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Instilling critical thinking into business leaders

Steve Bluen
We teach business leaders to be critical thinkers and how to anticipate future events

Steve Bluen We teach business leaders to be critical thinkers and how to anticipate future events

12th September 2014

By: Bruce Montiea

Creamer Media Reporter

  

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The TopMBA Global 200 Business Schools Report 2013/14 ranks the business school of the University of the Witwatersrand, Wits Business School (WBS), at number two in the Africa and the Middle East region.

School head Professor Steve Bluen says one of the reasons the business school manages to be placed so high in the rankings is that it offers high-quality education that teaches business leaders to be critical thinkers, enabling them to anticipate future events and be innovative so that they can stay ahead of the competition.

Bluen says WBS courses teach critical thinking to ensure that those who study at the school develop the ability to “see around the corner”.

The courses help individuals to develop a 360˚ perspective on issues pertaining to business and strategic planning. The school also encourages students to be curious in understanding “not just the ‘what’, but also the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ ’’ when dealing with business and leadership challenges.

Bluen tells Engineering News that WBS has a significant number of alumni in senior leadership positions in business who have benefited from its way of teaching.

The school draws on its case-study centre to provide teaching that is based on real-life situations, presenting actual business challenges in the classroom for students to solve. The case studies create a context for discussing and analysing business processes, notes Bluen, adding that pragmatic research is beneficial because it helps to solve important societal challenges and it opens the door to finding unconventional pathways to answers that have been eluding organisations and leaders.

“WBS attracts a broad and diverse group of applicants who not only reflect superior test scores but also demonstrate . . . an interest in decision-making that is based on values,” he says, adding that while test scores and work experience are important variables used in the testing of applicants, WBS is more interested in how well rounded a person is.

Career counselling is available to all WBS students. The counsellors are in close contact with the school’s alumni network to understand the challenges that businesses, community and public-sector leaders face. “This ensures that our graduates build their class portfolio around tomorrow’s needs,” says Bluen.

WBS has a vast array of business-related qualifications and courses suited to mature managers and businesspeople. These include PhD and MBA degrees and a postgraduate diploma in management. The school also offers a master’s degree in management in areas such as finance and investment, strategic marketing, entrepreneurship, innovation studies, business executive coaching and research.

In addition, the school offers senior executive programmes and international executive development programmes, as well as programmes in management development, general management, finance, marketing and project management.

“We are committed to developing tomorrow’s leaders. To remain relevant, we are offering programmes that are focused on the future. The business community wants us to arm future leaders with the tools, skills and emotional intelligence to succeed in 2020 and beyond, and that is exactly what our programmes aim to deliver,” says Bluen”.

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

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