Where is the next generation of SA business school leaders?

Where is the next generation of SA business school leaders? Most SA university schools have either started looking for a new dean or director or are about to, but there are few obvious candidates in sight.

SA used to be an international breeding ground for school leadership, creating a free-flowing talent pipeline not just for the local market but also for schools in the UK, the US and Europe. Today, however, SA is struggling to meet its own needs.

The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business has been without a director since June 2018, when Mills Soko resigned. He recently joined the academic faculty at Wits Business School.

Nicola Kleyn, dean of the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), announced last month she would step down next April when her five-year term expires.

Piet Naude, dean of the University of Stellenbosch Business School, is due to retire at the end of 2021, but will hand over late next year to take an overdue sabbatical.

At Wits, Sibusiso Sibisi is nearing the end of the second year of a five-year contract after being lured out of retirement to plug the leadership gap. Sources say Wits University has begun to look to the future.

The University of the Free State Business School’s Helena van Zyl, a stalwart of the sector and mentor to a number of other deans, is due to retire in two years.

Meanwhile, the university business schools at KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Unisa are all led by acting directors.

It seems odd that a sector dedicated to instilling leadership skills in others should be so short of those skills itself. Rhodes Business School’s Owen Skae, one of the few directors going nowhere for the time being, believes there are potential leaders in the system but it will take some years for them to come through.

Van Zyl says the problem is not unique to business schools. "It is a recurring challenge in higher education," she says. "Succession and talent pipelines are created in many instances but transformational requirements sometimes nullify them."

Part of the problem, says Naude, is that there are so many pressures on a modern-day dean. "It’s one of the toughest appointments a university has to make," he says. "You need multiple skills rarely found in one person. The ideal person would be an academic with research experience. They must also have business experience, understand the corporate world and business education."

That’s just the start. Deans also need to understand SA’s sometimes toxic social, economic and political environment, and business schools’ role within it.

Then there’s university politics. Many universities don’t understand the role of their school so there may be a constant battle for independent thought and action.

"The best candidates are often the last people the university would be prepared to appoint," says Johannesburg Business School’s Lyal White. "Even when the right people are there, they see everything that’s involved and don’t want the job."

Skae says this disruption should be an attraction. "This is an exciting time to be a dean — there’s so much going on. The right person can have an incredible impact within SA society."

Henley Africa dean Jon Foster-Pedley says: "Being a dean today is a craft and a profession on its own. But universities move so slowly they have failed to see the changing context in which we operate and the kind of leaders we need."

Universities have occasionally recruited foreign academics, believing business globalisation requires global leaders. Some of these appointments have succeeded but most haven’t.

"You can have the most brilliant person but if they can’t understand or navigate the local landscape, you’re lost," says Foster-Pedley.

Naude says: "An international mindset doesn’t mean you have to ignore local talent. The ideal candidate would be a South African who has been in an overseas school and now wants to return and use that experience locally. That gives you someone with a mixture of local knowledge and international perspective."

Such people are in short supply. Throw in the fact that most universities want to appoint a black dean or director, and the list of available candidates shrinks further. Add rewards available in the private sector for black management talent, and the well is almost dry.

It needn’t be, says Randall Jonas, director of Nelson Mandela University Business School and chair of the SA Business Schools Association.

"The talent is there but it won’t flourish on its own," he says. Schools must unite to identify and develop the necessary skills. "I don’t think there has been enough discussion about what is required by a 21st century dean," he says.