Business education can play a key role in equipping leaders with the skills required to face the challenges of a rapidly evolving economic and business environment. One of the ways business schools does this is by constantly adapting to develop new and innovative courses.
“We’re seeing a growing trend among organisations towards tailored leadership learning with long-term learning pathways. This is aimed at all career levels, from graduate development to high potential leadership to senior executive development,” says Julie Ryan, head of customised and sectoral executive programmes at the Irish Management Institute (IMI).
Originally founded by business leaders for business leaders in 1952, the IMI has empowered leaders for more than seven decades. In partnership with UCC’s expert research faculty and an international network of thought leaders, it aims to equip leaders to build the future.
“As pioneers in action learning, our proprietary learning approach routinely disrupts thinking, allowing leaders to reframe challenges and experiment with solutions in a safe but dynamic environment,” she explains.
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The IMI’s Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation positions the institute in the top 2 per cent of business education providers in the world. It has been included in the Financial Times Global Rankings on 18 occasions and has been named Ireland’s top-ranked provider of customised executive education for 12 consecutive years.
But no business school can sit on its laurels, which is why it constantly develops new and cutting-edge courses such as its Transformational Sustainability in Leadership and Leading in Cyber Security programmes.
“For sustainability, it isn’t just about remaining compliant or responding to increased stakeholder pressure,” Ryan says. “Rather, leaders at all levels must think differently about the choices they make and their organisation’s environmental impact in a more ethical and climate-conscious society. To turn this challenge into an opportunity, senior leaders must develop the communication skills to translate sustainability ambitions into strategic projects. Without the right leadership tools and techniques, their organisation won’t meet its targets.”
Similarly, skills and talent shortages, issues with employee retention, and the frequency with which highly skilled technical workers are promoted to leadership roles without the requisite soft skillset or management training are just some of the urgent challenges the cybersecurity sector faces because of its exponential growth.
“Solving these challenges from a leadership perspective requires a different skillset based around awareness, empathy, emotional intelligence, communication and an ‘outside-in’ approach, marrying and translating cyber issues with general business issues,” Ryan explains.
Unfortunately, at the first sign of economic uncertainty the knee-jerk response of too many organisations has traditionally been to cut training and development budgets. That is, she says, a false economy.
“To successfully execute a strategy requires people. Investment in leadership development programs will amplify their capabilities, strengthening your opportunity of strategy success. To not invest in education is to not invest in people. To not invest in leadership development is to not invest in your future,” she notes.
She recalls that, in 2008, organisations let staff go in record numbers and cut back in areas such as education.
“I’ve had those same companies tell me this was a mistake and they were picking up the pieces for over a decade, only getting their legs back underneath them recently,” says Ryan. “With the economic and global instability over the last three years, companies that made mistakes in 2008 were the first to batten down the hatches and double down on people investment and leadership development.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen many companies — particularly in tech — repeating the same mistakes as 2008 and making mass layoffs at the first sign of a downturn. They try to grow too quickly, the market takes a turn, mass layoffs, and then they’re picking up the pieces for 10 years. Organisations that invest in people will see the benefits when they emerge on the other side after an uncertain period.”
Leaders need to be thinking five, 10, 20 years ahead, not only to ensure survival but to maintain and grow market share
Right now, however, the immediate challenge facing many leaders is being too busy working in the business to work on it.
“Leaders need to be thinking five, 10, 20 years ahead, not only to ensure survival but to maintain and grow market share and competitive differentiation. But their main day-to-day focus is planning for next year, next quarter, next week, tomorrow’s meeting,” she says.
“When you’re so focused on day-to-day operations, how can you take time to understand key market trends and signals, new technologies, all the drivers of change that will disrupt your industry?”
The key is to change their mindset and update their skillset. “The resilience leaders displayed throughout the pandemic needs to morph from a reactive mindset into a proactive mindset — beyond resilience,” says Ryan.
What a business education can do, she adds, is help leaders “push their organisations to become more agile and customer-centric, while instilling a culture of innovation and experimentation. Leaders must proactively turn threats and challenges into opportunities for growth.”
