Business consultancy Deloitte has launched an SA business school. The Deloitte Alchemy School of Management will offer customised executive education for leaders and executives in government and the private sector.
Founding dean Martyn Davies says it will compete head-on with university and private sector schools. Besides local lecturers, it will use teaching expertise from the global Deloitte network, particularly the US and UK.
Davies says: "As a group, we already offer business advice to many SA clients. It makes sense for us to expand our service into formal education."
The Deloitte group runs a university with campuses in the US, Europe and Asia. It is about to launch an executive education joint venture with an international business school. Davies says SA is one of several countries where Deloitte will offer executive education.
Established local schools say Alchemy will be a credible market competitor but will lack academic and research context. Most SA schools are university-based and offer a range of academic qualifications, including MBAs and PhDs.
Davies, who says such qualifications "are not on our radar currently", responds: "No one can question our academic rigour. A lot of us already teach at business schools, as faculty or visiting professors. We have countless PhDs in the organisation. We advise corporate clients daily, so our expertise is grounded in experience, not theory. We drive new knowledge every day."
Deloitte’s SA auditing business, like that of most major competitors, has suffered severe reputational damage in recent times. Davies insists this has not affected Alchemy. "We are getting no negative responses because of that."
Ironically, given the problems that have caused most of that damage, one of the key subjects Alchemy will teach is governance. "It’s the major trend of our time," says Davies. "The story of emerging markets is one of governance."
The SA school, which will concentrate on upper management, will not limit itself to the local market. Africa, where Deloitte has customers in most countries, is an obvious target. But Davies adds: "We’re not constrained by geography. I’m being approached from all over the world."
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