NMU Business School boss gets national nod
Port Elizabeth-born Nelson Mandela University Business School director Dr Randolph Jonas has been appointed president of the SA Business School Association – a position the lifelong educator said he hopes will help grow more entrepreneurs to benefit society at large.
“It is a very big boost for NMU, because it is now part of [the national association],” Jonas said on Tuesday.
“It’s a huge honour, not only for me in my personal capacity, but for us as a business school, because the office of [the national association] is where the serving president is sitting.”
Jonas said he had been in the education sector for 38 years, 10 of which were as CEO of the East Cape Training Centre in Port Elizabeth.
He said business schools across the country not only faced tough challenges, but also criticism.
“As an example, when I was in Stockholm [in Sweden] in May at the global directors’ forum, I was selected to present ‘a dean’s challenge’,” he said.
“I said to them that I come from a country that is an emerging economy.
“So I said my biggest challenge is how do we balance reputational relevance and legitimacy issues in a revolving order of corporate ethical decay and responsible management deficit amid a spectrum of serious problems of unemployment, inequality and poverty that plague emerging economies.
“These are big problems,” Jonas said.
“So we have to do more to inspire a new narrative of business for good.
“In our discussions, we reaffirm our social mission of business for good – our need to contemplate in our research, in our delivery and in our teaching, business for the good of society.”
Jonas said too much was expected of business schools at times.
“Remember, we are in education and research and in teaching and learning,” he said.
“We need to get that right in order to achieve the goals of education that government and society expect.
“We are living in a democracy that seems to be under threat and a country that seems to be battling with its social problems and also with economic growth that simply cannot get off the ground,” Jonas said.
“So, in terms of what is available to us, we have to try harder to make a difference in the lives of people through education.”
‘We have to try harder to make a difference in the lives of people through education’ Dr Randolph Jonas
SABSA PRESIDENT