SCHOOL DAZE

Every year, Bloomberg Businessweek devotes one issue to MBAs and the schools that love them.

In the latest, a sidebar shows the survey results from 1,320 corporate recruiters who were asked to identify most valued job skills and score each institution for delivery of those skills. The charts revealed what industries want, skills employers value, and where schools succeed. 

Oddly enough (tongue firmly in cheek), the skill on almost every industry’s list was … communication.  Of the 11 industry sectors, from chemicals to transportation, only one – consumer products – didn’t mention communication in its top three ‘most wanted’ skills.  Six of the 11 industry reps ranked communication skills as number one; 68 percent of recruiters say it’s one of the five most important skills.

Then the disconnect begins. 

Of the top ten full-time MBA programs (as ranked by the magazine), from Duke’s Fugua to Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper – including the usual Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Columbia, Stanford, and Northwestern – guess how many scored super high on communication skills?

None.

Therefore, since business schools don’t do a superb job of training its grads on communication, it seems to be the responsibility of industry to do just that.  And sure, corporate courses available through Open Sesame, SkillSoft, Harvard’s ManageMentor do an average kind of job teaching communications.  But why couldn’t it be the province of the communications department and its siblings (like marketing) to supplement the standard learning?  Why couldn’t the function set up a mentoring program to coach managers, early talent, hi-pos, and the like on the ins and outs of communications?

No budget is no excuse.  What is?

BY OSMOSIS?

It’s an all-too-common plaint we’ve heard among colleagues:  Got anyone who thinks strategically?

More to the point, it’s not an easy skill set to teach.  Though we know it’s highly valued, not only by our peers but also by the universe at large:  97 percent  of senior execs surveyed last year by a market research firm agree it’s the most important attribute for organizational success. 

Sure, MBA schools list strategy courses – and claim they produce these futuristic thinkers.  There are strategic officers and strategy firms galore.  But, where in our business – of communications, design, and branding – are these practitioners?

Let’s start with the learning, agreeing that (for the purpose of this blog) thinkers can be made, and not born. 

There’s the immersive approach, where information on every facet of the corporation – customers, market, industry, suppliers, et al. – is shared to provide in-depth understanding and a wider range of information. 

Then there’s the Jack Welch approach, pairing up a known mature thinker with one who’s fairly new to the business.

Or there’s the reward point of view, ensuring that those who think strategically (and their products) are recognized.

All of those paths might prove successful.  Yet there’s another idea that has us applauding:  Surround yourself with those who look at the world differently, while questioning your own opinions.  It’s only by exposing ourselves to out-of-the-way ideas that we’ll design the actions that give our enterprises sustainable competitive advantage.  Armed with a good knowledge of the business as well as a world perspective, professionals can reframe and challenge current mindsets with a good strategy or two.

Or, in simple terms, diversity makes the strategy go ‘round.