The University of Sydney Business School has taken a futurist’s approach to education by launching a new MBA program designed to prepare students for business’ unknown horizon.
The new Leadership and Enterprise MBA is a full time program where ‘learn by doing’ is the order of the day, where students are immersed in an experiential learning format that provides skills and knowledge to build and lead future enterprises in a digital, hyper-connected world from tech start-ups to major corporations.
The University of Sydney MBA program focusses on the personal and interpersonal skills needed to effectively manage and lead in business and building business resilience and sustainability. The program’s units are followed by a Capstone unit which ties everything together by having students develop customer-centric products and services aligned with the strategy of a contemporary, real-world organisation.
The entire program will run alongside the School’s part-time MBA and is taught over 18 months in an intensive format, where students complete two units of study at a time over a seven to eight-week period.
University of Sydney MBA Director Guy Ford said the program promised to prepare participants to “thrive in a world of ambiguity and uncertainty”, and would shine over traditional programs which he claimed were “less relevant in an increasingly complex and volatile world”.
“To do this, we will focus on developing skills around creativity, critical analysis and a systems approach to problem solving,” Professor Ford said.
“Participants in our new style MBA can look forward to an individually tailored learning experiences including a very high degree of experiential learning.”
The first group of student to participate in the University of Sydney MBA Leadership and Enterprise program are also set to shake up the current MBA climate, forming a gender and culturally diverse cohort.
The cohort will include members India, China and Australia, but also Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Barbados, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Zimbabwe. Uniquley, students from the US will make up almost a quarter of the entire class.
Kathryn Harris, who grew up in New York City, is one such student who will take on the new program. “The University of Sydney’s focus on future digital economies was the key differentiator for me,” she said.
“Global Economies are evolving and demand new skill sets and mental frameworks that are not considered in traditional MBA programs but are at the forefront of Sydney’s MBA curriculum.”
University of Sydney Business School Dean Greg Whitwell welcomed the cultural mix saying that it would enrich the program and improve learning outcomes. He has described the program as symbolic of the School’s role in “an era of extraordinary changes in the scale, scope and complexity of forces such as digital technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, the peer-to-peer economy, and historically unprecedented demographic shifts”.
“This is a unique industry oriented and leadership focused program and it will produce a new generation of creative business leaders with new skills, greater confidence, international experience and a capacity to deliver outstanding results,” Professor Whitwell said.
