Ken McPhail, Head of Alliance Manchester Business School and Professor of Accounting at The University of Manchester.
As a business school we know we have to equip our students with the skillset required for an ... [+]
In the years since the global pandemic, it’s become increasingly clear that we are living through one of the most disruptive phases of modern history, with a rate of social, technological and environmental change arguably faster than anything we’ve seen since the Industrial Revolution. Having set the agenda for the past two centuries, business leaders can’t afford to sit on the sidelines passively responding as this change happens around them – they need to deliver bold solutions and brave strategies that proactively shape how these changes will play out in the coming decades.
The next quarter-century will be pivotal in establishing how innovations and concepts that are in their relative infancy now, will go on to impact our daily lives. Whether economic, climate-related, technological, or geopolitical, we know that business will need to understand these shifts and tackle their associated challenges.
The ability to adapt is going to be a pivotal skill for business leaders of the future. As a business school we know we have to equip our students with the skillset required for an ever-changing business landscape in our teaching. And it’s vital that the business community embraces a culture of lifelong learning that will enable leaders to ensure they are agile to new developments.
We’re able to provide this because business educators are often embedded within the innovation ecosystems of our most creative and entrepreneurial communities. Our knowledge flows from real-world observation and on-the-ground insight. Take, for example, AMBS. Based in Manchester – a city with its own incredible innovation heritage – we are inextricably interwoven with the region’s business and political communities. Being part of those ecosystems brings with it an innate entrepreneurial mindset along with the social infrastructure that frames the academic thinking. As the school also enters its 60th year in 2025, it is this combination that will redefine business, and by implication, wider society.
Technological disruption
Take, for example, the significant challenges that businesses face in responding to the ongoing digital revolution. Being so deeply embedded in innovation and business communities means business educators are often the first to observe how most consequential new technologies and processes are being implemented, and proactively work with trailblazers to drive forward such innovation. At the same time, however, we also remain independent of those organisations and can act as a check on hyperbole or false efficacy claims. We can provide objective analysis, critiquing ethical considerations, practicalities and provide historical context. Nowhere is this more important at the moment than in the roll-out of artificial intelligence-driven tools across organisations.
Harnessing AI responsibly and ethically is a major undertaking for many organisations. Freed from a responsibility to create shareholder value or create productivity – which can so often be overriding and, at times, dangerous influences on AI adoption – academia can offer independent help on governance issues. Both in consultancy with business, and through our education of the next generation of business leaders, we are setting the tone on AI roll-out. Indeed, data from April 2020 to March 2023 shows that 7,600 students have enrolled in AI and data science postgraduate conversion courses across the UK, which has helped to address a critical digital skills gap in those industries.
Shared insight
If enterprise and entrepreneurship are essential for driving forward change and furthering new innovation, then it’s the responsibility and role of business educators to set the tone and shape the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. We can give people the tools to create and grow successful businesses and organisations that can affect positive change in an increasingly unsettled society.
How the next 25 years of social disruption play out will likely be heavily influenced by how we respond to developments in the more immediate term, and indeed, in the next year. This may well be daunting for professionals and organisations, but if businesses, policymakers and educational institutions work together as partners, such change can be turned into revolutionary opportunities. Our shared insight, analysis and expertise will be crucial for business leaders looking to make enterprise and entrepreneurship accessible to everyone.
