Do MBAs need to be redesigned to future-proof skills?

Education has long been regarded to be a pillar of a workplace’s development, forming the cornerstone of a business’s success.

Leaders and employees in management positions have required a foundation of business acumen, leadership and decision-making traits through education to ensure a company’s organisational, financial and workforce management, growth and longevity.

Master of Business Administration (MBA) qualifications prepare prospective leaders for business management, but evolving work landscapes have resulted in the risk of technical, professional, management and interpersonal skills becoming obsolete. 

Due to this, adaptation in the present is vital for the MBA to remain relevant as it prepares those seeking management roles for successful future business growth.

The growing importance of MBA courses in businesses

Former local government politician and FM Health Group Director Hayley Edwards said MBA programs had become a requirement for managerial positions.

“For companies with litigation and governance standards, business is done differently now than it was 20 years ago, where you could just do on-the-job training,” she said.

“The governance standards now involve legal obligations, industrial relations and all those things combined.

“Now, any company, employer and chief executive officer want to have assurance that the person they hire is across all the risk factors.

“An MBA provides a guarantee to the employer that they have an understanding of the risk and governance space.”

Ms Edwards, who is currently studying for an MBA, said an MBA was a blueprint of knowledge universal across small businesses and large corporations, through to the political landscape.

Through her experience as a company director and roles in local government, Ms Edwards had the opportunity to witness how this applied to her work.

“It helps you to think strategically, manage resources efficiently and lead teams,” she said.

Transforming MBAs for changing workplaces

With workplace landscapes evolving, Ms Edwards said MBA qualifications needed to adapt to keep up with the new requirements.

She believed artificial intelligence (AI) would play an important role in the process, helping to predict situations and trends that could impact a business.

“MBAs have to use real-life scenarios,” Ms Edwards said.

“As you’re going through those assessments and analysis, you should actually be implementing the changes of the current day.

“The technical aspect of some of these core subjects in MBAs will evolve where it’s more about integrating AI or analytics into systems and ensuring the data input is correct, and then how to interpret the data after the AI result has come about.

“The only way MBAs are going to continue is when we’re given assessments based on real-time data, real-time business cases and current trends.”

MBA’s traditional tools remain relevant

Ms Edwards said the merits of an MBA would still be viable as an important educational tool for preparing prospective employees for management positions.

Though digital technology is becoming instrumental in the way an MBA meets evolving challenges within business management, traditional skills will still be required as technical difficulties emerge.

Ms Edwards said technical, professional, management and interpersonal skills taught in an MBA would not become obsolete as work environments changed.

“If tools go down and we don’t have the internet or we don’t have access to AI, we’re still going to need the skill set to manually interpret information,” she said.

“We can’t solely rely on AI, even though it may be used the majority of the time in the future.”

Ms Edwards said Australian MBAs needed to remain competitive and continue to evolve and meet the demands of technology.

She said education institutions needed to focus on technology and sustainability throughout their MBA qualifications as businesses further transition into a digital-dominant work landscape.

“The competitiveness needs to be there to make people see value in it,” Ms Edwards said.

“The integration of AI and other emerging technologies is where they need to focus on moving forward.”