Environmental and social sustainability are vital for the long-term future of business and the planet. But in a crisis-riven short term, it seems companies are willing to temporarily set aside their moral responsibilities in favour of immediate survival and a return to financial stability.
In market research for this cover story, employers were asked to identify the most important challenges facing business in 2022 that business schools should be addressing in the classroom. Sustainability came a poor 20th, with only 3% identifying it as a priority.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the biggest proportion of companies want guidance on leadership during a period of dramatic change. Covid was merely the precursor to what appears now to be an impenetrable wall of upheavals for SA business: riots, floods, electricity blackouts, water rationing, rampant crime, economic chaos, and an international supply-chain crisis made worse by war and the after-effects of Covid.
“Many businesses suffered during the Covid pandemic and a lot are devising comeback strategies to regain competitive advantage,” one CEO tells the FM. “Business schools should put more focus on ... risk management, contingency planning and financial management during hard times.”
Economic instability and unemployment weren’t far behind on the list of critical challenges. Completing the top 10, in order, were digitisation, skills shortages, the fourth industrial revolution, corruption, quality leadership, government regulation and strategy implementation.
Even global war and political instability ranked above sustainability.
Fulu Netswera, head of the Durban University of Technology Business School, is “surprised but not surprised” by the outcome. “Under normal circumstances, I would have expected sustainability to be top of the list. But these are not normal circumstances,” he says.
Udesh Pillay, director of the University of the Free State Business School, believes the result may reflect the fact that some companies only pay lip service to sustainability and the environment. When the heat is on, they revert to type.
Whatever the corporate view, SA’s business schools say sustainability will remain a core part of both executive education and academic programmes. “This does not dilute its importance in any way,” says Pillay.
Globally, commitment to what has become known as ESG — environmental, social and governance concerns — is growing. “There is big demand for our clients to be part of the force for good,” Sharmla Chetty, the SA-born CEO of the Duke Corporate Education group, tells the FM. “They want to do what is right.”
It’s notable that traditional subjects such as management, leadership, project management and finance remain the staple executive education diet of most schools — though it’s heartening to see that the need for women leaders is also being increasingly addressed (see “Meeting the Demand” table).
There’s also growing pressure for practical management programmes, says Leoni Grobler, head of executive education at Wits Business School. “All the programmes I have registered are active learning [ones], rather than academic [ones]. Clients say there is not enough applied learning.”
Employers have another message for business schools: take more of a lead in facilitating national debates on matters of social, economic and political importance. Schools have a unique blend of practical and academic expertise, particularly on economic issues, and employers say they are well-placed to act as neutral “umpires”.
Of companies polled, 86% say business schools have a role to play, but only 45% believe they are fulfilling it.
The Gordon Institute of Business Science, part of the University of Pretoria, remains the leading go-to school for most executive education corporate respondents; 54% say it’s among schools they consider for programmes, followed by the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (50%), Wits Business School (47%), Stellenbosch Business School (42%), Henley Africa (28%), University of Johannesburg, or UJ (20%), Unisa (18%), and Milpark and the university schools of Rhodes and Free State (all on 11%).
Unisa will be disappointed with its showing. Its Graduate School of Business Leadership is one of the most recognised school brands among employers: 67% know it well. But fewer than one-third of these will use it for executive education — a reflection, says department head Peet Venter, of years of strategic drifting during an extended period of revolving-door leadership.
Under dean Pumela Msweli, appointed at the end of 2020, and Venter, who took the executive education reins in the middle of 2021, the tide has started to turn. But it will take time to recover lost ground in an increasingly competitive market.
Johannesburg Business School (JBS) has a different problem. The five-year-old school is part of UJ’s college of business and economics, which includes a school of management, but is not a formal business school. While the UJ business education brand is familiar to 55% of employers, only 24% know JBS, and 10% say they will send employees there for executive education — half the number that will consider UJ.
Aggregate SA executive education student numbers are starting to recover, but they remain well below pre-Covid levels. International student numbers from outside Africa have plummeted by more than 80% from three years ago.
Some business schools have taken a significant hit on executive education revenue — not just because of falling numbers, but also because many clients expect to pay less for online programmes than for face-to-face sessions in the classroom or on company premises. Business schools, they say, are saving money on catering, travel, facilities and a host of other traditional expenditure items.
However, the schools argue that these savings are more than offset by the cost of installing state-of-the-art online teaching technology, such as virtual reality and modern film studios.
Says Henley Africa dean Jon Foster-Pedley: “The cost of going virtual is much more than the savings.”
He adds that Henley Africa spent “an absolute fortune” importing nearly 80 air purifiers from South Korea and revamping the Joburg campus’s ventilation system to protect staff and students from the ongoing effects of Covid.
That’s one reason for the big spread in programme costs. It may be because of a school’s reputation, but it’s also because some schools have reduced fees for online programmes and others haven’t.
The accompanying table, “What’s the Damage?”, reflects the average fees across all business schools. But, as an employer, don’t assume that’s what you’ll pay. For example, fees for a 12-month open programme (average: R48,000) can go up to R78,000 at individual schools; and a one-month course (average: R22,000) up to R44,000.
On customised programmes, expect to pay up to R110,000 for 12 months, or R12,000 for one day.
Most corporates want business schools to prepare leaders for periods of dramatic change, and to address economic instability and unemployment. Sustainability comes a poor 20th on a ranking of challenges facing SA business
— What it means:
Market research for these articles was carried out by the FM’s longtime partner, Lodestar Marketing Research.
Fifteen business schools completed questionnaires about their executive education activities. They were the Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management; Durban University of Technology Business School; Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria; Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town; Henley Business School Africa; Management College of Southern Africa (Mancosa) Graduate School of Business; Milpark Business School; Nelson Mandela University Business School; North-West University Business School; Regenesys Business School; Rhodes Business School at Rhodes University; Tshwane School for Business & Society at the Tshwane University of Technology; University of the Free State Business School; Stellenbosch Business School at Stellenbosch University; and Wits Business School at Wits University.
A total of 123 employers answered questions on their executive education experience. Of these, 71% were in the private sector, 24% in the public sector and 6% in NGOs or nonprofits.
Business sectors surveyed included financial services, education, manufacturing, retail, engineering, health services, media, agriculture, construction, logistics, management consulting, property, mining, IT and energy.
— survey sampling
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