Trends in business education in 2023

The entire world would now like to believe that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is over. While we continue to struggle with the loss and damage left behind by the virus, we also face an evolving geopolitical crisis.

As organisations continue to navigate the present times through careful planning and execution, we anticipate that the impact of the present and recent past on the business education landscape is significant.

At a time when massive downsizing exercises coexist with the ‘quiet quitting’ phenomenon, and the hope of rebuilding is sometimes overshadowed by the looming sense of the next global depression, how should management institutions prepare their students for tomorrow?

Fundamentally, to evolve with the times, management or business education at all levels should adopt an interdisciplinary approach grounded on the principles of liberal education policy.

The managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs of tomorrow have to learn and apply knowledge from a wide range of disciplines to solve complex problems and make critical decisions. These disciplines need not be limited only to the conventional domains of management like marketing, finance, human resources, operations, analytics or entrepreneurship.

A valued inclusion of critical knowledge and ideas from diverse fields including, but not limited to, environmental science, social science, public policy, design, law, and performing arts is to be expected. An increased focus on entrepreneurial skills as part of the management programmes is foreseeable.

The mission of B-schools

As workplaces, workers, and work itself are going through major transformations, there is a critical need for a review of conventional management wisdom. One critical element missing in conventional business education is an ecosystem which allows students to practise what is being taught in the classroom. So implications are not just on programme design but also on the way new universities in general and business schools, in particular, have to reimagine themselves.

World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs' report (2020), in the Indian context, underlined 15 emerging skills that would be most valuable in the employment market. Apart from the obvious emphasis on technological skills, it includes a range of interpersonal, behavioural, cognitive and social skills. Not surprisingly perhaps, the National Economic Policy 2020 has also prioritised the need for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary programmes.

The mission of B-schools should be to instil in the graduates an ability to think critically, a strong disciplinary understanding, a broad perspective on issues and problems through multiple lenses, and ample experiences and skills to solve real-life problems.

The focus should be on multidisciplinary learning, with scope for in-depth exploration within the discipline, and ‘learning by doing’. Organisations should work closely with students, industry partners, academics and other important stakeholders to craft new-age managers who are well-versed in their own domains and have the ability to assimilate and implement learnings from other domains.

It is also critical to train not only domain experts but socially conscious, self-aware global citizens who can emerge as leaders in years to come.

As our nation marches towards becoming a $5 trillion economy, management educators and institution developers share the enthusiasm in contributing to that mission significantly. In the end, we all have to rethink these three pillars of learning in higher education. Rethink teaching and learning, review learning outcomes, evaluate its impact and rethink the delivery and role of technology in the new normal.

(The authors are Associated Dean and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the School of Business, RV University)