The Essential Connection: Industry and Academia

• Roundtable participants agree that today’s business students must develop technological skills, soft skills, and an awareness of current macro trends.
• Practitioners on the panel asked business school leaders to collaborate with them more frequently by seeking their input on the curriculum, bringing them into the classroom, and inviting them to serve as judges for hackathons and competitions.
• They also called on faculty to stay in touch with industry needs by making regular visits to corporate settings, proposing research that addresses existing problems, and pursuing research with practical relevance.

 
Business schools and their corporate partners must collaborate continuously and effectively to ensure that tomorrow’s business leaders have the latest and most relevant skills. That was the underlying theme of an event held in June in Delhi/India’s National Capital Region (NCR) as part of AACSB’s ongoing Executive Roundtable Series.

With the goal of establishing stronger partnerships between industry and academia, each roundtable brings together representatives from both sectors to discuss topics such as building the talent pipeline, shaping future leaders, advocating for education, and innovating for business. Participants identify areas within business education that require improvements, discuss the development of programs that reflect the needs of the business world, identify potential joint research opportunities, and consider lifelong learning frameworks that will support continuous professional development.

The event in NCR was hosted by the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon (MDIG). Three additional AACSB-accredited schools in India took part, including the Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) in Noida; the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) in Ghaziabad; and the International Management Institute (IMI) in Delhi. In addition to eight academic leaders and two AACSB staff members, participants included 12 business leaders from fields such as banking and finance, fast-moving consumer goods, information technology, and business consulting.

Together, they debated three essential questions: What key competencies should employees possess to drive sustainable success in their organizations? What skills do employers anticipate needing from future hires? And how can academia and industry bridge the gaps between them to ensure that today’s business programs are relevant, up-to-date, and constantly evolving?

Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate

As the roundtable opened, representatives from MDIG underscored the importance of collaboration between industry and academia. Director Arvind Sahay noted that the partnership between sectors must be a two-way street: While schools produce talent for companies, they also learn from their business partners. MDIG’s dean for accreditations made it clear that business schools will best serve industry if they cooperate with each other rather than engage in unhealthy competition.

During breakout sessions, school leaders described how they perceive industry needs and asked business representatives what they want from business schools. Together, participants explored where there are gaps and where there might be opportunities for sectors to work together. They agreed that students need to develop competencies in three specific areas:

• Technological knowledge, which includes the ability to derive actionable insights from data. This is particularly important in the era of artificial intelligence and increased automation.
• Soft skills such as curiosity, resilience, positivity, and adeptness with interpersonal interactions. These can be cultivated in part through diversity in the classroom.
• A general awareness of macro trends. For instance, participants believed students should develop mindsets oriented toward sustainable business.

Some business leaders at the roundtable suggested that schools could perform assessments early in the educational process to help students build on strengths and identify areas of weakness. While participants weren’t sure how such mapping should be accomplished, they debated whether schools should screen more heavily for career alignment during the admission process.

Employers are looking for “plug-and-play” graduates who can quickly adapt to new roles without extensive additional training.

Participants from industry also offered their thoughts about the current business school curriculum. Some expressed confusion over different degree programs and uncertainty about how the competencies promised in these programs matched their hiring needs.

When describing what they want from new hires, business representatives said they are looking for employees who will create more stability within the company by committing to longer tenures. Even more important, employers are looking for “plug-and-play” graduates who can quickly adapt to new roles without extensive additional training.

The participants from industry stressed that if schools are to meet this expectation, they must give students opportunities to acquire practical knowledge through consulting projects, internships, and simulations that mimic real-world challenges. Business leaders also want schools to promote deeper engagement between faculty and industry, particularly by having more professionals involved in curriculum design and delivery.

Overcome the Obstacles

While participants were united in emphasizing the importance of collaboration between academia and industry, they perceived some challenges. For instance, the academic curriculum tends to be siloed by discipline, which means students often aren’t being exposed to the interdisciplinary learning that companies value.

Additionally, it’s difficult for schools to align their curriculum development cycles with fast-paced industry innovations. Companies change or upgrade their operations on a continuous basis, but schools must work within term or semester structures. This means that what students learn in school can lag behind what is already happening in the corporate world.

For these reasons, some companies choose not to hire students with master’s degrees in business. Instead, they look for those who have completed undergraduate programs, believing that these students can be molded and trained more easily to fit the cultures and needs of their companies.

One solution? Company representatives say they collaborate with business schools that might not be in the top tier but still offer a high-quality education. They believe that expanding their connections in this way will have a positive impact on the talent pipeline.

Step Up for Students

During the discussions, participants determined that schools could best meet the needs of corporate partners by paying attention to the three key areas of students, programs, and faculty.

Participants first focused on students and the ways that administrators can prepare them for success both at school and on the job. They offered four suggestions:

Assess students’ soft skills during the admission process and throughout the educational journey. Educators should specifically help students cultivate empathy, identify their values, develop a sense of purpose, and determine their long-term goals. Additionally, they should encourage students to develop collaborative rather than competitive mindsets.

Educators should help students cultivate empathy, identify their values, develop a sense of purpose, and determine their long-term goals.

Integrate life skills into the curriculum. Skills such as selling, influencing, and negotiating will enable graduates to manage real-world challenges.

Urge students to think about long-term career development, rather than short-term job placements. Career planning sessions and mentorship programs should focus on building sustainable career paths. These sessions can be even more valuable if schools bring in practitioners to serve as instructors.

Track the impact alumni have made in the world, particularly through their societal contributions. This will highlight the importance of soft skills and personal growth.

Change Up the Curriculum

Participants emphasized the need for industry to be more involved in the design of the curriculum, outlining four ways for business schools to achieve this objective:

Frequently revamp the curriculum. Administrators can keep academic programs relevant and effective by soliciting regular input from industry representatives and establishing continuous feedback loops with corporate partners.

Bring practitioners into the classroom so they can place theoretical learning into real-world contexts.

Develop more integrated projects that bring together students from different countries. As students work together on real problems under the supervision of both academic and professional mentors, they will gain teamwork skills as well as industry experience.

Launch hackathons and competitions. When practitioners serve as mentors and judges, they can help students develop their problem-solving and analytical skills.

Connect Faculty With Industry

Finally, participants described three ways professors can ensure that their teaching and research activities remain relevant and practical:

Make regular visits to corporate settings to observe and understand current trends and practices. For example, faculty could take short-term internships or sabbaticals with companies in key industries. They also could visit sites where their students are interning so they can understand the tasks students are performing and the skills they’re developing.

Faculty should shift away from producing a high volume of scholarship and toward pursuing projects that have practical impact.

Propose research projects that address current industry problems. When faculty and practitioners interact during executive education classes, case study development, and research center activities, they can identify and design research projects that will interest industry partners.

Seek to balance their research requirements by shifting away from producing a high volume of scholarship and toward pursuing projects that have practical impact. This change is only possible when a school’s top administrators adopt a broader definition of scholarship that encompasses applied research, case studies, and interdisciplinary projects. Standard 8 of AACSB’s accreditation standards, which is focused on the impact of scholarship, provides some guidance for schools looking to make changes to their publication requirements.

Communicate—and Keep Evolving

Roundtable participants made it clear that even after schools have developed strategies for strengthening connections with industry, they’re not done. Administrators must follow up by offering their corporate partners frequent updates about their teaching and scholarship efforts.

In terms of teaching, schools should provide their partners with information about how students are progressing as they develop new skills. Administrators can do this in part by maintaining touch points with their partners throughout the educational journey, beginning with the admissions process.

In terms of scholarship, schools should translate research into formats that are accessible to practitioners. Best practices uncovered by research could be shared in newsletters, webinars, and industry briefings, as well as on dedicated communication portals.

These strategies require significant input from academic administrators and their corporate counterparts. But only by working together can academia and industry design programming and deliver graduates prepared to directly address the real-time needs of business.