MBA offers room for individual growth rooted in Africa
MBA trends indicate a need to understand societal values and real life challenges rooted in African business.
We live in a fast paced, information rich and interconnected world and a MBA programme strives to prepare students for successful careers. Business requires good thinking, the ability to collaborate and an understanding of what it takes to get things done.
“Our new MBA curriculum reflects this trend in that there are a number of occasions where students are challenged to engage with real life business problems and offer solutions,” explains Conrad Viedge, MBA Director at Wits Business School.
“To set the scene, the MBA Orientation involves students working in small groups to tackle a strategic problem for a local organisation.
“This year’s challenge was, ‘What is the next big thing for Famous Brands?’
“The Exco of Famous Brands judged presentations by the MBA students and they appreciated the business challenge and the feedback from the Exco on the value of their proposals.
“This was not an abstract case study, but a real live business problem assessed by the management team.
“The new curriculum also includes a simulation on Business Integration, which requires the students to apply what they have learnt in a ‘competitive market’.
“Our purpose is to promote the long term success of our MBAs in everything that we do.
“We also want this success to include the students wanting to achieve something beyond themselves and thereby contribute back to society.
“Our new course, entitled ‘Business Society and Collective Action’, forces students to confront the issue of the role of business in society and more particularly their own role.
“Another new trend is the focus on the individual student.
“Our ‘Leadership Quest’ is an ongoing, independent study component of the MBA, which requires the student to use research to determine the kind of leader he or she wants to become.
“The second stage of this quest is to search the literature for solutions to how one brings about change in one’s own behaviour and habits and become the best leader one is capable of becoming.”
The new MBA curriculum also allows for greater choice in the independent study component.
Rather than the monolithic research report, students are now allowed to choose among such research topics as a consulting project, a social entrepreneurship project, a new venture creation proposal or topic of their own choice.
In line with the importance of entrepreneurship being the catalyst for job creation, this is now a core subject as opposed to being an elective on the MBA.
“The dominance of the digital world will find its way into the MBA, through the new chair in Digital Business, sponsored by Telkom.
“This will allow for the development of a centre of excellence, which will feed into the MBA programme.
“A strong theme in our MBA is that we are rooted in Africa.
“We draw extensively on our Case Study Centre to provide locally relevant cases for teaching excellence in the classroom.”
The MBA is still the sought-after qualification it has always been.
The Financial Mail’s most recent survey indicates that the Wits MBA is still the no. 1 choice for employers.
The enrolment figures have had a dramatic increase in the last two years.
In 2017, WBS will have two new cohorts entering the programme, with six intakes (full-time and part-time).
“Ultimately, the MBA is a ‘stress test’ for anyone wanting to reach their potential.
“It provides a rare opportunity to think deeply and critically - not only to absorb knowledge but to actively consider solutions in the face of complex realities.
“Entrepreneurship, innovation, learning to work with people and individual career development are just some of the powerful ingredients that ‘prep’ students to meet global business challenges, both now and in the future,” concludes Viedge. THE EMPLOYMENT tax incentive is due to expire at the end of this year, and there is uncertainty about its future.
Business has called for a two-year extension.
The incentive aims to stimulate employment for young people between 18 and 29 years and has supported about 646 000 youth jobs in 2014/15. This represents 5.7percent of all the individuals in the tax base.
According to research conducted on behalf of the National Treasury, the number of supported jobs represented 18 percent of the 3.65 million youth in employment by March last year.
The government has spent R6 billion from the start of the incentive in January 2014 until February this year.
Nedlac, a labour, business and civil society representative body, said in its recent review of the employment tax incentive (ETI) it was clear that the scheme had a positive impact on employment.
The incentive encourages employers to hire workers between the ages of 18 years and 29 years and who earn less than R6000.
Employers get a monthly incentive – depending on the salary offered – for two years.
The government has proposed the continuation of the incentive, but with a cap of R20 million on the value which an employer can claim.
This has not been met with huge enthusiasm.
Tanya Cohen, Business Unity SA’s representative on the Nedlac ETI task team, is not in favour of a monetary cap. She said if one considered the 2014/15 statistics at least 92 000 jobs would have been excluded from the scheme if there was a cap.
Cohen said research was inconclusive about the impact of a cap. “It would therefore be irresponsible to impose the cap based on the limited evidence available.
“Every youth job that can be supported is critical.”
Subsidiaries
Jaco la Grange, the chair of the personal tax technical work group at the South African Institute of Tax Professionals (Sait), said it could have an adverse effect on companies operating through different divisions within the same company as opposed to companies that operate through different subsidiaries.
La Grange said a company that paid young employees between R2 000 and R4 000 per month would be eligible for a R1 000 tax incentive per employee.
This meant that only 1666 jobs would be supported (R1000 x12 x 1666 = R19.9m).
Business Unity SA said in a presentation to the standing committee on finance in Parliament this week that the cap would unintendedly penalise companies that were leveraging the incentive to create youth jobs in conjunction with skills development.
Rob Cooper, the chairman of the industry body Payroll Authors Group of South Africa, said he had been a vocal supporter of the incentive, but had also been critical of the complexities in the design of the incentive.
It undermined efficient, easy and low-cost administration, and outweighed the economic rationale of the incentive.
‘Many thousands of employers are simply not interested… for this reason.’
He referred to the formula that payrolls must use to calculate the incentive. Cooper explained that the three-step formula required “grossing-up” and “grossing down” calculations when someone did not work a full month.
“The identification of a partial month in the face of modern, flexible working arrangements has been an on-going problem since the first day. The calculations and the data that the employer must provide for the grossing-up puts a significant administrative burden on the employer and the payroll.”
Cooper said the complexities resulted in expensive administration,