It MIGHT be trite, but the world is a very different place to what it was three years ago before the advent of the Coronavirus. We are all very different too, even if we don’t think so.
COVID-19 was not an event in and of itself, but rather an inflection point ramping up the change wrought by digitisation and the advent of the fourth industrial revolution to warp speed.
People very quickly discovered – as businesses were shut down and they themselves were cloistered at home – that there was no safety net or comfort blanket anymore. This led to them doing one of two things: seeking solace from cult-like leaders, political or otherwise, who promised they had the solution – or becoming determined to seek that solution themselves.
Whether these were people imprisoned in jobs by circumstance, whether personal or professional, the result was the same: going out to get educated to unlock their potential and exploit the opportunities that they knew were out there. The difference is that they didn’t just want any education, they wanted education that would deliver.
Corporate adaptation & upskilling
At the same time, companies emerged from the pandemic realising that they needed to change how they did things if they were not just going to survive but thrive. These companies understood that the best way to do this was to upskill their greatest resource – the people who work for them.
The net result was the same; a move away from brands to brand promise when it comes to 
what institutions of higher learning are offering. The trend has emerged that it is not enough just to have the label of having studied at a particular place, even if it might look good on a CV or LinkedIn, what people need is the ability to walk the talk and to have learnt those skills at an institution with a proven track record of caring for far more than the bottom line.
MBA – embracing change & innovation
There has been increased interest in the flagship of all management programmes – the MBA, and rightfully so. A great MBA gives you the ability to…
Jon Foster-Pedley | Dean | Director | Henley Business School Africa | mail me |
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Read the full article by Jon Foster-Pedley, Dean and Director, Henley Business School Africa, as well as a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the December/January 2023/4 edition of BusinessBrief.
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