distinguish between symptoms and • causes • 100,000 lemmings can’t be wrong

12. What do we Learn • Difficulties in taking an alternative strategic view • Inability to make connections between geopolitics and strategy • Ease of being ignorant • Need for leadership at all levels • Need for entrepreneurship • Skills in influencing • Cultural sensitivity

13. Changes in Student composition • FT MBA in UK mainly filled by non EU students not true in mainland Europe. • Executive MBA in UK struggles for critical mass in many schools. • Motivations of students changed • Institutional reputation matters chiefly in terms of price not learning experience. • FT survey important but not critical.

14. Perceptions of staff in business schools • Syllabus hijacks • Innovation generally incremental (slow) • Deeply etched recipes • Emphasis on content rather than experience or process • Some programmes remain an aggregation of subjects • Needs of individual learners not paramount

15. Changes in Business Schools • MBA seen as a premium flagship programme thus odd how undifferentiated they are other than by reputation of school, parent university or location. • PEMM are commodities, huge in some schools • Fewer academic staff have relevant managerial experience outside of University • The squeeze of research for personal and institutional prestige

16. Innovations since 2001 • External experience • Real team tasks • Concentration on managerial skills • Concentration on learning skills • Attempts to integrate material • Greater awareness of geopolitics • Environmental awareness • Ethics and morality

17. What needs to be done • Greater emphasis on individual agendas • Stronger experiential learning • A greater awareness of what is going on in the world and its effect on business • A re-examination of what is deemed essential • The need to teach management not subjects • Perhaps to make the MBA experience more exclusive and replace volume with margin!