White Paper: Amplifying the impact of African business schools
Jon Foster-Pedley, Dean and Director, Henley Business School Africa and Chairperson, Association of African Business Schools, June, 2022.
If business schools fail to have an impact on their students and the clients for whom they work, then they are inadequately fulfilling their mandate. In Africa, where context, societal demands, and widespread development challenges are far-reaching, business schools must be especially cognisant of the influence they wield and their potential to make an imprint that extends beyond the role of business to the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable ecosystem.
It’s time that business schools stopped sitting on the side-lines
To achieve the required depth of impact, African business schools must walk a glocal tightrope between positioning themselves in the global order as institutions of quality and relevance, and adapting the prevailing business school model to make a tangible difference in African societies through practical outputs and measurable influence.
Build a collaborative system, not just a business school
Now, why should African business schools care about impact? Is it simply because it has become a buzzword for business schools the world over? Is it because management education institutions are battling for legitimacy in a world of easy-to-access digital solutions and a wealth of educational options? Or is it because producing quality leaders capable of navigating changing global and African contexts has ripple effects beyond business?
This paper sets out to categorise input from key commentators in an effort to better understand the areas where African business schools could be making a difference. Thereafter, the paper broadens the discussion to ways in which institutions of business and management education in Africa can reinvent themselves and their curricula to embrace a broader, more strategic role in society.
Areas of impact
While the findings and insights gathered were in-depth and wide-ranging, several areas of impact were drawn out, which were broadly grouped as having either direct impact, social impact, or systemic impact.
Direct impact refers to the business model and pedagogical approach of business schools
themselves. This spills over to the broader social impact, which encompasses the society, students, and organisations that African business schools cater to and whose experience of the business school offering affects personal and professional approaches to business and Apply Now leadership as well as the mindset and culture of organisations and their leaders.
Finally, systemic impact broadens the areas of impact to include country-specific influences,
which have the potential to fundamentally change the national approach and discourse around key differentiators, such as leadership style and each country’s standing in a globalised world.
The compass should be Africa
The qualitative data gathered highlighted a clear trend when it came to the impact of African business schools, namely that these institutions should be positioning themselves beyond the limits of business and carving out a space that moves beyond a narrow production of MBAs to contributing towards building more sustainable countries that collectively support Africa’s development. As one commentator observed:
“Business schools are about producing transformative leaders for society. Leaders with the relevant knowledge and know-how to drive this continent forward…. One of the ways we should measure business schools is the impact on the quality of the graduates and moving the continent forward by solving key and major challenges and issues facing the continent. If we are not producing problem-solvers … with the right competencies with the right vision for this content, then we are failing as a group of business schools.”
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