Prof. Alon Rozen
In the 1980s, the primary motivation for doing an MBA was probably a desire to master marketing, as that was seen as the shortest career path to the C-suite. In the 1990s, there was a desire for well-paying jobs in finance that drove many to pursue an MBA (with the exception of marketers who were being promoted and realized that (oops!) they knew nothing about marketing). With the rise of the MBA as a foundational rite of passage for the “serious” (read ambitious) manager, the 2000s blurred the lines as finance and marketing, but increasingly entrepreneurship, equally became the prime motivators for pursuing a business degree.
After the global financial crisis, finance as a career lost much of its luster; however, a deeper understanding of, and fluency in, corporate and project finance became even more important for anyone looking for a strategic role in any business.
Entering the Age of Complexity
Fast forward to today’s business reality in which we have fully entered the age of complexity. A new reality in which we don’t (and can’t) even understand the tech we use on a daily basis. A case in point is that there is not one person on the planet who understands just the hardware in an iPhone, let alone the software, the interconnections (between hardware, software, apps, and services), and the many layers of interoperability. Not even Apple can fathom it all – which is why no matter how much they test a new version of iOS, there are always bugs that need to be squashed (the reality is similar for Android users). This is the new normal, and we need to come to terms with it. If the 737 Max is grounded today, it is mainly due to the fact that today, for the first time, the complexity of a plane is such that no amount of computer simulation and controlled flight testing can recreate all real-life circumstances a pilot can encounter. And despite this truth, Boeing or Apple cannot admit that complexity has gotten ahead of us because it would freak us all out. We still want to believe, and pardon the metaphor, that there is a pilot flying the plane.
“The CEO, Board, and entire C-suite must become tech-aware or suffer the fate of being excluded from the key decisions facing companies today.”
Overcomplicated?!
This “overcomplicated” world, as described by Samuel Arbesman in his book of the same name, tries to reassure us. His main message is that technology is now at the limits of our comprehension, such that we need 1) to understand this and 2) take a new approach to this complexity. We shouldn’t fear technology, yet we shouldn’t revere it blindly either. Instead, Arbesman suggests we should take a double approach – that of the physicist (who looks for universal theories, rules and frameworks) as well as that of the biologist (who explores nature to understand and clarify the nature of phenomena). This overcomplicated world requires tech-aware leaders and managers who can effectively navigate, communicate and innovate as physicists (top-down) and biologists (bottom-up).
A new mindset for a new era
This new era and approach requires a new mindset. This mindset is similar to what Leonard Mlodinow refers to as an “elastic mindset”. In what he terms our “whirlwind era” – typified by a rapid pace of change, accelerating technological progress, and a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment – flexible thinking is now required to survive.
If, as educators, especially in business schools, we want to prepare a new generation of MBAs to manage and lead in the workplace of today and tomorrow, it is clear that we need to rethink the MBA curriculum. While fundamental financial (and marketing) skills are still necessary arrows in a business graduate’s quiver, they will no longer suffice to gain entrance into a C-suite increasingly populated by engineers who are at ease with advanced technologies.
Tech-aware is the new requisite for entry into the C suite
While understanding technology and making technology-based decisions can no longer be delegated to the CTO or CIO (the CEO, Board, and entire C-suite must become tech-aware or suffer the fate of being excluded from the key decisions facing companies today), you would be hard-pressed to present me with any startup founder who does not spend the majority of their time on technology. That is just their reality, whether they like it or not, whether intended or not. Cloud-based and on-premise technologies, e-marketplaces, e-commerce, e-payments, dematerialization, digital transformation, coding languages, websites, search engine marketing, database technology, AI and machine learning, chatbots, open-source and proprietary software, applications, apps and APIs – these are just some of the issues and questions facing almost any founder today. And since no one can master all that sits within this highly technical spectrum of technologies, leaders with elastic thinking are required.
“Welcome to the 2020s of business education where tech-aware leadership, rather than finance-adept management, is the primary takeaway of the new MBA graduate.”
As we enter ever more firmly and durably into this new whirlwind and overcomplicated era, it is clear that we need to prepare our managers and leaders differently. Closer to home, as we thought about how to redesign our Global Executive MBA for this new era we realized 1) that technology management and tech awareness need to figure much more prominently; 2) that finance and accounting, and some of the other MBA fundamentals have become sufficiently “commoditised” as to be teachable mostly online; 3) that leadership in the form of elastic thinking and neuroplasticity needs to be an integral part of the program; 4) that innovation, lean entrepreneurship and design thinking are key underlying skills in developing flexible thinking; and 5) that participants should face an array of real-world corporate tech challenges in order to ensure that they can stress test their new skillsets in the workplace rather than in the classroom. Possibly, even more interesting, we realized that the “learning contract” needed refreshing.
The new learning contract – weighing Being heavier than Knowing
Whether at university, business school, or any other learning institution, the typical implicit learning contract is that you will learn a lot (Knowing) and, in the process, with the help of soft skills, also improve as a person (Being). There seems to be a Pareto-like distribution such that all curricula are designed for 80% knowing and 20% being. We realized that in an accelerating tech world, the half-life of knowledge is rapidly shrinking, such that the curricular balance should be rejigged 80-20 in the other direction, with being the main component. Furthermore, we realized that the content of both being and knowing needed to evolve.
“While fundamental financial (and marketing) skills are still necessary arrows in a business graduate’s quiver, they will no longer suffice to gain entrance into a C-suite increasingly populated by engineers who are at ease with advanced technologies.”
In this new era, and given the incredibly prominent role technology plays in complexifying our daily lives, it seems we need to design a curriculum that is adapted to a VUCA new normal. What I refer to as the new (T for technological) era. In this era, the learning contract and the content of its components require a serious rethink.
From know-how to be-how
Knowing component of education needs to change. Whereas, until now, business schools taught hard skills that had a somewhat long half-life, the speed of business change, driven by the acceleration of technological progress, means that the skills we learned even five years ago are already outdated. So hard skills per se are a moving target and, let’s be frank, are now readily packaged for consumption and accessible online more than ever before. So, what is really needed is the new soft skill of learning how to continuously learn new hard skills. Whereas lifelong learning was a “nice to have” business schools offered alumni, it is now imperative to survive and thrive in the new VUCAT business arena. When our technology is too overcomplicated to master, the question of relevant skills we should and can teach business students about technology is one that keeps many of us in education awake at night.
If you look at the top business books being published, many of them are focused on the convergence of multiple new technologies that will further accelerate the pace of change in domains as varied as agriculture, carbon capture, communication, finance, health, insurance, manufacturing, and mobility. No manager can be expected to master even a sliver of these technologies, yet harnessing their potential combined will define the winners and losers of the coming decades.
This is why Being needs such a radical rethink. It now needs to go beyond the usual attribution of “socialization”, which includes various soft skills, as well as ethics, to include the latest developments in neuroscience, adaptation, agility, collaboration, creativity, diversity and divergent thinking, intercultural issues, self-awareness and self-knowledge, effective decision-making in uncertain circumstances, situational leadership and situational followership, as well as articulating a vision. In all fairness, most MBAs have added a lot on this dimension to their programs in recent years, but we think it is necessary to go much further – and we have.
“Whereas lifelong learning was a ‘nice to have’ business schools offered alumni, it is now imperative to survive and thrive in the new VUCAT business arena.”
Technology – yes! But in its proper context
If a bigger part of knowing must now naturally skew from technical to technological acumen and, due to overcomplication, from mastery to awareness, one can be fooled into thinking that technology is the center of the universe. However, what we are really talking about, ultimately, is effective innovation management. It just so happens that technology has become a powerful catalyst for innovation. Technology allows us to do more, to rethink business models, to redesign workflows, and to imagine new approaches. If successful innovation is driven by design thinking and lean innovation (build-test-learn loops), without the increased tech awareness I have alluded to in this article, it is like the parable of the five Indians trying to describe an elephant. We can fool ourselves into thinking that we know what we are talking about, but we are actually clueless. Innovating without awareness of what technologies can do and are doing is a form of flying blind (or at least with a blindfold). It cannot lead to much.
This is why we take a different approach at École des Ponts Business School – deemphasizing some traditional aspects of the MBA to emphasize more relevant aspects: real-world challenges, new technologies, innovative business models, lean innovation, project-based learning, harnessing collective intelligence to solve current business problems, and a new approach to agile leadership that harnesses advances in neuroscience and emotional intelligence.
Our LeadTech Executive MBA is our best attempt to prepare business students for the agility and understanding necessary to assume effective leadership positions in this new VUCAT world. And clearly, we will have to test and learn, listen and react, learn how to teach (better), and, of course, change and adapt. We need to walk the talk of the new business survival toolbox. Welcome to the 2020s of business education, where tech-aware leadership, rather than finance-adept management, is the primary takeaway of the new MBA graduate.
Biography
Alon Rozen is the Dean of École des Ponts Business School and Associate Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
