Innovation takes centre stage for positive change
• Organisations that do not adapt to advancements in the digital world ‘will become obsolete’
Business leaders have no option but to keep pace with technological change and innovation, and business schools understand that it is incumbent on them to prepare future leaders accordingly.
To this end, Wits Business School (WBS) established the WBS/BCX Chair in Digital Business in 2016. (BCX is a subsidiary of Telkom.)
“We are serious about technology and its impact on everything we do, from administration and marketing to teaching and research at WBS,” says the school’s academic director, Professor Paul Alagidede.
Research generated by the WBS/BCX Chair in Digital Business will, he explains, be used to inform the school’s MBA curriculum.
That’s not to say the WBS MBA programme is not already geared up to examine how businesses can use technology to achieve growth.
“MBA students at WBS are producing some exciting research that demonstrates how technology can be leveraged for positive change, such as in social entrepreneurship,” he says. “We strongly encourage them to focus the research portion of their degree on emerging themes in digitalisation and how it’s impacting the world of work.”
In addition, one of the core courses of the WBS MBA curriculum is Technology and Operations Management. “We draw information from expert practitioners in the market to ensure that our content reflects up-to-date developments in information technology, and to ensure that our students understand what the drivers are in technological change,” says Alagidede. “There is no doubt any organisation that does not adapt to change in the digital world will become obsolete.”
Technology also comes into play in the way the MBA is taught and most business schools are reviewing their teaching methods to build effective new models. It’s not a simple exercise.
“In a world where everything is becoming digitised, an obvious alternative (to classroom learning) would be to complete an MBA purely online,” says CEO of global executive search firm Odgers Berndtson Sub-Saharan Africa, Leon Ayo.
“In the South African context, a purely online MBA is yet to build credibility as it has limited peer-to-peer engagement, which is the most valuable part of the experience. The group of people who study an MBA with you become your alumni network and will remain with you as you progress in your career. Such a network is built through shared experience.”
Mindful of the need to move with the times and strike a balance between face-to-face and online learning, Wits Business School is among the schools expanding its teaching offerings to incorporate both blended learning and online programmes.
“We are in a phase of transition with the first modules of our new online Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration being implemented currently and many more in the pipeline. Many of our MBA modules make use of virtual interaction between lecturer and student, and for the purposes of enabling students to prepare before a class,” says Alagidede. “But, while WBS appreciates the value of online offerings, we are proceeding with caution because we believe strongly in the ‘human touch’.”
WBS is also using technology to streamline and advance its materials. For example, the school’s Case Centre, which boasts one of Africa’s largest archives of case studies, now produces electronic business case studies. These, says Alagidede, offer a number of possibilities hard copy cases do not, among them the ability to include audiovisual content as part of the case, and to create direct links to spread sheets and other files students can work with.
“This is an exciting development as it offers a new avenue of deeper learning and a more positive classroom experience,” he says.