What should a Business Education give you?
There is a strong argument that in the future everyone will need to have had a business education. Whatever you do in your professional life, the chances are that it will involve some 'business’. Scientists, engineers, even artists, will inevitably have to understand at least the basics of business, and probably a lot more.
Today’s management gurus, the people who are forecasting the way we will do business at the beginning of the 21st century, are saying that the companies of the future will consist of groups of specialists who work together on a specific project and then disband. For the next project the composition of the group will almost certainly be different. One of the consequences of this is that many more people will be what we call today ‘independent’, and will have to understand more about the opportunities and constraints of business.
In other words, the combination of specialist qualification and business knowledge will become vital.
But it is not just ‘knowledge’ of business. Before embarking on a business education you need to ask yourself a basic question, ‘what should a business education give me?’
Most subjects that one studies are composed of theory and practice. The important question is, where does one end and the other start? In many cases there is obviously no clear-cut answer to this.
Business is a practical subject. It sounds obvious, but it seems too easily to be forgotten.
Let me explain what I mean by this simple statement. Business cannot be compared with chemistry, physics, mathematics, law, which can be purely theoretical i.e. little or no practical work is required in order to be an ‘expert’. Business can be compared with medicine. No doctor is allowed near a real live patient purely on the basis of book study (otherwise the patient would probably not be alive for very long!).
How do doctors learn the practical skills? - they are taught by practising doctors, they make diagnoses of real situation s under the guidance and supervision of practising doctors.
Why is business a practical subject?
The reason is that in business you have to DO things, take decisions, take action, monitor results. You cannot operate any business by just planning what to do on paper. Planning is, of course, an important step in the process, but there are many examples of businesses which have had excellent plans but failed because no one implemented the ideas.
So, isn’t the best way to learn about how to do business, to work in a business and learn from others? NO
In the heat of battle, and business today becomes a battle, you cannot learn to fight, there are too many day-to-day pressures, and few people have the time (or the capability) to explain what is happening and, more importantly for someone trying to learn, the reason for decisions.
The alternative is to simulate the dynamism of real business in the classroom, but without the pressures.
How can this be done?
By having people who know about business, teach business. Who knows better about business than the people actually doing business now - the successful business practitioners of today. This has been BSL’s philosophy from the start.
What does this mean in practice?
First of all, the faculty are a special breed of people. They not only have high academic qualifications, but are also current, successful practitioners of the ideas they are discussing, "What we are doing right now" is a phrase often heard in BSL. But, the thing which really makes the faculty special is their ability to teach, the skill to communicate both knowledge of an enthusiasm for a subject.
One of the important things these people know is that very few business situations will fit the textbook example. The comparison with medicine is again valid. Each situation can be described as unique, requiring its own unique solution. To be able to do this requires that people are able to analyse a situation, examine various alternatives and combine parts of solutions to solve the particular problem being faced. BSL teaches people to do this.
There are, in addition, several other aspects of simulating the real business world in the school which are important. Only a business practitioner faculty knows about these things and can correctly incorporate them into the l earning process. Business today is global. Even the smallest company is affected by happenings outside its immediate geographical boundaries. Medium and large companies are automatically involved in cross-border business. The young businessman and women needs to understand this, and, where necessary, to be able to exploit the situation. It is not possible today to teach domestic business an global or international business as separate subjects. The BBA and MBA degrees must be in Global Business Management.
In the real world of business, few people can or are expected to solve a problem by themselves. The value of multiple imputes in reaching a better solution is widely recognised. But the sharing of ideas, the acceptance of other people’s ideas, and the learning from other approaches is not always a natural process. Students must be encouraged to actively participate. Statements must be challenged by faculty and other students. Attack and defence of ideas, and the assimilation of other approaches are important parts of the learning process. The benefits gained from the participation learning approach are further enhanced by a multi-cultural student body. Students who come from literally the four corners of the world, bring with them all the advantages, disadvantages, fairness and prejudice of centuries of cultural heritage. These characteristics manifest themselves in sometimes totally different approaches to solving business problems. From all of these approaches there is something to learn. To come back to the original question, ‘what should a business education give me?’ The answer is, the tools to enable you to make an immediate contribution to global business. These tools are:
- the ability to use the contingency approach to solving business problems, combining the best parts of several solutions into a unique and better solution
- having a global perspective
- working with and learning from others
The BBA and MBA programmes which offer these tools are spearheading the education of a new generation of business people.
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