faculty focus
Creating leaders
A new MBA has a practical approach to developing the next generation of business leaders. By Aileen Macalintal
the new MBA program at the University of Sydney is connecting to businesses to enhance students’ career prospects. The flagship degree, run in partnership with the executive recruitment and talent management firm Korn / Ferry International, is expected to have a significant impact on corporate leadership in Australia.
The course was designed to build on leadership skills that companies are looking for and began earlier this month with an excellent quality cohort and a new state-of-the-art campus in the CBD.
“ You may not need an MBA to succeed, but with this MBA, your chance of success is certainly higher,” said associate professor Nick Wailes, director of the business school’ s master of business administration program.
Wailes said that prior to starting the course, a lot of time was spent talking to companies to find out what critical skills graduates require to be successful.
“ They were looking for people who can exhibit leadership skills at all levels of their career and be very effective in leading their organisation,” he said.
Wailes said the new approach involves students knowing what they’ re good at and working on those skills.“ Our program is ideal for people who are working full-time, who are ambitious and who want to accelerate their careers,” he said.
He said there is a number of collaborative activities in the program, where students can share skills needed to be effective leaders in the workplace.
“ We started the program on the first weekend of March and one of the activities is that students had a coaching conversation with people in their teams.”
Wailes said the university spent a lot of time and effort in the selection process. The main criteria for those selected was that students would be able to enhance the learning of other people in the class.
Co-dean, professor Tyrone Carlin, said:“ We have filled all of the available places in the program with an excellent quality cohort and we have a waiting list which reflects the business school’ s outstanding reputation in executive education.”
Another facet of the MBA, said Wailes, is practical learning, where students are given the opportunities to solve real problems in real settings. There is also a China-based component where students have the opportunity to spend two weeks working in Shanghai.
Wailes believes the contemporary nature of the program will give students an advantage in a dynamic business environment. The MBA program has 12 subjects, including courses on leadership development practice, strategies in innovation marketing, financial management and managing people in organisations. n
28 | March 2013