Do it — but do it right!
With the cost and justification of executive education again under the spotlight, David Furlonger spells out what companies need to do to reap the benefits of further training
What do a lost soul, a prisoner and a tourist have in common? They are all managers wasting their employer’s money. Every year, companies and government departments set aside hundreds of millions of rand for staff to learn business and management skills.
But are they getting a return on their investment? Are they sure business schools are even providing the knowledge they need? And that employees are coming back equipped to use what they learnt?
For companies considering these questions for the first time, it’s easy to be confused not just by the quantity of programmes and subjects available, but also by the number of schools holding out what may appear to be the same offerings.
But even business schools admit that if the company itself isn’t clear what it’s looking for, it will end up wasting its training budget.
Owen Skae, director of Rhodes Business School, identifies two examples where companies invest badly on this front.
“There’s the prisoner student, who’s there because his bosses have told him he has to be. And then there’s the tourist, who’d rather be in a classroom or in fact anywhere than in the office.”
And let’s not forget the lost soul who once stood up during a session run by a Johannesburg school and inquired: “I’m sure this is all very important but can someone please tell me why I’m here?”
It’s easy to laugh, but for any executive education programme to be successful, there must be proper collaboration between the school, the employer and employees who attend the courses. Especially considering that with purse strings being tightened, the justification for executive education is again under the spotlight.
Banking giant Nedbank, which has more than 30,000 employees, has just suspended its annual R50m executive education partnership with local business schools because, says group HR executive Abe Thebyane, these schools just aren’t providing it with the forward-thinking ideas it needs.
“We talk to our clients all the time to understand them and what they need,” he says. “We want business schools to treat us the same way.”
It’s a big blow to the business schools because Nedbank has traditionally been one of SA’s big spenders on executive education.
But from next year the bank will bring everything in-house, using business consultancies and specialists to craft new programmes for leadership development.
Thebyane says Nedbank’s ambition to become SA’s leading bank in the next few years requires dramatic changes in the way its managers plan and think. “The programmes schools teach at the moment are training our leaders for today’s environment. But we need training for future leadership.
“We want our managers to become much more innovative and creative than they are today and to act like entrepreneurs. It’s tough out there. If we don’t have the skills we need we will be left behind. We have to be just as tough with our service providers.”
The institutions which will bear the brunt