How B-Schools Must Prep for the Next Revolution

As the world of business is undergoing major changes, so does business education. In our changing world, it’s difficult to predict what business will be like in the future.

Still, according to Margaret Andrews from Inside Higher Ed, even though the changes are fast and unpredictable, business schools still can catch up with them.

The Changing Skills

According to P&Q, one of the three crucial skills needed for future business will be creativity. As new technologies, products and processes are emerging every day, every worker should up their creativity to adapt to these changes. It’s certainly true that many jobs will be done by machines in the next few years, but robots lack human creativity.

The ten most important future skills are as follows:

According to experts, the changes in skills shown by this list will happen as part of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, which includes the advance of AI, machine learning, robotic help in all industries etc. As many jobs will become obsolete, more will appear on the work landscape. The new jobs will need a specific set of skills. Hence, workers should start developing it before the changes happen.

What Can B-Schools Do?

Margaret Andrews believes that to be able to stay in tune with the changes in industries, business schools will have to change the way they teach their students. First and foremost, the attitude to learning should be revised: students need to get used to the fact that to keep their jobs, they will have to learn throughout all their lives. As many people choose continuing their careers over retiring, they’ll have to adapt to the new demands. That’s why educational institutions should learn to cater for students of all ages.

Additionally, a more profound look at innovation is needed, as without it, there can be no change.

Another important point is that, while the business education industry has been focusing primarily on proficiency, it’s now time to pay more attention to ‘people skills’. The way management is done in a company directly influences the performance of employees.

Along with ‘people skills’, ethical behavior is something that needs to be taught from a very early age, otherwise society won’t be able to change in a positive way that will make the world a much better place for us.

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