This week, Borderless Founding Partner, Andrew Kris, was invited to the international meeting of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs to offer a real-world perspective of how business school education is perceived and provide guidance to more than 100 educators from around the world – from the US and Switzerland to Qatar and China.
“I shared insights based on our experience at Borderless working with a range of senior executives, as well as my ‘earlier life’ as a Dow executive,” explains Andrew, who is an alumnus of INSEAD and has attended several programs at London Business School. “Views on executive education from the survey conducted recently by Borderless highlighted areas of strength and improvement for business schools and provided the core of our discussion.”
Andrew Kris offered three clear recommendations:
“There is a decline in opportunities for executives to develop general management skills to equip them for the most senior general management roles. This is due to two phenomena: 1) The centralization of functional leadership has meant that local managers no longer benefit from broad multi-functional responsibilities or true bottom-line accountability in early careers. 2) The reduction of high-cost expat roles has meant that executives receive less exposure to multicultural experiences needed to lead complex international businesses,” explains Andrew. “There is an opportunity for business schools to create programs that support the development of these skills.”
“Business schools need to view their students as customers. These are the people who will go into industry and become future sponsors of students,” says Andrew. “Furthermore, schools should not just view corporations as financial sponsors, but should extend collaboration to include providing opportunities for professors to work within companies to understand how the business school curriculum could evolve to address real-world challenges.”
“Above all, as reported in the study, companies are demanding that business schools focus on not just hard skills but soft skills too, in equal proportion. Behavioral development needs to be integrated and practiced as part of the program and not relegated to a one-semester course on ‘interpersonal skills’.
“Developing great strategies doesn’t necessarily lead to great corporate results,” explains Andrew. “Strategies are implemented by motivated people, and to get that, right leaders must learn how to capture the hearts and minds of those they lead.”
Please download the results of the survey on executive education here.
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