NO ROOM FOR PENNY-PINCHING

The options for executive education are almost boundless. The wrong choice can be an expensive mistake

Nothing says “I love you” like a R230,000 personal development programme. Employers wanting to enhance management and leadership skills in their organisations don’t need bottomless pockets, but neither should they expect dramatic results on a shoestring. Strategically planned executive education is an investment in the future. Cobbled together without thought, it’s a valueless drain on corporate resources.

Business schools taking part in market research for this cover story are listed at the end.* All say employers can’t expect results if they go in blind — they need open discussion with their education providers so everyone knows in advance what outcomes are expected. Those providers don’t have to be schools. The 100 public and private sector entities interviewed for this story say business schools are only part of the solution. Of their combined spend, 45.2% of executive education is conducted in-house, 37.6% at schools and 16.2% through business consultancies.

“We’re seeing a shift towards in-house,” says Oliver Seale, of Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership.

In the private sector, the smaller the company, the fewer its internal resources and the greater its reliance on schools. Among com- panies with turnover up to R16m, 70% of education is outsourced to schools — a figure that drops to 32% for higher earners. Regionally, the Eastern Cape is least reliant on schools, which attract only 28% of executive education budgets.

Most but not all schools offer both customised executive education, tailored to individual companies’ needs, and open programmes, to which anyone can send employees.

Seale says customisation is gaining ground: “The days of executive education ‘spray and pray’ are over.”

But even that is adapting. Faculty at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) say there is a gap for “mass customisation” — customised programmes that can be quickly adapted to different clients’ needs. It’s about responding immediately to companies requiring urgent interventions.

Costs of schools-based executive education vary wildly. For example, a middle management certificate programme for one person costs between R7,000 and R58,000. One is short and sharp, the other a year long.

This principle applies to all programmes. Depending on the depth required, ➦