By Jorge Haddock, Robins School, University of Richmond

There is an educational crisis that has been so extensively cited that we may have grown too accustomed to its presence:  the shortage of engineers and scientists needed to permit companies and industries to compete globally.  Unfortunately, with demand for these skills soaring because of technology itself as well as economic booms in China, India and elsewhere, we are fighting a losing battle if our definition of success is simply increasing the number of engineers and scientists. 

We should not, however, declare defeat but instead focus on the underlying reasons for those engineers and scientists:  finding better, faster, and cheaper ways to create new products and services, or deliver existing ones, is at the core of everyone’s competitive growth strategy. 

Innovation is the goal, and it must extend to finding better ways of using the talent we already have. Not surprisingly, business and institutional leaders don’t believe their organizations are doing a very good job, even though they are in strong agreement about the competitive imperative they confront.

Arguably, technology, innovation, and globalization are the top three issues facing corporations world-wide. In practice, they are merging into a closely related set of competitive requirements. For educators, therefore, the real crisis that I truly want to bring to your attention is the need to create tomorrow’s business leaders by educating and training young managers today on how to successfully lead organizations through the integration of technology, innovation, and globalization.

We also need to provide effective educational opportunities for existing executives in those three areas. I do not mean savvy business managers who are technologically and globally aware, but junior and senior business managers and executives who can lead the way, effect and manage change, and exploit opportunities that exist at the intersection of technology, globalization, and innovation. These leaders must possess the right mix of technical and people skills to effectively lead cultural change, encourage and empower employees at all levels and around the world. That is the type of global business leader required at companies that will thrive in the environment of business innovation and competitiveness which now exists.

The Real Crisis: Lack of Integrated Business Education

Business education and training tend to concentrate on each of these areas independently via separate curricula. Our students and managers are learning and operating in silos within each of these subjects. To successfully compete in the corporate world, the key is not to concentrate on each of these areas independently, but rather to train our future leaders how to efficiently integrate these critical issues of globalization, technology, and innovation to make the best business decisions possible.

Our goal should be nothing less than creating a new breed of leadership able to develop responsive organizations that maximizes each individual’s contributions. Combined with ongoing educational partnerships, these new leaders will be able to provide employees with breakthrough human technology that generates new perspectives and leads to organizational growth.

The key components for effective global leadership development programs are business educators, strategic partnerships between universities and corporations, and executive education, plus appropriate types of educational delivery systems (i.e., experiential learning).

• Our students must be taught how these three critical issues of globalization, technology, and innovation affect their current or potential employers and their areas of concentration.  New trends in curriculum development—horizontal and hybrid (i.e., a combination of a traditional curriculum with co-curricular activities) attempt to address these issues.
   
• Strategic partnerships also are important for educational institutions. For instance, my institution—The University of Richmond—plans to sustain its status as a premier liberal arts university and does not aspire to become a major technological university. But we can, and intend to, create new technical educational partnerships to provide interested students with opportunities at engineering and technical schools at, for instance, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, as well as our university’s own schools of Leadership, Law and Arts & Sciences.
   
• The “revolutionary” approach to business education in the 1980s and 1990s was the case study approach. In the 21st Century, experiential learning—in and out of the classroom—is serving as the cutting-edge approach to business curricula.
   
• Executive education revolves around a commitment to lifelong learning. Today, virtually all markets and industries are highly dynamic and successful leaders require, and demand, constant learning.

The challenges are huge, but so are the opportunities, and it is up to us to make them happen. Business education can, and must, lead the way in mastering the ways that innovation, globalization, and technology are creating capitalistic opportunities for many people around the globe and, thus, a better quality of life.

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