Tailor-made business programmes will be an emerging trend for businesses in the UAE and surrounding region in years to come, experts from IE Business School have said recently.
Joaquin Uribarri, IE's Director of Marketing and International Development, said that as demand for short open enrolment executive education programmes decrease, the demand for custom-made business programmes will rise; as various industries recover from the global financial crisis.
"Of course, open enrolment will recover and companies will once again start sending managers on programmes, but there is going to be significant growth in custom-made programmes," said Uribarri during a recent visit to Dubai.
The elite Spanish business school, with only one campus in Madrid, is listed sixth on the 2010 Financial Times Global MBA Rankings. IE has been offering in-house training programmes to businesses in the region from its offices in the UAE for over four years.
Uribarri cites the global financial crisis as the reason for this emerging trend as companies seek guidance from business schools.
"Companies seek to have good business schools and professors working with them on very important strategic issues because they are a bit lost," he said. "They [companies] may have some ideas but seek to contrast them with professional programmes through professors and other managers," Uribarri added.
Reference point
"Business schools are a very good think-tank and a good space to think about how things will evolve in the future," said Uribarri. "When times get tough business schools become a point of reference for companies," he added.
During a business boom or upswing, when companies are making significant profits and new investments, open enrolment programmes and executive education becomes trendy. "When times get tough for companies they find management education is a need, which is why custom programmes become so important; because they allow them [companies] to reconsider everything," said Uribarri. "My impression is that business schools become more important in times like this because companies start to look at what the schools think," he added.
Reducing costs
Yet, business schools do not set the future business agenda. "We are not setting the agenda, business schools just become more important as a point of reference," said Uribarri. "The agenda depends on a combination of what companies are doing, consulting firms are advising and business schools are researching, as well as their views of the future," said Uribarri.
He added that the first thing businesses cut back on financially during an economic crisis is training and consulting.
"Companies are reducing costs everywhere and management education is something that suffers, especially short open enrolment programmes, conferences and sector forums," said Uribarri. "However for most companies investment in their people through tailor-made programmes becomes strategic."
