Welcome

1. New Perspectives On Corporate Education Welcome BMAF Annual Conference April 2009, Cardiff Martin Reynolds and Jon Salkeld Ashcroft International Business School

2. Workshop Issues/ Questions What trends are we seeing in changing organisational needs for education and training that business schools could/should respond to? Where might be the key areas for innovation by business schools to increase employer engagement? What barriers/challenges to business schools innovating their ‘employer engagement’ based work?

3. Business Schools Engaging Employers and Vice Versa • organisations needing to respond to new management challenges – need to innovate their practice • organisations expectations and needs to align education to their strategy • Many schools are responding to the ‘business school problem’ - relevance • Government agenda and funding • share of the spend on higher skills development less than 10% to universities

4. Ashcroft International Business School Our ideas and views expressed today ……… reflects: • our vision ‘to be the UK’s leading practice based, international business school’ • which shapes our thinking and point of view on the nature of management practice and learning • and is impacting implementation of our strategy to innovate our practice to management education - courses, research and faculty …. inspiring innovativemanagement practice

5. The Future of Management “ A paradigm can …. insulate the community from …. important problems …. because they cannot be stated in terms of the conceptual …. tools which the paradigm provides” Kuhn (1996 p7) “I wrote books which implied that there had to be a right way to run our organisations ….. I was in the grip of the myth of science, the idea that everything, in theory, could be understood, predicted and, therefore, managed” Handy (1994 p17) 2007

6. The Problem with Business Schools • well - we have the same problem – even though business schools have been successful - Pfeffer and Fong (2002)! • business school teaching and research is often too theoretical and not focused upon problems that managers actually face • traditional educational model often disconnects the ‘MBA classroom’ from where management is practiced • we tend not to engage with the issue that the practice of management draws heavily upon ‘reflection on practice’ 2004

7. … describes the activity of putting theoretical knowledge into practice and involves the process of managers engaging in conceptualising new meanings (knowledge) by learning from reflecting on practice - translating this learning into improved strategic actions The Notion of Praxis

8. The Notion of Praxis relevance to the context of management practice – uncertainty, organisational complexity and ambiguity, surprise, messiness etc etc this tests the ‘management model’ taught in business schools and practiced in organisations reflection on experience becomes a critical part of management practice and driving innovation in management practice provides a possible focus for opportunities to innovate management education

9. A Learning Dynamic (model) – Managing Meaning and Managing Action The Challenge of Aligning Meaning and Action in Practice ……. Academic Theories & Concepts Innovate Thinking Reflect on Experience Managing Meaning Managing Action Practice Based Theories in Action Innovate Practice Action • Reflection on Experience – PRAXIS 1996 “We think in order to act … but we also act in order to think. We try things, and those experiments that work converge gradually into viable patterns and become strategies. This is the very essence of strategy as a learning process”. Mintzberg (1994) 1995

10. Management Practice Innovation - Strategy Implementation • highlights the challenge of successfully integrating managing operations and managing strategy implementation in organisations • ‘integration’ seen as priority area for innovating management practice – suggest a six stage systems approach • reviewing and learning seen as a key area of management practice eg meetings to ‘manage meaning’ by evaluating actions and strategic assumptions 2008

11. Case Study 1: Crawford The Organisational Challenge • Aim – to develop and retain the emerging talent in the organisation • Tailored to organisational objectives • Appropriate to professionally diverse & geographically dispersed leaders • Delivered within a constrained budget, yet able to compete favourably with initiatives of the ‘bigger players’. • Complimentary to the objectives of the Crawford International Management Training Programme • An aid to retention. An aid to succession planning

12. Case Study 1: Crawford The AIBS Solution Crawford & AIBS MBA Programme design reflects Crawford actual needs - mapping Programme design provides added value beyond actual needs Programme contextualisation worked through with Consultant & Crawford Training Director Programme aimed at both UK and European managers Programme location at Anglia Ruskin to create “reflective space”

13. Case Study 1: Crawford Co-design Orientation for AIBS staff Co-teaching AIBS practitioners as teaching staff Assessment by contextualised assignment Tri-partite relationship Consultancy - follow-up of key issues Return on investment Programme Innovation

14. Case Study 1: Crawford Crawford & AIBS MBA won the Insurance Times “Training Programme of the Year Award 2008” “Thank you for sharing your ideas with us. This is an imaginative way forward and we certainly have an interest in reviewing, for our own use, what you have developed” Dominic Burke, CEO, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group “To have designed a programme with an academic and professional accreditation, yet with a tailored practical business emphasis, within budget is a significant achievement” Rita Maguire, HR Director, National Grid Wireless Outcomes

15. Case Study 2: Barclays 0+3 Model Organisation Need • innovate their talent development model to attract and retain high calibre graduates • competition and demographics • ‘employment ready’ graduates

16. Case Study 2: Barclays 0+3 Model Response co-designed degree programme that involves 3 years working and studying in the work place company recruits students co-delivery by academics and management practitioners solves the funding problem

17. Case Study 2: Barclays 0+3 Model Success graduate with degree plus 3 years work experience done Job 1 - get Job 2 develops the practice based model partnership working – education aligned to organisation needs

18. Case Study 3: The Regional Hospital The Organisational Challenge • Aim – to develop and retain the middle/senior talent in the organisation • Strong disaffection with previous HE management programmes • Strong alignment to organisational goals • HE qualification important but subsidiary to developing greater organisational effectiveness • Maximum return on investment • Appropriate to professionally diverse leaders

19. Case Study 3: The Regional Hospital The AIBS Solution • MA Leadership (work based) • Programme design highly project driven • Academic content supports, not drives • Programme structure: tactical, strategic, contemporary • Programme design worked through with senior hospital staff & training director • Programme location: regional hospital

20. Case Study 3: The Regional Hospital Programme Innovation • Projects align with organisational & individual goals • Input from SMT & patients • Strong line manager involvement • Individual & group projects • Assessments by presentation & question panel • Co-teaching • Initial & end summits • Surveys to measure return on investment

21. Workshop Issues/ Questions What trends are we seeing in changing organisational needs for education and training that business schools could/should respond to? Where might be the key areas for innovation by business schools to increase employer engagement? What barriers/challenges to business schools innovating their ‘employer engagement’ based work?